First of all, and we will repeat this, congratulations to Burns for defeating the Golden Lions not once, but twice this year. You have proven yourselves the better team for 2022 and we wish you continued success in the playoffs.
Congratulations also to Kings Mountain and Crest and their success in this 2022 football season.
We would love to see two State Titles come back to Cleveland County at the end of this season. It would not be the first time for two in the same year.
As the Shelby Football community is licking its wounds today, we want to put this in perspective.
This is not an effort to make excuses for 2022, nor is it an essay on Shelby success over the years. It is more of our observation on what effects high school football success…..or lack of success. Most of you know these observations already,, but we suddenly have some free time on our hands.
Shelby won the Title in 2019 and 2021. Shelby exited the playoffs uncharacteristically early in both 2020 and 2022.
And both early exits were with several experienced returning key players from the Championship teams.
What happened?
It is easy enough to say, as others have mentioned, that the team chemistry was just not there for a Championship run these seasons.
But what caused that, and is team chemistry really that much of a factor when you still possess proven great talent AND coaching. And community support.
Yes….It is. It is the most important factor. And poor team chemistry can be the hardest thing to overcome in season.
For 2020, Covid was the obvious culprit. Heck, it was played in the SPRING.
But others were successful, even with Covid.
Why was Shelby so off?
Despite many excellent defensive units since 2013, Shelby’s overwhelming success has been due to the record setting offensive explosions since Coach Ware implemented the spread offense at Shelby starting in his first year at the helm in 2011. The difficulty in establishing that offensive scheme in effect sacrificed the Golden Lions seasons of 2011 and 2012. In 2011, Shelby returned TWO 1000 yard rushers, still made it to the Western Finals, but lost to a determined West Stokes crowd, as we “passed” our way to a defeat. 2012 was worse, exiting in the third round as the passing game lacked refinement.
By 2013, it began to click. And the rest you know.
2020, already with the large Covid disruptions, also brought in a head coach only in his 2nd year, who had won in 2019 with many hold overs from Ware’s 2018 Title team. Add in a brand new TRANSFER senior quarterback to run the spread, ZERO seven on seven summer preparation, and a goofy 6 game schedule with no Crest game and a forfeit from East Rutherford. The 20-21 Shelby basketball team was comprised mostly of key football players and played deep into the Spring, winning the Western final, and then waited on a canceled Championship game (ended up co - champions). The Spring football season was IMMEDIATELY upon them.
As all that understandably disrupted a football machine that had flourished for that current decade, the biggest impact to team chemistry came from the players themselves. And that is also how 2020 relates to 2022.
As we correctly protect details of damaging behavior by 14 to 19 year olds, all of us close to the program, and many of you reading this, can safely say that off the field disruptions, attitudes and mistakes by the players themselves can certainly torpedo the opportunity for a more successful football season. Shelby folks have experienced this long before now, and it will happen again. We all make mistakes. The kids will learn. And this has absolutely nothing to do with race. We have lost key white players for fighting, skipping classes, choosing hunting over practice, etc. and significantly damaging previous squads.
But losing good team chemistry seems to always doom even a championship level team. You see it everywhere, in all sports.
This year, we thought maybe we had overcome it.
The win last week over a very good Forest Hills team was won on heart and determination. The guys rallied.
But that high could not be sustained.
And a decisively better Burns team exposed our sluggishness.
That’s it. The challenge for today's high school coaches is, in some ways, greater than ever. They are expected to prepare the kids to win, but have to counsel as well as coach. They deserve our praise, more than our criticism.
One more thing we know from history….
Congratulations also to Kings Mountain and Crest and their success in this 2022 football season.
We would love to see two State Titles come back to Cleveland County at the end of this season. It would not be the first time for two in the same year.
As the Shelby Football community is licking its wounds today, we want to put this in perspective.
This is not an effort to make excuses for 2022, nor is it an essay on Shelby success over the years. It is more of our observation on what effects high school football success…..or lack of success. Most of you know these observations already,, but we suddenly have some free time on our hands.
Shelby won the Title in 2019 and 2021. Shelby exited the playoffs uncharacteristically early in both 2020 and 2022.
And both early exits were with several experienced returning key players from the Championship teams.
What happened?
It is easy enough to say, as others have mentioned, that the team chemistry was just not there for a Championship run these seasons.
But what caused that, and is team chemistry really that much of a factor when you still possess proven great talent AND coaching. And community support.
Yes….It is. It is the most important factor. And poor team chemistry can be the hardest thing to overcome in season.
For 2020, Covid was the obvious culprit. Heck, it was played in the SPRING.
But others were successful, even with Covid.
Why was Shelby so off?
Despite many excellent defensive units since 2013, Shelby’s overwhelming success has been due to the record setting offensive explosions since Coach Ware implemented the spread offense at Shelby starting in his first year at the helm in 2011. The difficulty in establishing that offensive scheme in effect sacrificed the Golden Lions seasons of 2011 and 2012. In 2011, Shelby returned TWO 1000 yard rushers, still made it to the Western Finals, but lost to a determined West Stokes crowd, as we “passed” our way to a defeat. 2012 was worse, exiting in the third round as the passing game lacked refinement.
By 2013, it began to click. And the rest you know.
2020, already with the large Covid disruptions, also brought in a head coach only in his 2nd year, who had won in 2019 with many hold overs from Ware’s 2018 Title team. Add in a brand new TRANSFER senior quarterback to run the spread, ZERO seven on seven summer preparation, and a goofy 6 game schedule with no Crest game and a forfeit from East Rutherford. The 20-21 Shelby basketball team was comprised mostly of key football players and played deep into the Spring, winning the Western final, and then waited on a canceled Championship game (ended up co - champions). The Spring football season was IMMEDIATELY upon them.
As all that understandably disrupted a football machine that had flourished for that current decade, the biggest impact to team chemistry came from the players themselves. And that is also how 2020 relates to 2022.
As we correctly protect details of damaging behavior by 14 to 19 year olds, all of us close to the program, and many of you reading this, can safely say that off the field disruptions, attitudes and mistakes by the players themselves can certainly torpedo the opportunity for a more successful football season. Shelby folks have experienced this long before now, and it will happen again. We all make mistakes. The kids will learn. And this has absolutely nothing to do with race. We have lost key white players for fighting, skipping classes, choosing hunting over practice, etc. and significantly damaging previous squads.
But losing good team chemistry seems to always doom even a championship level team. You see it everywhere, in all sports.
This year, we thought maybe we had overcome it.
The win last week over a very good Forest Hills team was won on heart and determination. The guys rallied.
But that high could not be sustained.
And a decisively better Burns team exposed our sluggishness.
That’s it. The challenge for today's high school coaches is, in some ways, greater than ever. They are expected to prepare the kids to win, but have to counsel as well as coach. They deserve our praise, more than our criticism.
One more thing we know from history….
