East Gaston Football

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON OVER THERE??? Now I know there was a coaching change after the 2006 season and a lot of talented players graduated that year but what they have become and how far they've fallen is unthinkable. I recall back a few years ago before the last coaching change, there was 100-120 kids coming out for football, now only 70-80. The Warriors have been in 13 consectutive blow outs and counting (the bad kind). I am by no means bashing because I'm a parent and may have my kid up there playing football one day very soon. I was just wondering if any of you could shed some light on how they expect to right the ship of their football program??

The head coach that is now there had a losing record at the previous school he was at. He lost more that he won. I've met him once and felt the arrogance in the air. Also, with the rep that EG has, unfortunately, it probably doesn't draw in many prospects. I am an EG alumni, we lost every football game while I went there. I just hate it for these kids. I know they have great potential, but the leadership just isn't up to par.
**** GO WARRIORS****

The coaching staff STINKS!!!!!! Most of these kids have played football in Stanley and Mt. Holly for Pop Warner and Middle school, these are some very talented kids. Its a shame they will not replace the coaching staff, I wish there was something the parents could do to get the changes made, but I dont think there is. We need some new coaches and that is all there is to it. The coaches should have been replaced last year because of the way they treated the kids, I realy hate it for the school to be laughed at because of the record they hold now. Its not worth $5.00 to pay to see this happen to your team that is why the kids are not coming to the games.

I graduated from E.G. many years ago and the same problem we had then is the same problem as now. The Pop Warner teams from Stanley have ALWAYS been some of the best teams in the area with the best players in the area. Stanley's Jr. Pee Wee teams have always been the league champs and usually go undefaeated. The older teams seem to always have winning seasons so obviously these kids can play. They have dedicated parents coaching who know football and it shows. Mt Holly's Pop Warner teams are usually good also but have not seen as much success as Stanley over the years but again are usually very good teams and certainly produce good players. The problem for both teams come when they hit Jr High School. Both Jr High teams Stanley and Mt Holly traditionally have losing seasons with a few exception seasons. The coaching these kids continue to receive at the Jr high level is where the problem comes. When the kids get to High School they are behind. Until we get the Jr High teams to win and produce like the Pop Warner teams we will not have successful E.G teams. It just does not make sense how kids that are so talented at the optimist level cant continue to win at higher levels of play. I truely beleive it is the coaching not the kids. I will be interested to hear the responses from this post.

That sucks to hear... My husband asked me not long ago about going to a HS football game (we love football but Panthers' tix are expensive). He is from the North and I went to EG so I was excited to show him football at its finest in the South but now I am sad and won't go until I hear it turns around...

Marty A wrote:

I graduated from E.G. many years ago and the same problem we had then is the same problem as now. The Pop Warner teams from Stanley have ALWAYS been some of the best teams in the area with the best players in the area. Stanley's Jr. Pee Wee teams have always been the league champs and usually go undefaeated. The older teams seem to always have winning seasons so obviously these kids can play. They have dedicated parents coaching who know football and it shows. Mt Holly's Pop Warner teams are usually good also but have not seen as much success as Stanley over the years but again are usually very good teams and certainly produce good players. The problem for both teams come when they hit Jr High School. Both Jr High teams Stanley and Mt Holly traditionally have losing seasons with a few exception seasons. The coaching these kids continue to receive at the Jr high level is where the problem comes. When the kids get to High School they are behind. Until we get the Jr High teams to win and produce like the Pop Warner teams we will not have successful E.G teams. It just does not make sense how kids that are so talented at the optimist level cant continue to win at higher levels of play. I truely beleive it is the coaching not the kids. I will be interested to hear the responses from this post.

The only reason Stanley pop warner teams are good is because most of the real talented kids are from other area's like Gastonia and Charlotte, they come to Stanley because there is no sign up fee.

start with the middle schools.. get some coaching there and work your way up. Stanley and MH should start running the same "O" and "D" as the high school.

If I'm not mistaken the kids from Mt. Holly that are at EG now were the ones that won the county for the middle school. So I would think the talent is there. If those kids are still playing.

Former Stanley coach wrote:

<quoted text>The only reason Stanley pop warner teams are good is because most of the real talented kids are from other area's like Gastonia and Charlotte, they come to Stanley because there is no sign up fee.

Please crawl back into the hole you came out of.

Hey wrote:

If I'm not mistaken the kids from Mt. Holly that are at EG now were the ones that won the county for the middle school. So I would think the talent is there. If those kids are still playing.

Your exactly right. so that should tell you where the problem is.

RE Lee wrote:

<quoted text>
Please crawl back into the hole you came out of.

It's the truth....we even had some players from mooresville, but not because of the fee's

Former Stanley coach wrote:

<quoted text> It's the truth....we even had some players from mooresville, but not because of the fee's

You must not have been too involved did you count plays or something

Back to the subject: Can the parents protest the coaches and get someone in there that realy cares about the kids, the one in there now only yells, screams, and swears at the kids. That is not always the best manner in coaching, you can actually get results in coaching without all that yelling, is he actually teaching them plays or just yelling because they dont make the touch down. I love football but those games are not good games. Can the parents do anything?????

Mt Holly Mom, thanks for getting us back on topic. The problems seem to be dynamic. Some of you say that a lot of EG’s football problems are stemming from poor coaching in the middle school ranks. In a lot of cases I think that could be true but definitely not the whole problem. From what I’ve observed in the past out in the community, there seems to be a lot of bickering between MH parents and Stanley parents. Now I don’t know if that correlates to wins in losses on the football field in high school but I wonder if that doesn’t hinder the situation some. All of that said, you have to lay blame on East Gaston because that’s where the carnage seems to always fester its ugly head since the middle schools actually are win games. Now the two coaches prior to the current head coach at EG built and produced winning programs in-spite of the headwinds of all of the above stated problems. Those coaches seemed like good, down to earth men that really got along with the kids well and knew how to walk the fine line demanding respect, enforcing discipline, and using constructive criticism but at the same time building their confidence and passion for wanting to participate, play, and have fun. I haven’t had conversations with Tippett like I had with his two predecessors (seems hard to get to open up) but it makes you wonder how could things have gotten this bad so quickly. I’ve talked to both Tom Adams (assistant principal) and Ken Howell (athletic director) on separate occasions asking the same questions I stated in my opening post and their response was identically the same, paraphrasing… Give him a chance, give him time. Almost as if nothing is wrong and everything is just fine or will be. So as Mt Holly Mom asked, is there anything the parents can do????? I don’t know because those in charge don’t seems to be concerned about it as myself, some of you here, and the rest of the entire community. What a shame!

I am just wondering how much time do you give this guy, you know the booster club is suffering from sales in concession and gate. That money does support the football program and if it suffers much longer then it is quiet obvious the outcome of the program. I just don's understand why the school is not looking at the big picture here. These kids are not excited about going to the games and supporting a team that cant even score one touchdown and I honestly beleive that is because of the ability of the coach not making a team out of these kids. Yes they are rivals in Pop Warner and Middle School but they become one at High School and I know these kids are awsome football players and they work their tails off at practice but without guidance and some encouragement from this coach, what do you expect, you cannot degrade and swear at kids all the time, It just dont work. I just hope someone opens their eyes before it gets to bad.

RE Lee wrote:

<quoted text>
You must not have been too involved did you count plays or something

If you are involved in the Stanley football program, you know for a fact that more than half the players come from outside of Stanley!! That is a well known fact.There is nothing wrong with it, everybody is thinking because Stanley has good pop warner teams that East Gaston should have agood football team, there are great players who play high school football now for Ashbrook, N.Gaston and Hunter Huss who was on the national championship team in Stanley

EG FAN wrote:

start with the middle schools.. get some coaching there and work your way up. Stanley and MH should start running the same "O" and "D" as the high school.

You are right less one exception. Maybe East Gaston should start running the same "O" and "D" as the Stanley Optimist.

Wouldn't be great if parents got just as outraged about SAT scores and graduation rates?!

too bad

justsayin wrote:

Wouldn't be great if parents got just as outraged about SAT scores and graduation rates?!
too bad

Wouldn't it be great if NC did not give in to No Child Left Behind for money reasons and we did not test our children to death and spend most of our class time learning to take tests like the SAT. We could actually teach the subject the kids are taking AND PREPARE THEM FOR COLLEGE. Then these extra activities like football (which goes a long way toward acceptance to selective colleges) could be talked about without smart responses.

RE Lee wrote:

<quoted text>
Wouldn't it be great if NC did not give in to No Child Left Behind for money reasons and we did not test our children to death and spend most of our class time learning to take tests like the SAT. We could actually teach the subject the kids are taking AND PREPARE THEM FOR COLLEGE. Then these extra activities like football (which goes a long way toward acceptance to selective colleges) could be talked about without smart responses.

Could not have said it better. If my kids don't learn anything in school, they'll be able to take a test and succeed in sales after all the fund raisers they have to do.