I'm no expert on statewide football across all levels, but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. I generally only keep up with 3A/4A because that's what the majority of the Roanoke Valley schools consist of.
The biggest difference I've noticed is depth. Some of the bigger schools have 120+ on their Fr, JV, and Vars teams. I think the bigger rosters offer competition within the team that makes them better. I think there is a distinction between roster number and depth though.
Depth consists of numbers, but also quality, and cross training. A lot of smaller teams have 2 way starters, a bigger team may not have any. Another difference is quality of backups. Some teams #2 is as good or better than other teams #1. Good teams will rotate a good #2 in to gain experience, bring in fresh legs, and keep guys motivated. By cross training I mean having players that can play multiple positions. It may just boil down to quantity increases the odds of quality?
A good team can play opponents that are considerably bigger and consistently win, but if you look at teams that have moved up after having success at a lower level, in most cases it's difficult to maintain that level of success.
Briar Woods and Broad Run are 2 examples of teams that won at 4A ('08-'12 Champions between the 2) and then moved up and haven't been able to reach that pinnacle. Briar Woods reached the title game and have been 24-14 in the 3 years since they moved up. Broad Run has gone 39-20 since they moved up to 5A in the last 5 years. Neither was bad (BW was 3-8 last year, but their schedule was insanely hard- opponents were 100-40, 2 were runner-ups & 2 were semifinalists) It's just hard to maintain that level of success moving up levels.
So what do you guys think? Give me some opinions and perspective from 1A -6A.
The biggest difference I've noticed is depth. Some of the bigger schools have 120+ on their Fr, JV, and Vars teams. I think the bigger rosters offer competition within the team that makes them better. I think there is a distinction between roster number and depth though.
Depth consists of numbers, but also quality, and cross training. A lot of smaller teams have 2 way starters, a bigger team may not have any. Another difference is quality of backups. Some teams #2 is as good or better than other teams #1. Good teams will rotate a good #2 in to gain experience, bring in fresh legs, and keep guys motivated. By cross training I mean having players that can play multiple positions. It may just boil down to quantity increases the odds of quality?
A good team can play opponents that are considerably bigger and consistently win, but if you look at teams that have moved up after having success at a lower level, in most cases it's difficult to maintain that level of success.
Briar Woods and Broad Run are 2 examples of teams that won at 4A ('08-'12 Champions between the 2) and then moved up and haven't been able to reach that pinnacle. Briar Woods reached the title game and have been 24-14 in the 3 years since they moved up. Broad Run has gone 39-20 since they moved up to 5A in the last 5 years. Neither was bad (BW was 3-8 last year, but their schedule was insanely hard- opponents were 100-40, 2 were runner-ups & 2 were semifinalists) It's just hard to maintain that level of success moving up levels.
So what do you guys think? Give me some opinions and perspective from 1A -6A.
