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Montana High School Players

Atlanta Griz1

Well-known member
This site is so devoid of football talk now, that I thought it might be interesting to get opinions as to whether the state of Montana high schools are producing as many FCS caliber players in this decade, as opposed to previous decades. I know many coaches feel that the overall quality has declined in recent years. And you say........?

As a second part to the question, Missoula high schools have lagged Great Falls, Billings, & Helena in the number of FCS players produced. Why is that?
 
Atlanta Griz1 said:
As a second part to the question, Missoula high schools have lagged Great Falls, Billings, & Helena in the number of FCS players produced. Why is that?

Poor coaching and lack of interest by the students.

There is only so many ass kickings you can take before the players find other things to do.
 
Atlanta Griz1 said:
Do you think that high school football participation across the state is down from previous decades?

My guess would be yes. I'd bet that it's down in most states too. The CTE worry is out there IMO.....
I don't know if that's the cause of the drop in the numbers of talented HS players though.
 
Growler, am I wrong. You posted that very thing on MB. And besides, I answered the question, there are indeed FCS caliber players in Montana.
 
havgrizfan said:
Growler, am I wrong. You posted that very thing on MB. And besides, I answered the question, there are indeed FCS caliber players in Montana.

Oh, I posted that every FCS caliber player goes to MSU??? WRONG! Never said it. Will give you $1000 if you find a post saying such. You give me $100 if you can't provide one. And, no deals with Alpha re-constructing posts either. Deal?
 
Atlanta Griz1 said:
havgrizfan said:
Growler, am I wrong. You posted that very thing on MB. And besides, I answered the question, there are indeed FCS caliber players in Montana.

Oh, I posted that every FCS caliber player goes to MSU??? WRONG! Never said it. Will give you $1000 if you find a post saying such. You give me $100 if you can't provide one. And, no deals with Alpha re-constructing posts either. Deal?

You must have graduated from Northern, cause your reading comprehension needs a strong boost.
 
My guess would be yes. I'd bet that it's down in most states too. The CTE worry is out there IMO.....
I don't know if that's the cause of the drop in the numbers of talented HS players though.[/quote]

RE: CTE (if that is the fear of concussions thing)..... I found this article to be interesting on that subject. Certainly not saying it is the gospel, but interesting for sure.

http://footballscoop.com/news/study-reveals-playing-hs-football-just-safe-band-glee-club-choir/
 
As a second part to the question, Missoula high schools have lagged Great Falls, Billings, & Helena in the number of FCS players produced. Why is that?[/quote

There are still some pretty damn good players that come out of Missoula.....

but it may have to do with the pansy liberal attitude it has compared to the other cities....a lot more kids choose soccer and lacross and ribbon dancing rather than football in missoula.

Also...waaaaaaay more things to do in the summer around missoula than the others...have you ever been to great falls???? What better do you have to do during the summer other than eat steaks and lift weights???
 
BadlandsGrizFan said:
As a second part to the question, Missoula high schools have lagged Great Falls, Billings, & Helena in the number of FCS players produced. Why is that?[/quote

There are still some pretty damn good players that come out of Missoula.....

but it may have to do with the pansy liberal attitude it has compared to the other cities....a lot more kids choose soccer and lacross and ribbon dancing rather than football in missoula.

Also...waaaaaaay more things to do in the summer around missoula than the others...have you ever been to great falls???? What better do you have to do during the summer other than eat steaks and lift weights???


This has been brought up a bunch of times but missoula's junior high football system sucks because they dont have one! For a long time they had to rely on little grizzly football where all of the teams have to run the same plays on offense and defense but recently missoula youth football program has stepped up and allowed teams to expand the playbooks and let the kids learn more about how the game should be played.. just my two cents.
 
Paytonlives said:
Atlanta Griz1 said:
As a second part to the question, Missoula high schools have lagged Great Falls, Billings, & Helena in the number of FCS players produced. Why is that?

Poor coaching and lack of interest by the students.

There is only so many ass kickings you can take before the players find other things to do.

that isn't True....I have been a Bobcat fan for 40 years.
 
You asked so here goes.. I think it's more about socio-economic reasons. Yes CTE may contribute, but the main reason I believe is simple. Jobs, or the lack of them. Especially in smaller town MT. You only have to look at towns like Anaconda and Libby to see what has happened . Libby was at one time AA. Now they are down to B. So now you don't have the working class families any more. Instead you have a lot of low income families. A lot of these kids are in split households and they just don't have the resources or support to succeed. These kids struggle in the classroom as well so quite often aren't eligible to play. On a larger scale look at the Midwest. Once the auto industry abandoned the Midwest the big 10 began to suffer. Conversely it coincided with the dominance of the SEC. Foreign auto makers opened plants in the south and working class families flourished. Add in this generation's lack of interest in "traditional" things and there you go.
 
BadlandsGrizFan said:
As a second part to the question, Missoula high schools have lagged Great Falls, Billings, & Helena in the number of FCS players produced. Why is that?[/quote

There are still some pretty damn good players that come out of Missoula.....

but it may have to do with the pansy liberal attitude it has compared to the other cities....a lot more kids choose soccer and lacross and ribbon dancing rather than football in missoula.

Also...waaaaaaay more things to do in the summer around missoula than the others...have you ever been to great falls???? What better do you have to do during the summer other than eat steaks and lift weights???

Not sure about the "pansy liberal attitude" comment but sports like soccer, lacrosse, and ribbon dancing have grown in popularity; heck you can even earn a college scholarship in at least two of those! With the price of higher ed being what it is, a motivated high school athlete who's "on the bubble" regarding his prospects in football, might instead opt for a different sport where his potential for earning a scholarship are marginally higher. Just a thought...
 
Topey711 said:
You asked so here goes.. I think it's more about socio-economic reasons. Yes CTE may contribute, but the main reason I believe is simple. Jobs, or the lack of them. Especially in smaller town MT. You only have to look at towns like Anaconda and Libby to see what has happened . Libby was at one time AA. Now they are down to B. So now you don't have the working class families any more. Instead you have a lot of low income families. A lot of these kids are in split households and they just don't have the resources or support to succeed. These kids struggle in the classroom as well so quite often aren't eligible to play. On a larger scale look at the Midwest. Once the auto industry abandoned the Midwest the big 10 began to suffer. Conversely it coincided with the dominance of the SEC. Foreign auto makers opened plants in the south and working class families flourished. Add in this generation's lack of interest in "traditional" things and there you go.

This is a very interesting idea! I don't know if it is as simple as that but I am sure this is a factor. Thanks for getting me to see something in a way I hadn't considered, made my morning. (The older I get the less I know)
 
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