LORAN SMITH: High school football still big deal

With the high school playoffs reaching the semifinals this weekend, there is that reminder that no level of football is more important than the prep level where coaches are more than coaches and kids play for fun—for the most part.

Some prep players have their eye on college scholarships and ultimately the National Football League, but the bulk of the participants enjoy being part of a team and play the game for community pride.

The statistics are sobering . More than 7.5 million high school kids play football, with only 2.4% making it to the NFL. Approximately 9,000 of those high school players enroll in college to play football and only 220 of those will make the roster of an NFL team.

With high school football, there is a moving scene on Friday nights throughout the country. Bleachers filled with fans, little kids playing their own games on hillsides, concession stands populated by parents who are trying to enhance the budget of the athletic program by pitching in as the team makes a few dollars off hot dogs, burgers and fries. Cheerleaders wander through the stands hawking program sales. Everybody is trying to help out.

Reaching back into the past, there is recall of conversations with coaches who coached in the big time, but had a philosophy about stepping down to a grass roots level. Erk Russell, who went from defensive coordinator at Georgia or to iconic status at Georgia Southern, had a favorite watering hole on the Lexington Road in Athens where I often joined him as he waxed insightfully about the game he loved.

It was from those sessions at the Rockwood Inn that he revealed he could leave Georgia, find a good high school job and be very happy. He didn’t need the bright lights or the headlines and favorable reviews in the sports pages which follow the college game. In his high school annual, Erk wrote that his goal in life was to succeed his high school coach, “Mr. DeYampert.” If you knew Erk, you would know that he meant what he said.

Those emotions were why he took the Georgia Southern job. When he called the President of Georgia Southern, Dale Lick, to disclose that he wanted the Eagle job, Erk’s opening remark was: “Dr. Lick will you pay me a dollar more than I am making at Georgia?”

It wasn’t about the money. Erk wanted to prove he could succeed as a head coach.

Indiana football has not made a lot of inroads to championships like Hoosier basketball, but it was successful enough under Johnny Pont that Northwestern hired him where he got off to a good start, but fell on hard times and was fired. A few years later, Pont took a high school job in Hamilton, Ohio. In an interview with him, he admitted that he had never been happier as a coach. “Coaching,” he said is all about teaching and you get the greatest satisfaction out of coaching at the high school level.

“The first game when I became the coach at Hamilton High School, and we took the field for the opening kickoff, I got the same adrenalin rush I got when we took the field for a Big Ten game. My heart was pounding just as hard as it did for a game with Michigan or Ohio State. I loved being around kids who were eager to learn.”

Jeremy Pruitt, Georgia’s defensive coordinator, was ensconced with a couple of high school buddies last spring when Sam Wyche, the former Cincinnati Bengals head coach was lecturing about the hurry up offense. Pruitt preferred to “talk ball” with his high school friends.

“The best coaching is done on the high school level,” Pruitt said. “I prefer talking ball with high school coaches than anybody.”

Not sure if we should be alarmed or not, but participation in football on the high school level is declining. Mothers, in particular, are worried about the safety of the game. This means it is incumbent on the part of the professional and college officials to give the greatest possible attention to making the game safer.