Stregth of scheduling

**UnIoNfAn** · September 26th, 2011, 12:11 PM

I see alot of talk on here about this topic so i figured i would make a post about it. Its my opinion that stregth of schedule makes a better ball team. You learn more from defeat than from victory. It seasons a team to be prepared for playoffs IMO. I feel that the better a team's opponent is then the better a team becomes.
The past speaks for its self with what ive said here. What do yall think about it?

**starbuck** · September 26th, 2011, 04:50 PM

Strenght of schedule is good as long as it isn't crazy. Burton is a strong Div. 1 school. it would make zero sense to have a schedule full of Div 2 and AA programs to get beat up, hurt and not have anything left for playoffs. It is good to have a team like Lee on the sched to be tested but if we played that sched every week then all it would do is hurt in the long run. Now before anyone starts talking about "back in the day", well back in the day when Appy or PV were playing these awesome out of congerence games they still had a conference schedule that they pretty much walked through. JIB (yeah, we sucked back in the days when I played), Pound, Coeburn, St Paul when they were still in LPD and Ervinton when they were still in LPD. Clintwood was in a funk for many years, JJ Kelly. when you cake walk in the district you can schedule stronger OOC teams. Strenght of Schedule does make a better ball team. one thing I worry about moving districts is getting soft but we still could schedule Union, Lee for OOC opponents but if you over schedule what good does it do? Why isn't Coeburn / Eastside an elite team because they have most of the time played teams better than them. How about Ervinton? if playing tougher competition makes you better they should be the best school in the region. They are always overmatched and outmanned. There goes that play a tougher schedule to get better theory. How About St. Paul? they should have been a world beater becuase they always played a tougher schedule than they were as a team. I think there is a little about playing tougher schools but you can also see that playing tougher schools doesn't automaitcally make you a better team either. How about Appy? before they consolidated how good were they? they played better competition almost every week, never helped them.
I think the whole schedule thing is blown way out of poportion in my opinion.

**UnIoNfAn** · September 26th, 2011, 05:26 PM

i agree with you on the too many big schools but i dont see JIB beating up on Castlewood, Ryecove, Twin Springs, and so on doing them any good either. They should put radford, George Wythe, keep Lee and maybe even Honaker on a schedule. Those teams arent bigger than JIB but do play a ton better than the OOD teams JIB play now. It would help them because honestly the only district games that will be competitive year in and year out is Union and Clintwood with this smaller LPD. Its gonna be some time before Central is gonna be preinally good. I know scheduling is a bitch but If JIB could get atleast Radford or George Wythe each year it would help them come playoff time
As far as Ervington is concerend, they dont have the talent JIB has. It takes 1) quality kids (JIB has that, Ervington dont) 2) offseason training (again JIB has that and Ervington dont) 3) play good opponents week in and week out (JIB needs that)
If Burton could pull together a little tougher scheduling then they wouldnt be state champ runner up, they would put rings on fingers of kids who deserve to wear them i promise you that much.

**1inStripes** · September 26th, 2011, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by UnIoNfAn

i agree with you on the too many big schools but i dont see JIB beating up on Castlewood, Ryecove, Twin Springs, and so on doing them any good either. They should put radford, George Wythe, keep Lee and maybe even Honaker on a schedule. Those teams arent bigger than JIB but do play a ton better than the OOD teams JIB play now. It would help them because honestly the only district games that will be competitive year in and year out is Union and Clintwood with this smaller LPD. Its gonna be some time before Central is gonna be preinally good. I know scheduling is a bitch but If JIB could get atleast Radford or George Wythe each year it would help them come playoff time
As far as Ervington is concerend, they dont have the talent JIB has. It takes 1) quality kids (JIB has that, Ervington dont) 2) offseason training (again JIB has that and Ervington dont) 3) play good opponents week in and week out (JIB needs that)
If Burton could pull together a little tougher scheduling then they wouldnt be state champ runner up, they would put rings on fingers of kids who deserve to wear them i promise you that much.

Whose Ervington?

**VHSLhelper** · September 26th, 2011, 07:28 PM

SoS? Laughable. Look at Richlands. Ppl. have talked for years about the "weak" schedule the Blues have, but they've made the state finals 4 times in the past 6 years. According to VHSL-reference, the 2006 title team finished the year ranked 60th in the state and didn't play anyone in the top 140 until the semis & finals.
They finished 44th last year and only had 1 regular-season game against the top 135.
Yeah, playing tougher teams make the good teams better, but it isn't necessary.

**Gotch** · September 26th, 2011, 08:12 PM

There's an other way of looking at it. Now in teams sports this may not be as true as in one on one "combat sports' but in boxing, kickboxing, and MMA there is a train of thought that as a big fight nears you actually want to start using weaker sparring partners, not better ones. The point is to build your fighter extreme confidence. As a trainer I actually practiced this method and liked it. Now I'm sure it's a little different in a team sport, but I could see staying healthy and having tons of confidence as being positives for a team heading into the playoffs.

It some point in training you wanted your fighter to be "challenged" but you didn't want that happening too close to the fight night. Anyway, just a little psychological trick that is fairly common among fight trainers. May or may not translate into team sports.

**1inStripes** · September 26th, 2011, 09:39 PM

I think its best to find a happy medium. Play a couple of hard ones, and go ahead and put a couple of games you are supposed to win on there. Sometimes they are just what a team needs at some points in the season.

**UTVols2** · September 26th, 2011, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by starbuck

Strenght of schedule is good as long as it isn't crazy. Burton is a strong Div. 1 school. it would make zero sense to have a schedule full of Div 2 and AA programs to get beat up, hurt and not have anything left for playoffs. It is good to have a team like Lee on the sched to be tested but if we played that sched every week then all it would do is hurt in the long run. Now before anyone starts talking about "back in the day", well back in the day when Appy or PV were playing these awesome out of congerence games they still had a conference schedule that they pretty much walked through. JIB (yeah, we sucked back in the days when I played), Pound, Coeburn, St Paul when they were still in LPD and Ervinton when they were still in LPD. Clintwood was in a funk for many years, JJ Kelly. when you cake walk in the district you can schedule stronger OOC teams. Strenght of Schedule does make a better ball team. one thing I worry about moving districts is getting soft but we still could schedule Union, Lee for OOC opponents but if you over schedule what good does it do? Why isn't Coeburn / Eastside an elite team because they have most of the time played teams better than them. How about Ervinton? if playing tougher competition makes you better they should be the best school in the region. They are always overmatched and outmanned. There goes that play a tougher schedule to get better theory. How About St. Paul? they should have been a world beater becuase they always played a tougher schedule than they were as a team. I think there is a little about playing tougher schools but you can also see that playing tougher schools doesn't automaitcally make you a better team either. How about Appy? before they consolidated how good were they? they played better competition almost every week, never helped them.
I think the whole schedule thing is blown way out of poportion in my opinion.

Co-sign, nicely put

**UTVols2** · September 26th, 2011, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by UnIoNfAn

i agree with you on the too many big schools but i dont see JIB beating up on Castlewood, Ryecove, Twin Springs, and so on doing them any good either. They should put radford, George Wythe, keep Lee and maybe even Honaker on a schedule. Those teams arent bigger than JIB but do play a ton better than the OOD teams JIB play now. It would help them because honestly the only district games that will be competitive year in and year out is Union and Clintwood with this smaller LPD. Its gonna be some time before Central is gonna be preinally good. I know scheduling is a bitch but If JIB could get atleast Radford or George Wythe each year it would help them come playoff time
As far as Ervington is concerend, they dont have the talent JIB has. It takes 1) quality kids (JIB has that, Ervington dont) 2) offseason training (again JIB has that and Ervington dont) 3) play good opponents week in and week out (JIB needs that)
If Burton could pull together a little tougher scheduling then they wouldnt be state champ runner up, they would put rings on fingers of kids who deserve to wear them i promise you that much.

FWIW, Burton has had Honaker on the schedule the past few years and they dropped us after this past season.

2010 - Won 39-0
2009 - Won 31-0
2008 - Won 43-20
2007 - Won 32-14

Also we played Gate City several years in a row and they were quite good but that didn't help us win a state title. With that being said I wouldn't mind us playing a AA school every now and again but not 2-3 in one year. We don't have the depth to play teams like that and again, 1-2 injuries on a small team can ruin an entire season. This whole scheduling thing is a crock IMO.