Harvester program

[harvesterpride]

I kinda wanna discuss the rise and fall of the Harvester program.....actually just the fall

This year that football team went through a World of confusion.

They started off very strong playing well then came that dreaded night that Harvesters have come to hate. Homecoming.

that game proved just how bad of a team this was. 3 onside kicks...two of which the coaches never sent in a hands team...
is solid proof that they were unprepared and did not cover it properly in practice.

In a boosters meeting the coaches responded by saying they went over the onside kick and the players didnt take it seriously so... did they run them... do updowns? no they said ok you dont wanna take this serious so we wont do it.... fantastic leadership.


The coach has so little respect in that locker room that he is resorting to calling parents.

this is not a mentality of a head coach. this is the mentality of an assisstant. Go to someone who can do something about it. Im telling you right now if a player had told any coach on Parker, Wood, or even DC's staff to go F' himself... that boy would have regreted that forever. this year is different they are scolded and parents are called and nothing else is done about it.

This team basically imploded and the program is doomed to follow suit unless drastic changes are made. Im not saying get your torch and pitchforks because that is not the answer. Cavalier desperatley needs to grab this program by the juevos and gain total controll of his players. There is no respect and no disipline. the penalties are a obvious indicator of this.

anyone care to discuss thoughts? argue with me? all are welcome

[zebrarick]

Pride I sent you a PM.

[henryfinkel]

Good to know that Pampa is still one big, happy (dysfunctional) family. I hear that the Dr. Phil show, or maybe Jerry Springer, is coming to town next fall instead of Dateline.

[harvesterpride]

henryfinkel said:

Good to know that Pampa is still one big, happy (dysfunctional) family. I hear that the Dr. Phil show, or maybe Jerry Springer, is coming to town next fall instead of Dateline.

i know. We just cant get our stuff straight here

[banneddad]

I hear you H P. Across the board Pampa athletics are in for pretty rough future.

You can not have quality programs when you dont hire quality coaches. Pampa, in the recent past, has not looked for quality - they have gone for who they could get at the cheapest price. The old saying - "you get what you pay for" comes to mind.
Take that and throw in who was AD when all the new head coaches were hired and you have a recipe for disaster. Coach S. has had a bunch of problems thrown in his lap and has his hands full. I am curious to see how he steps up and handles it becasue he has not seen the end of it yet.

I do not want to sit here and bash on AC, but I do not think he was ready for head coach position. He is a great guy, but he is definitley going to have to step it up in several areas to have anywhere near the success that this program has had in the past. He is also going to have to re-evaluate his assistants. I know his hands were tied on some of them, but he should get the authority to do what he thinks needs to be done.

Basketball - again a great guy, but he made some serious mistakes last year. His first year as head coach was pretty much a cake walk for him. There was allready a team in place, thanks to one of the dads, that did not need much in the way of coaching. Just go out, have a seat, and watch them play. Last year was a whole different story. Towards the end of the season, I do think he realized what he had done. He made adjustments in his coaching and some comments to some of the past and current players that make me believe he knows what he did. Making mistakes is ok if you learn from them. I am actually excited to see basketball get started again. Pampa should have a pretty good team for at least a couple of more years. It will come down to the coach - I hope the best for him.

Baseball - where do you start here? A quote I heard from local business owner - "they ought to tar feather that s.o.b." pretty well sums it up. You cant punish the players for telling the coach to F`off when the coach is the one starting it can you? Some people seem to think he has had a lot of success since he has been here, but I think he has drug down the potential of the teams that Pampa has had the last couple of years. They have been embarrassed on the field by teams that were not better teams player for player.
HP was in the process of getting rid of him and Pampa bailed them out. They went 10-0 within a year after he left.
Get ready Coach S - you will be hearing more from this department.

[harvesterpride]

some interesting points Banneddad,

Im with you on the whole AD thing, in my honest opinion the AD before Smith pretty much set up a bomb in the program before he left and then hit the road, unfortunatly for smit it was his face that it blew up in.

Cav definately needs help. i know for a fact he will not survive another year missing the playoffs. Period. They are already sharpening the pitchforks and lighting the torches in good ole P'town. they need alot of help in the play calling i swear every game had at least 2 delay of games because they couldn't decide what play to run. The o Coordinator should know what to do he should have every a play for every situation there is no need for that.

Basketball- I love Miller. Could not find a better guy, honestly after last year i see drastic improvement in the future. It was a wake up call and i believe he is smart enough to make the change. he already has a great start, i like his odds of developing a good program.

Baseball- You don't want me to start here. But you got me goin so i will hahaha. Alot of his problems is saying one thing doing another. I was there and saw all of this first hand. heres a quote "If anyone wants to run track, go run track I don't want to split your attention so if you run track you will NOT play baseball." but what he didn't say is "you will not play baseball, unless your Shavious Kelley then you can do whatever you want because of how fast you are even though God and everyone knows you dont want to be here and you are not going to give any effort." A player even called him out on this and got ripped for it. Horribly. Then the team got a speech on how hes the boss, followed by a loss to Hereford on senior day. followed by him blaming the players because they scored 14 runs in the game and still lost because he kept trying to pitch sophomores that had horrible attitudes. He picked favorites. Look at the Third basemen ,Dixon i think, that kid was aweful he made errors all over the place, yet he played every game since his junior year. why?
but im going to get off of my soap box for now

[sj]

How close is Pampa to dropping to 3A?

[harvesterpride]

they teeter on the edge every year

[sj]

I heard they were in a serious teeter....

[banneddad]

I think the numbers in Pampa are actually up a little due to the recent oilfield boom. That certainly wont last long term, but for the next realignment will be a factor. Whatever happens out at Celanese could be a factor also.

Football
You brought a topic that has really bugged me with the football team last 3 years or so.
Penalties - dumb, needles penalties. I bet Pampa was close to leading district in penalties.
One thing that I certainly would have to give DC credit for when he was coach - his teams were prepared. Emotionally, physically, and mentally. Under him, Pampa did not have the dumb penalties that are pretty much common place now.
I would like to see AC get things turned around. He is going to need some support and I do not think there are the resources for him to be able to do that. Pampa is still stuck in the old mindset of the good old boy circle of friends that control everything the way they want it - not what is best for the town, the team, or the individual student.

Basketball
Went and watched the game last night. If you could get all the players to have the intensity of #12 & 5, that team would be tough. The team, for the most part, played kind of like ho-hum, got to go play Borger tonight. Those are the games that will sneak up on you. Ask the football team (bad joke).
Overall though, I did like what I saw. There is some potential. Coach M rotated his players a lot better than I have seen in the past. A big step in the right direction - lets see how it continues. Like I said earlier, I dont have a problem with someone making a mistake if they learn from it. Good job coach.

Baseball
You nailed it - favoritism and lies.
There are several lies there in the one scenario you spoke of, telling the team that about track and baseball. He did tell Kelley that he could run the meets to qualify for district though, then when he made regionals in several events, he kicked him off the team. Regardless what the kid was doing on the field, you can not tell him to go ahead and do something, then kick him the team when he does it.

The favoritism works both ways with him. If you are on his A list and you can do no wrong.
You are on his D list, you can do no right, and there is no getting off one list on to the other.
There are kids on last years jv that he does not like and would not let the jv coach play them in certain positions. These are kids that the team is going to need next couple of years. He made the comment when the jv coach questioned him about it "I dont care, I hope he quits. I dont want him out here.". Good attitude coach.

There were several games lost this year because of playing favorites.
How many games were lost playing easily the best catcher in the district in the outfield?
How many games were lost playing one of the better outfielders at first base?
Or the one you mentioned? You know the answer to your question there.
Who kept the "official" book?

You had the same thing with the 06 team.
Telling lies to your team shows 2 things - you do not respect them nor do you trust them.
Stands to reason then that they will not respect you either does it?
Telling lies to your AD shows that he knows what he did was wrong and he is trying to cover it up. "Going off", as you put it, on one of your players when he questions a lie that you told them is nothing more than a case of the "little man" syndrome and wanting to be "the man".
There is not a place in high school athletics for a person like this.

This could go on and on, but I did not mean to get on my soapbox. I am just very passionate about this subject and can get wound up too easily.

For now it is way past this old mans bedtime. I need my rest, as I have a full day of food and football ahead of me.

Everyone have a good Thanksgiving.

[RD]

ive stayed out of this long enough.

im not going to say much about you guys bashing me because one it's pointless, and two your not worth me getting upset over.

Yes I made errors, I won't make excuses for them I just did, but when it came down to it I got the job done and I worked my butt trying to fix those errors.

Now you can bash me all you want, but when you start saying that my dad kissed up to the coach just so i can play is crossing the line. NEVER in my life have I relied on my dad to get anywhere. I have been hearing that crap since i was 9 and made all-stars. For all you guys that think other wise, let me ask you this. Where were your kids when i was showing up to practice 1-2 hours early to take extra grounders, and taking batting practice. Where were your kids when i was working out at 6 a.m. going to work at 9 then working out again after i got off at 5 during the summer. I got to play because I put in alot of hours away from the program on my own. You dont like that your kid didnt play then quit bashing the coaches and tell them to put the video games down and put in some extra work.


When you say that i hid behind my father you insult everything i have ever done.

now bash me all you want i could care less because when you look back i can guarantee you one thing... i played and i left it all on the field.

Banneddad...pride.... enjoy your week

[banneddad]

Let me set the record straight again RD. I have stated this before, but either no one remembers or does not pay attention. My kids have been out of school since probably before you were out of diapers.

I am an extreme baseball and basketball fan. I know what kind of ability, extra time, and work it takes to be good. As far as putting in extra time, you don’t know him but you can rest assured – my kid put in the extra time.

I can see where my words can sound like a cut to you and I did not mean it that way. From all I have seen and heard, you are nice, well liked, well rounded young man. I have never accused you of hiding behind your dad, and did not intend it to sound that way. I am sorry if you took it that way.
I have seen the way your dad acts at the games, and heard the things he has said about you and other kids during the game. I am sorry, but I have no respect for him. I’ll leave it at that. I do not want to argue with you about your dad.

Now, you answer me a question that was the intent of my comments.
As you said, you have played all stars since you were 9 years old. You have played with every kid that was on the team the last 2 years basically all your life. Do you honestly think that the team that was fielded in 06 and 07 was the best that Pampa had to offer at every position? Do you not think that there were maybe at least a couple of cases of favoritism/discrimination with some players the last 2 years?

In my opinion, the coaches are paid by my taxes to do a job. I have every right to say what I want (and I certainly will) about how they do their job. As far as an adult that attends a game and makes an a$$ out of themselves, they are fair game also. I will not however, pick out a kid and sit here and bash on them in a public forum. Again, I apologized if it came out that way. I did not say what I wanted very well and that was not my intention.

[RD]

ok ill bite on your question. Ill use a quote for you from you.

"There were several games lost this year because of playing favorites.
How many games were lost playing easily the best catcher in the district in the outfield?
How many games were lost playing one of the better outfielders at first base?
Or the one you mentioned? You know the answer to your question there.
Who kept the "official" book?"

Ok the best catcher in the district was hurt. when he was healed up he told Wilson he didn't want to catch for a while because he was out of shape. He just never got asked again.

Ok the guy playing first. Ok i've played with him literally my whole life. I know exactly how good he is at first base. In my opinon he was one of the best first basemen in the area....as a freshman. he was the best choice for first base. he could catch balls and make outs that i swear should have never even had a chance. he may have been a good outfielder but he was a great First basemen. I wouldn't have wanted anyone else over there.


Well at least when my dad says things hes man enough to stand by them and not hide behind a screen name. You can keep your respect you need some to give some.

by the way im not buyin that you say your kids are long gone....I honestly think your kid is my age. your not fooling anyone so dont try

[banneddad]

OK, first, I don’t think you have all the facts concerning the first instance.
Or I got bad info from one of my sources. You would probably be surprised to know that one of my sources is on the Harvester coaching staff and another at Carver Center.

Second, we are talking about a different player. Reread my post. Admittedly, last year I only saw about 6 or 7 games and only 4-5 this year, but did listen to a lot of the others. I am basing my comments on what I saw and the rest on the broadcasters call on the radio (and the one parent’s comments that you could always hear over the radio this past year).

Third, I am not trying to fool anyone. I do not have a kid your age, at least that I know about. I moved here in 88, my kid was involved in the beginning of the prior coach era and had a very poor baseball experience. That left me with a very bad taste in my mouth and has motivated me to some extent to stay on top of this program. I did have numerous run-ins with your ex coach. Talking about him is also what got me banned from the old Amarillo talk forum about 5 years ago. I seriously doubt you know who I am.

You still did not answer the question – do you think the 06 and 07 team had the best players that Pampa had to offer on the field? You have obviously been involved a lot more in the program than I have, so if you state on here that you honestly believe that is the best Pampa had to offer each of the last 2 years, I will shut up.

[RD]

im not goin to continue all of this. this forum crap is for all of you guys and ill leave it at that. you dont have to shut up. i said what i wanted to say and ill leave it alone now

have fun