Today I am tackling a subject that is constantly debated and discussed by media members, fans and coaches in our never-ending search to define the success or failure of a team.
How does a coach/athletic department craft a schedule?
This comes up because varsity boys basketball team here in town – the Warsaw Tigers – finished with a .500 record. That has sent many of you to your computers and phones trying to convince me that the sky is falling and that wailing and gnashing of teeth is appropriate.
But to look at a team’s record and use that as the only factor in determining success or failure is completely illogical and blatantly unfair. You have to see the whole picture in order to make that kind of determination. And even then, two really knowledgeable, responsible people can look at a team when their season ends and have very different views on how that season should be remembered.
The media obviously plays a significant part in shaping the public’s opinion on how history should view a player, team, coach or season. That is a big deal to me and I take that responsibility very seriously.
If you are related to a member of the team, that can significantly shape how a player, team, coach or season is logged into the history book of your own minds. Anyone out there mutter, or mutter loudly, “well X team would have done this or that if that (insert your own description of the coach) coach would have played my (insert family member’s name here) more.”
So just looking at two numbers with a ‘-‘ between them is a dangerous way to apply a determination of success or failure.
What I am about to propose to you is my version of what a good schedule should look like. It is NOT written with a specific high school or college in mind as a good or bad example in this discussion.
In this discussion, understand that every sport is different because they play a different number of games. Also understand that high schools and colleges are different. These are general guidelines.
Here is how to make a good schedule:
1. Understand who your core opponents are. Your core opponents are those that you are obligated, by conference or geography, to play. You have to play the teams in your conference. It also makes sense to play schools that are close by and relatively competitive in size. Your core should make up about 40-percent of your schedule. These are your best fan-attracting, revenue-generating games. They are good rivalries and games everyone looks forward to. You put these games on your calendar every year in red letters.
2. Schedule a few games that are not as tough. Colleges have this down pat … it’s called November and December. They lump them toward the front to work out the bugs and to fatten up their resumé for the NCAA selection committee in March. High school teams don’t operate that way, so spreading the easier games throughout the season will allow teams a chance to catch their breath or make adjustments to things they aren’t doing well. But they also aren’t so easy that you don’t accomplish anything. Maybe 20 percent of your games would fall into this.
3. Understand expectations. The remaining 40 percent of the schedule is really flexible. If you know you are going to be really good, you probably will want to add some teams that are also projected to be really good – even better than your team. If you want to go deep into your team’s tournament, you have to have at least some experience (if not comfort) playing against bigger/stronger/quicker/more athletic teams or you can get crushed under the weight of the one-and-done tournament format. It probably means traveling out of your region or normal circle of influence, but it’s necessary.
4. Avoid scheduling conflicts. You should do everything in your power to not play a team two games in a row, or within a two week span. My Argos team beat LaVille in 4 overtimes in the Bi-County final in 1986, and then turned right around and played them again in Weybright Gymnasium the following Friday. The Lancers were understandably still mourning the loss from the previous weekend and we crushed them. You do your team a great injustice by playing a team to end the season, then draw them the first night of the sectional four nights later. No coach is going to show all his cards the first night, which sends a message to players that this game is not as important as the next one. No coach wants that.
High school football teams only have two or three non-conference opponents (in most cases). That makes it a lot harder to achieve the balance that we are trying to achieve. In a nine-game schedule, you certainly want to play a game that is winnable out of the first couple.
You also don’t want to make those games so easy that your players get a false self-diagnosis. They will be unprepared for the road ahead.
It’s important to understand that a final record does not tell the whole story. A .500 team could start poorly, figure out their problems and trend in the right direction at the right time – that’s a good season. They could also be a team that had championship aspirations but underachieved because of any one or more of a multitude of reasons.
The concept of “you had to be there” plays a factor.
It really comes down to balance and flexibility. In my opinion, you don’t do yourself any favors by locking your team into long contracts with any opponent not in your core. There is one advantage – it leads to apples-to-apples comparisons. A team that plays the same schools year after year makes it easier to compare one season to another. That makes it nice for people like me who are tasked with putting labels onto teams’ historical ledgers.
Those labels lead to sports debate … which we know is fun to participate in.
