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re: Numbers look bleak for Arkansas high school football's reputation
Posted on 4/30/24 at 1:35 pm to dchog
Posted on 4/30/24 at 1:35 pm to dchog
quote:
Helena for example always had talent but suffered from poor coaching and a community that didn't give them much support.
The issue in a nutshell is about a third of the state, possibly closer to half the state, can't afford a decent HS football coaching staff and with the lack of community interest that isn't likely to change any time soon.
When my father taught at West Memphis they had teams compete for a state title. Even when the Blue Devils were red hot the stadium was usually at like 25% capacity. Except for Homecoming.
Say what you will about someplace like South Dakota but they love their football up there, be they white or Native American. So they scrape the cash together to get the best coaches they can.
Half the players riding the bench for a lot of school's basketball teams could have a shot at a college scholarship if they went out for football instead.
2
Posted on 4/30/24 at 3:31 pm to Arksulli
Well the LEARNS act did absolutely nothing to help coaching salaries. It actually hurt them because it's forced districts to spend more on base teacher salaries and mid-sized and smaller districts have had to reduce stipends to keep up.
In case anyone was confused the LEARNS act was consolidation attempt #2 by the Huckabees.... just disguised better this time.
That said, it won't help football or any other HS sport in the state at all.
Time for the state to better fund teacher salaries if they want anything to change.
In case anyone was confused the LEARNS act was consolidation attempt #2 by the Huckabees.... just disguised better this time.
That said, it won't help football or any other HS sport in the state at all.
Time for the state to better fund teacher salaries if they want anything to change.
This post was edited on 4/30/24 at 3:32 pm
Posted on 4/30/24 at 5:26 pm to Arksulli
These Delta towns suffer from political corruption. Helena is a good example of that. Residents complain when they turn on a faucet, brown water flows out. This made national news. The current mayor had friends of his wash his car with clean water and this was reported by the residents who don't have clean water.
Helena has the highest paid city council in the state and yet the garbage man is paid minimum wage and They hired an unqualified individual to treat the water and sewage.
Watching the Helena city council meetings on YouTube is like watching an episode from the Jerry Springer show. City council members yelling at the mayor and kept interrupting him to the point that he couldn't speak.
It got so bad that the city asked the state for money and was given $100,000. They asked for more money and the state asked where did the other money go? The city didn't give a good answer and the state was getting irritated. I expect the state to be investigating the city of Helena and someone is going to prison.
I didn't want to get way off the subject but as long as these small towns are ruled by corrupt individuals then these towns will never heal. If they can't be healed then they will never grow. If they can't grow then that hurts everything including sports like football.
Helena has the highest paid city council in the state and yet the garbage man is paid minimum wage and They hired an unqualified individual to treat the water and sewage.
Watching the Helena city council meetings on YouTube is like watching an episode from the Jerry Springer show. City council members yelling at the mayor and kept interrupting him to the point that he couldn't speak.
It got so bad that the city asked the state for money and was given $100,000. They asked for more money and the state asked where did the other money go? The city didn't give a good answer and the state was getting irritated. I expect the state to be investigating the city of Helena and someone is going to prison.
I didn't want to get way off the subject but as long as these small towns are ruled by corrupt individuals then these towns will never heal. If they can't be healed then they will never grow. If they can't grow then that hurts everything including sports like football.
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