Shows whole career is a sham. Playing with entire teams of players that are a year older than their counterparts. That one year makes a huge difference in a high school athlete.
Shows whole career is a sham. Playing with entire teams of players that are a year older than their counterparts. That one year makes a huge difference in a high school athlete.
Are you one of those that got whipped up on by the Rebels? Shows did nothing that was against the rules and you know it. He just happened to realize the advantage to the "hold-back" before the rest of the state did. Other schools were doing it too but because of the success that Shows had, most everyone else started crying foul. Hence, a rule was written to disqualify the senior year if a player was held back after the 5th grade. Do you have facts that Shows asked the players parents to hold back the child for athletic purposes? I doubt it! Even with the rule, parents are still holding back their kids in the 5th grade. I personally know a number of families that did this who's kids are seniors this year. And what about the "fail" gap in the hold-back rule. That gap is if a kid fails a year, he does not lose a year of eligibility as long as the age rule doesn't kick in. Can you believe that parents will deliberatley get their kid to fail (missing too many days is one way) so they can hold-back? I know a family that did this too. None of these families I've mentioned are in the WM football program either.
Get over your anger towards Shows as a coach and give some credit to the system he basically perfected at West Monroe. Facts prove that what he does works. You might not like him as a person but he's a heck of a motivator and coach and his record speaks for itself.
Shows said last night on the radio, after he spent the usual amount of time singing his own praises, that he really intended to go for the first down, but decided that Rummel had played so dirty the whole game that he'd go for the TD if it worked out. He emphasized that 30-0 was not running up the score. Translation: 30-0 will look a lot better in the history books than 23-7 would have looked.
Dude, you give WM & Shows way too much credit. Anger, not hardly. I really could care less what shows or WM do or have done. Just making a comment.
And no, I nor my school have been "whupped up" on by WM. Even if they had i wouldn't lose any sleep over it because it's meaningless in the whole scheme of things.
Last edited by glm47; 12-18-2009 at 05:49 PM.
Whole classes? Dude! Not only did it not happen, it would be and always has been impossible.
Now...before the rule change it was the norm for parents of kids with potential to hold back their child IF they thought it might help the child, but it was never about Shows. Fact is that WM has had classes in the past with large numbers of 18-19 year olds, but they've also had many 17 year olds who could have held back.
A classic example is a young man who played at Tech but was only 16 when he graduated from WM.
I didn't see any dirty play, by either team. Except the couple of times (and maybe more) the WM DL was imitating our QB. That is against the rules in the NFL and college and I guess in high school too. But, the refs never called anything. But I did hear it for myself once, and heard the Rummel OL and coaches talking to the refs about it.
BTW, those refs were not very good. You would think a state championship game would have a top-notch crew. And yes, they were equally bad for both teams:
Rummel 9 flags for 87 yds; WM 7 flags for 71 yds...not a big difference. They called a hold on WM once that called back a 25-yd Turner run. I didn't see a hold. WM scored a TD on that drive anyway.
WM was the better team and won the game, fair and square. If Shows is comfortable "running up the score," doesn't bother me.
My views on holdbacks changed after I read Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Outliers.
IT IS all about when you're born in successful athletics programs. He uses youth hockey teams as an example. After reading the book I could NOT care less about holdbacks. It's a choice of the parents.
This year, my second grade grandson (natural "holdback" birthday of Oct. 2) is missing at least 10 of his classmates from last year. Those kids were held back in the first grade by their parents. I would wager their children stand no chance of experiencing the Don in 10 years or so. So . . . does that make every other coach a sham?
As a sidenote, I always found it interesting how my father did not take senior English so he could spend another year in high school under his extraordinary music teacher and save money to go north to college at Northwestern University.
His second senior year class schedule was a real sham:icon_wink:: senior English, yearbook editor, school paper editor, orchestra, band, choir (accompaniest).
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Some people just like to hate on those that succeed. I'm guilty of it. I can't stand the Cowboys probably because they won so much in the 70's and 80's and found a way to beat the teams I followed. BUT, I will give credit where credit is due. Tom Landry was a great coach and I believe that Roger Staubach was one of the best QB's and he had good personel around him. On the other hand there are some people on here who will just make crap up to try and substantiate their arguments. They hate (or maybe strong dislike is the better choice of words) for the sake of hating. Really, holding back an entire class? What have you been smoking? Yeah, I don't care much for Shows but what he and his coaching staff have done cannot be argued against. His assistant coaches who have left WM have had success using at least part of Shows system. How can someone argue against that unless they are jealous (or at least envious) of his success.
We all talk about wanting the Bulldogs to become better and we like to talk that with success comes more success. That is exactly what happened at West Monroe. With the first championship in '93, the city completely (well, almost everyone) embraced the team and have continued to do so even to this day. Winning breeds winning and that is plainly evident at WM. Will it end? I'm sure it eventually will. Like all good things, it will come to an end. Soon? Who knows. I do know that every class that has come through in the past 7-8 years has basically pledged that it will not end on their watch.
Sure there are those that will try and tear down something good just to bring it down to their level. If the team(s) you follow are not having the success that others are having, why not ask yourself if there is anything you can do to help out. Maybe, buy season tickets (money cures a lot of ills), donate you time to the school and it's student organizations or just be a bigger fan. Cutting other teams down for their success does not do your team any good.
The WM fans are a strange bunch really. I'm sure you have noticed the slim attendance and early exits by those who do come the early season games. When playoffs start, it's like many of the so called fans want to be seen at the big social event and come out to support the team for that reason. It amazes me that so many who have attended a partial game or two during the season are the first ones out of town for the big social event in New Orleans. Those are the "fans" WM is in danger of losing at some point.