Non conference high school games

Our coach trys to schedule non conference games in 1/3rds. 1/3 he feels we should win, 1/3 highly competitive games and 1/3 games against the best teams he can find.

Provided the coach is as good as you say, and communicates to the players what his expectations are, they could come out of it 0-6 and then make a tremendous run in their conference.

2 seasons ago, 27's basketball coaches wanted to send the players a message. They felt the team was a good one, but that the players didn't yet realize what it took to play at the next level. They entered a tournament where the best travel teams and future HS programs always play. Our team was beaten by an average of 40 points every game. However, the coaches had told the young men, and the parents, that it was a learning experience...not a tournament they expected to win. The parents backed up the coaches and what the coaches were trying to accomplish.

When the team entered its regular league play, they dominated. Even teams that had been better in the past, couldn't keep up with the "new and improved" version of 27's team. The tournament losses taught the young men far more than any amount of regular season wins had ever done.

If your coach handles the early non-conference play in a similar manner, it could be a terrific "wake-up call" for the team. And, if any of the games are close, your young men could come out of it even more stoked for their conference play.

Good luck with the season!

The tough out-of-conference games will help the team prepare for conference play, and ultimately, the playoffs. If you are at least competitive in those games then it should actually help morale. Also, I think it's a great sign about what the new coach stands for - pushing the team and taking the program to the next level.
Besides, you never know what might happen. Last year, my son's team (traditionally weak baseball program, small school) entered a pre-season tournament against some of the best teams from large public schools in our area. They had never done this previously, but the new coach wanted the kids to be challenged and not play down against our usual competition. Well, they wound up winning two games, both of which were against teams ranked in the state top-10 pre-season poll.
Maybe you'll take some lumps at first, but in the long run, and likely even this season, it will have been worth it.

I'm all for it and think the tougher the schedule the better - if they talent is there. When you are building a program there are two ways to do it.

1. Play a cupcake schedule and get the record looking good. People are now looking at the record and talking about how much better things are.

Problem - you don't fix your mistakes. You are able to beat teams even with mistakes so you don't learn how to fix your problems. In fact you end up never improving and probably end getting worse and overconfident. Post season starts you are not ready to compete.

Pros - everyone feels good about themselves for a couple of months.

2. Play a tough schedule and face teams you would like to be like.

Problem - if your team is weak minded it could destroy morale and cause poor attitudes to develop. Parents don't support you and criticize you which undermines you to the team.

Pros - it causes the team to focus and learn how to play with pressure. While the record may not be very good the mental toughness has been created which could help during post season.

It takes a good coach to pull off the tough schedule. He has to communicate to everyone that there might be some tough games but it shows what areas the team needs to improve on. Now you can work on it in practice and games to get ready. The one thing a coach cannot do is get onto the team hard for physical mistakes. That will destroy the team quicker than the losses will.

When I became head coach at my last school they weren't that good. I came in and made the schedule much tougher. I was criticized heavily by everyone and said I was crazy for doing it. I had a young team and ended up having 8 sophomores and 1 junior starting. We took some lumps but when the district tournament came along we were on a roll. We won district and made it to the finals of the region for the first time in school history. We got beat in the finals 4 - 2 by a team using their ace that mercy ruled us twice in the regular season with their number 4 pitcher. We got a lot of respect and recognition after that season.

For the 9 seasons I was head coach we played a tough schedule eash season. In the 30 some years before I was hired the school had 3 district championships. In my 9 seasons we had 4. I'm not saying I'm a great coach but I was smart enough to know I had good players who needed to be challenged.

I think you should always play as good of teams as you can. My sons HS coaches had them play good D1 HS, we were D2.We battled and lost 2/7.they went on to win their league and then their first section title. Good players should want to face the best competition possible.It makes you learn how to battle.

I'm all for playing the toughest schedule you can get early, before the conference games. Generally, the really top programs will be hesitant to schedule really inferior teams, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting into a situation where they'd get wiped out in every game. Who cares what their record is in non-conference games if they are learning and getting better? Don't get me wrong, I care very much about winning, but would rather have a team play a tough schedule and go 0-6 than play a puff schedule and go into the league games not knowing what it takes to win when the chips are down.

In our area, which is a large metropolitan area of about 1.5 million people, there are two programs that illustrate this well. The first program plays a bunch of lousy teams early, and even though they're very talented, they seldom go all the way in conference and especially once the playoffs start. They almost always lose the big games, and I believe that not playing tough teams early gives them a false sense of accomplishment and they don't have that will to win that being tested and bested can help build. The other team always plays the toughest schedule they can find. Last year, they were starting 7 or 8 juniors every game, and they were only .500 after pre-season play. Some people questioned whether they had what it took to win their league. Once league play started, I think they went 23-0 or 22-1, and they won the section championship, beating a very strong team that sent their #1 to a team that played in last year's CWS. I'm pretty sure their only loss once league play started was in one of section championship games, vs. a lefthander who'll be a likely early round draft pick this year out of high school. This year, that same team returns almost every player from last year's team, and they could be one of the top teams in the nation.

I think you want to play the toughest competition you can find, always.

As a lifelong Iowa Hawkeye fan, I can tell you I'd much rather see a team play against some good non-conference competition.

Now I do like BOF's suggestion of breaking that part of the schedule into thirds.

But every year Iowa plays (both basketball and football) Drake, Univ of Northern Iowa, Maine, etc and destroys them. Then they can barely make it through the Big Ten season.

Now, that being said, they were the ONLY Big Ten team to win their bowl game this year!!!

I wisely look to WWE wrestlers to guide me with life's tough decisions. When I posed your question to Rick Flair he said:
"If you want to be the man, you've got to beat the man. Whooooooo!"
I think that means play the best teams you can, and you will get better.