Caution: High School Football Commentary... How Was Okemos HS This Bad?

Trapper Gus wrote:https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/17/2123552/-Is-tackle-football-unsafe

Pretty sure I wouldn't let my kids play football.

glad our daughter focused on orchestra and theater (not that she was O-line material or anything)..

100% certain I had a pretty severe concussion in the fall of 1986. Onside kick, we had the "hands team" out there.. (I was pretty good with my hands.. especially in the Pizza Hut parking lot after the game).. anyway, my teammate recovered the onside kick, whistle is blown. This fucking hillbilly redneck was running at 100% and drilled me. My chinstrap came off, an ear pad came out of my helmet.

Blacked out for a couple of seconds. When I opened my eyes, I saw yellow flags all around and my boys were whippin' his ass (shout out to my teammates).

I make it to the sidelines and I remember throwing up. Gotta remember, this is 36 years ago. We didn't have concussion protocols, etc. Nobody knew much of nothing about anything.

anyway, after the game, I jump in the shower at the field house, climb into my buddy's 1984 Toyota Celica. As I'm waiting on him (before we head to the Pizza Hut), I completely black out again in his car. He gets in and I'm basically asleep in the passenger seat.  

I kinda came out of it and we went on about our night. But, my lord, looking back at it now, I think I was pretty screwed up for a while. Frightening in retrospect.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/17/2123552/-Is-tackle-football-unsafe

Pretty sure I wouldn't let my kids play football.

glad our daughter focused on orchestra and theater (not that she was O-line material or anything)..

100% certain I had a pretty severe concussion in the fall of 1986. Onside kick, we had the "hands team" out there.. (I was pretty good with my hands.. especially in the Pizza Hut parking lot after the game).. anyway, my teammate recovered the onside kick, whistle is blown. This fucking hillbilly redneck was running at 100% and drilled me. My chinstrap came off, an ear pad came out of my helmet.

Blacked out for a couple of seconds. When I opened my eyes, I saw yellow flags all around and my boys were whippin' his ass (shout out to my teammates).

I make it to the sidelines and I remember throwing up. Gotta remember, this is 36 years ago. We didn't have concussion protocols, etc. Nobody knew much of nothing about anything.

anyway, after the game, I jump in the shower at the field house, climb into my buddy's 1984 Toyota Celica. As I'm waiting on him (before we head to the Pizza Hut), I completely black out again in his car. He gets in and I'm basically asleep in the passenger seat.  

I kinda came out of it and we went on about our night. But, my lord, looking back at it now, I think I was pretty screwed up for a while. Frightening in retrospect.

Bob, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on Tee Vee, however that sounds pretty severe.  

My first mindless thought, given that you blacked out again later, is that you are lucky to be still with us.  The second blackout is sometimes an indication of bleeding in the brain, which sometimes leads shortly to death.

When I was in grade school one of the high school football players died on the field during a game, don't know the cause.

The evidence is growing that playing high school football can shorten how long people live.

I know it is entertaining, and I am as hypocritical about this as anybody, but along with boxing this is a sport which involves watching people literally slowly killing themselves for other people's entertainment.

Perhaps the solution is to eliminate helmets and outlaw head contact.

We allowed our track star son to go out for football his junior year, his coaches thought the weight training would help his track performance, he was slotted to be a receiver, but on the first day of hitting he racked up his knee, ending his football, and track careers, thank goodness on the football, really sad about the track as he was competitive at the state level before that.

Happy to see that you recovered.

Trapper Gus wrote:

Robert J Sakimano wrote:
glad our daughter focused on orchestra and theater (not that she was O-line material or anything)..

100% certain I had a pretty severe concussion in the fall of 1986. Onside kick, we had the "hands team" out there.. (I was pretty good with my hands.. especially in the Pizza Hut parking lot after the game).. anyway, my teammate recovered the onside kick, whistle is blown. This fucking hillbilly redneck was running at 100% and drilled me. My chinstrap came off, an ear pad came out of my helmet.

Blacked out for a couple of seconds. When I opened my eyes, I saw yellow flags all around and my boys were whippin' his ass (shout out to my teammates).

I make it to the sidelines and I remember throwing up. Gotta remember, this is 36 years ago. We didn't have concussion protocols, etc. Nobody knew much of nothing about anything.

anyway, after the game, I jump in the shower at the field house, climb into my buddy's 1984 Toyota Celica. As I'm waiting on him (before we head to the Pizza Hut), I completely black out again in his car. He gets in and I'm basically asleep in the passenger seat.  

I kinda came out of it and we went on about our night. But, my lord, looking back at it now, I think I was pretty screwed up for a while. Frightening in retrospect.

Bob, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on Tee Vee, however that sounds pretty severe.  

My first mindless thought, given that you blacked out again later, is that you are lucky to be still with us.  The second blackout is sometimes an indication of bleeding in the brain, which sometimes leads shortly to death.

When I was in grade school one of the high school football players died on the field during a game, don't know the cause.

The evidence is growing that playing high school football can shorten how long people live.

I know it is entertaining, and I am as hypocritical about this as anybody, but along with boxing this is a sport which involves watching people literally slowly killing themselves for other people's entertainment.

Perhaps the solution is to eliminate helmets and outlaw head contact.

We allowed our track star son to go out for football his junior year, his coaches thought the weight training would help his track performance, he was slotted to be a receiver, but on the first day of hitting he racked up his knee, ending his football, and track careers, thank goodness on the football, really sad about the track as he was competitive at the state level before that.

Happy to see that you recovered.

thanks, man. Luckily, I don't think it impacted my poet laureate status on the other board.

sorry to hear about your son. Yeah, hate the idea of it impacting his track career. I love sports as much as anyone, and I'll be glued to football starting tonight through Sunday, but I do feel conflicted about the entertainment value we find in others who put their health (and lives) at great risk.

duffy munn wrote:Fred Heuman reporting that Okemos may cancel the rest of this football season. They have scored 6 points in the last 13 games.

Is the beginning of the end, or just a one off?

In Saline, pretty much the Okemos of A2, football is still a very big thing.

duffy munn wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:

Is the beginning of the end, or just a one off?

In Saline, pretty much the Okemos of A2, football is still a very big thing.

Uncle Fred said the future of the program will be discussed. sure doesn't sound good but I get it. As has been mentioned in this thread, having less than 20 kids is dangerous.

Back in the early 2000's Saline had 45, which I thought was way too low.  These kids are going to be hurt.

tGreenWay wrote:Anyone know if EL won last Friday?

lost to Grand Blanc.

tGreenWay wrote:

Jake from State Farm wrote:



The internet has that kind of information?

Turtleneck’s probably does because he’s a latte swilling, Volvo driving ivory tower elitist academic.

I knew there was something about him to like.

duffy munn wrote:

Robert J Sakimano wrote: lost to Grand Blanc.

do you think Okemos should shut it down Bob? I do for the safety of the players. I feel bad for Efe. Good guy and married to a friend of mine's daughter. She was an EL basketball star and played college ball at Saginaw Valley. Briefly worked for Suzy at MSU.

Cool story alert. When I was coaching 8th grade basketball at St Thomas she had a brother on the team and we would let her practice with us. She was in 5th grade and dominated

yep. Efe is a good dude and, I hope, if given the chance, he can right the ship there. Even just to get some numbers up and maybe be a little more competitive next year.

The JV and freshman teams are still playing, so that tells me that they aren't getting rid of football as a whole. I guess anything can happen


Efe was a great football player and track athlete. I think he drove Finamore crazy on the basketball court. A great athlete but it didn't always translate to basketball skills.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:

duffy munn wrote:

do you think Okemos should shut it down Bob? I do for the safety of the players. I feel bad for Efe. Good guy and married to a friend of mine's daughter. She was an EL basketball star and played college ball at Saginaw Valley. Briefly worked for Suzy at MSU.

Cool story alert. When I was coaching 8th grade basketball at St Thomas she had a brother on the team and we would let her practice with us. She was in 5th grade and dominated

yep. Efe is a good dude and, I hope, if given the chance, he can right the ship there. Even just to get some numbers up and maybe be a little more competitive next year.

The JV and freshman teams are still playing, so that tells me that they aren't getting rid of football as a whole. I guess anything can happen


Efe was a great football player and track athlete. I think he drove Finamore crazy on the basketball court. A great athlete but it didn't always translate to basketball skills.

Saline, which is about the same size high school, as I said, only had about 45 kids out for football in 2002. Now they are a power in the state. These things happen in waves.

Turtleneck wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:

Saline, which is about the same size high school, as I said, only had about 45 kids out for football in 2002. Now they are a power in the state. These things happen in waves.

Sounds like Saline found a solution.

The longtime coach retired, and they brought in fresh blood was the basic turn around.

Don't know what the new coach did to get players back in the program, however he did.

Winning games is of course part of it.

Okemos is really just a school district.

It doesn't have a 'downtown', no main street of any sort. It's a school district with expensive, sanitized houses that fall somewhere along the color scheme of grey and taupe.. and it has a lot of strip malls, BMW dealerships, cosmetic surgery options, etc.

not a ton of community pride as it relates to the "community".

Jake from State Farm wrote:

Robert J Sakimano wrote:Okemos is really just a school district.

It doesn't have a 'downtown', no main street of any sort. It's a school district with expensive, sanitized houses that fall somewhere along the color scheme of grey and taupe.. and it has a lot of strip malls, BMW dealerships, cosmetic surgery options, etc.

not a ton of community pride as it relates to the "community".

The commercial part of this project getting cut by another 6,000 square feet. If it ever does get built.

Village of Okemos Project

There used to be somewhat of a downtown. Drug store on one corner, grocery store on another, hardware store, Millers Ice Cream store. All are now gone.

yeah, even 10-15 years or so ago, when Traveler's Club was on the corner and all of the other shops/stores in that general area were open, it had a little bit more of a community feel to it.

GRR Spartan wrote:Algonac HS cancelled their varsity football season in August after they had 6 players show up for the first fall practice. Holland HS announced they were cancelling the rest of their varsity season in early September due to low numbers. Now Okemos follows suit.

I spoke to an acquaintance who works for MHSAA after Holland HS made their announcement who told me he’s hearing from AD’s who are interested in expanding the pool to be eligible to field 8 Man Football because their schools are seeing football participant numbers dropping.

MHSAA is wrestling with further expansion of the 8 Man game because they foresee some schools more interested in state championships than having a .500 11 man team. However they are aware that a small percentage of HS players go on to play any level of college football and players with hopes of playing beyond HS will transfer to schools still playing traditional 11 man football.

PS
MHSAA is very aware of boys soccer’s effect on football from soccer’s rising participation levels and its lower costs. The rub is a lot of school’s main athletic fundraiser’s are football ticket and concession sales.

With the brain damage caused by football I would thing that 8 on 8 (I thought it was 7 on 7) would be a preferable version of the game.