Sebastian River vs Vero Beach
I stayed home tonight and listened (on the Internet) to Sebastian River (my former team) (SR) play the Ft. Pierce Central Cobras (FPC) at Shark's Stadium. FPC is located in the county south of us, and they came into the game ranked #8 in the state. They have been state-ranked for some time now, but nevertheless, we always played them very tough. I just could not bring myself to attend the game in person, because I knew what was going to happen. Truthfully, the game was over within the first three minutes of scrimmage. FPC scored on their very first play...a 69 yard TD pass. You could almost hear the crowd deflate over the Internet....another tough game was ahead of them. The game was 42-7 at halftime, and the entire 2nd half was played with a running clock. The final score was 49-20. FPC substituted freely for most of the second qtr throughout the rest of the game.
Considering my past relationship with SRHS, it is tough listening to them get beat like this. I really hate it for the kids....especially the seniors. They surely did not ask for this, and it is not their fault that adults acts the way they do. I wished I could have gone to the game....I sat at home in the dark and listened as FPC scored again and again. I heard that Zach Finnegan (A real stud player) broke his ankle in an accident, and now I hear that Mason Wilborn has a mild concussion and will be out for at least a week....that hurts. Problem is that SRHS is not very deep at any position this year...or any year for that matter. Why is that? Like any other subject, I have my opinions which may, or may not be be accurate. But, I have to ask: "Will SRHS ever compete with VBHS?" Lets compare and contrast this subject.
Sebastian River High School
SRHS plays in the tough 7A Florida Classification which means that SRHS has (1800 -2200 +/-) students from 9-12 grades. Just to the west of Sebastian is the town of Fellsmere which has a large Hispanic population...historically, Hispanics generally play soccer...not football for the most part. Of course, there are exceptions. The hispanic population counts towards the student population which put SRHS in the 7A classification. IN A GOOD year, SRHS was lucky to get 80-90 kids out for football for both the JV and Varsity programs. Most years we rostered about 35-40 kids for varsity, and about the same for JV. Personally, I think SRHS should be competing at the (4A-5A level)
Facts are this: People (with kids) just don't move to the town of Sebastian, Florida. Most people come to this area if they are going to retire. WHY? because THERE ARE NO JOBS IN THIS AREA! PERIOD! Young people are forced to leave this area to have a chance at anything other than service industry jobs, or perhaps something in the medical field. So, why raise a family here if you cannot support them? You do what my own kids had to do....you leave and relocate to an area with employment. Will this ever change? I doubt it...at least not in our lifetime. No industry...no jobs... equals no growth.
Also, SRHS does not have the tradition of many of the schools to the North and South of us. People move here (from the North) AFTER they have raised their kids, so there is not a loyalty to the school program. SRHS is just now getting to the point where the children (of our former students) are old enough to attend school. The older the school gets, the better this situation will become as the school matures. Finally you may hear: "My Daddy played at SRHS, so I want to play at SRHS" Until this happens, the football program will struggle.
Finally, SRHS will always compete on a level basis in sports which do not require numerous athletes....like basketball for instance. What do they have... like 12 athletes at the most? Same with baseball. Those teams will always be competitive. However, pulling 100 kids out for a single program (like football) is tough...there is simply not enough depth to choose from. We always had to coach our butts off to field a competitive team every year on a consistent basis. True, we had some good teams here and there, and we won close to 90 games in 16 years. However, we did understand our demographics and the type of kids we were going to have year after year. Like Coach Perry always said: "We are going to scheme the hell out of them!"
On the other hand:
Vero Beach High School
Vero Beach High School (VB) plays in 8A (Florida's largest classification) which means they have (2200 +/-) or more students enrolled in school. VB has a nice mix of students of all races (Black-White-Hispanic other) For many, many years VB was the only high school in Indian River County, so even the Sebastian and Fellsmere kids attended the large school. Along with this rich history, the TRADITION of playing football for VB was born, which goes back for generations. Even when I worked for VB, I was always amazed at the shear number of athletes that VB always put on the field. This year, VB will roster close to 300 football players with 3 different teams (Freshman, JV and Varsity)
Vero Beach is a larger town than Sebastian of course...and this means a few more jobs are available. Indian River County is still not a job-mecca, but there are more jobs in their local area for sure. The growth of Indian River County is...and always will be a retirement community. So, where does VBHS get all their kids? TRADITION and WINNING will always bring kids to any school. Also, generation upon generation have attended VBHS over the years. Many of those generations played for the legendary coach BILLY LIVINGS at VBHS, so the the tradition is being carried on by Coach Lenny. VBHS has the advantage of the following statement: "My Grandfather played at VBHS, My Daddy played at VBHS, and now I AM going to play at VBHS" This is a tremendous advantage.
Finally, during the days of VBHS only in the county, many of the big-money boosters established themselves at the school....and this is still happening today. The football program is not lacking in financial support to say the least. The rich history of Vero's 12th man is alive and well at the iconic Citrus Bowl home field. VBHS plays 95% of all their games (at home) and the stadium is PACKED week after week. Going to a VBHS football game is an event in itself.
To wrap things up, the question still remains: "Will SRHS EVER compete with VBHS?" The answer is probably NO! Not in our lifetime, and Not in Football anyway. Not until the school boundaries are changed. Not until industry has created jobs in this area. NOT until young families relocate here to raise their kids. NOT until SRHS has matured into an older tradition-rich school. SRHS was not only fighting VBHS football, were were fighting TRADITION, ECONOMY, and everything else that goes along with it.
Maybe now people will appreciate how hard we worked to put a competitive team on the field year after year.
Later
GZ
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