They are advertising it here: http://www.fcps.edu/employment/callforcoaches.shtml - scroll down the page to find Marshall High School.

I urge concerned parents and others to start talking to the AD about stepping up his hiring practices.
He has hired the last 2 failing (miserably) coaches.
Maybe he needs to let others do the hiring.

We have a lack of football participation at Marshall.
We have decent athletes in the school who don't go out for the sport.

The lack of participation could be rectified by the right coach.
Someone that the kids could look up to and trust.
And that the community could feel confident in and support.

I believe that the right type of leader could get kids out for the team and build a football program that could compete against our neighborhood schools.

No one would want to coach at that school. The kids are mostly wimps or juvenile delinquents. Why do you think they lose so much?

I hear Kyle Shanahan needs a job...

There are a couple other threads here on FU about Marshall football and every now and then there is a post from a kid at one of the other local schools who puts down Marshall as not having the ability to get better.
Those kids don't seem to realize that if only a few of the athletes went out for football at their school then they wouldn't have a football team either.

I agree that the problem of getting athletes out for football is at the forefront of the problem.

When is the last time Marshall won? I thought they were a pretty good program not too long ago.

Starting 5 years ago Bill Lapthorn was hired as head football coach where he began the process of grinding Marshall football into the ground.
He lasted 3 years with a 4 & 26 record.
The shame of this is that during his last year (2 & 8) he had the athletes to have a decent competitive team but he had such a poor game plan and didn't know how to use his players.
One of the key characteristics of a good coach is that he knows who the skill players are and how to use them.

Then Marshall hired Greg Sullivan who lasted 2 years who went 0 & 20.
We saw the same thing from him with the lack of a decent game plan (He just took the previous coaches plays and tweaked them a bit) and inability to make use of the athletes that he did have.
Admittedly the athletes by his final year had dwindled, but they did have a few (that weren't used).

Plus neither of these guys believed in the passing game. Who remembers Marshall throwing the ball more than a few times per game?

But yes, before these 2 clowns Marshall had a decent football team.
Who hired these guys?
Who will hire the next coach?

personally I enjoy how the high schools around this general area keep recycling fired coaches!
and of course half the time nobody says they are fired - instead they are resigning.

i'm not trying to pick on former coach sullivan but i have to say that he's really bad at coaching.
did anyone question WHY he left a head coach position at TC Williams then wound up as an assistant at McLean high school a couple years later?
did anyone question that?
the rosy articles that came out when he was hired (a couple years ago) about how greg sullivan is the new head football coach at Marshall painted him as this great coach who is coming in to rebuild the football program.
were we told that McLean was also looking for a new head coach that same year? no!
and that if he were a good coach then McLean would have surely offered him the job since he was already an assistant coach there!

looking at it now it amazes a person that this guy was brought in to rebuild the program.
there is a real problem in the hiring process!
investigations into a coaches merit need to be made before the coach is hired not after he's been fired a couple years later.

What was done differently before Lapthron took over?

Lapthorn inherited a bad team. Coach Biddison lucked out and receive a bunch of kids that got kicked out of South Lakes and they were able to win a few games because of that. I've been following Marshall over the last few years and they have nothing. Lapthorn currently serves as the freshman coach and they won quite a few games this year!

There time is coming!

It's too bad we can never work this hard to find the best teachers at our school but we'll bust our asses to make sure the football team is on the plus side of .500...

J.T. Biddison was the coach back then and left to take a job at West Springfield, I am told anyway.
I don't know his tactics and methods as I didn't live here then and so never saw any games where he was at the helm.

The best teachers are coaches

Coach Bug: let me comment please.
lapthorn had the potential to have a decent team when on varsity. he didn't use the athletes he had. it was as if he drew positions for players out of a hat. and his plays did nothing but he kept re-running them.
then he would stand and sulk for the world and the players to see. a real embarrassment!

so now that lapthorn is coaching the freshman team and they are doing good you think he's a good coach?
how can you give him credit for a handful of kids coming out for freshman ball that are better athletes than what Marshall usually gets and especially when he was using coach sullivans plays?
just food for thought.

I played when Coach Bidd was coaching. We did get two South Lake guys, the Howell Brothers. The year we went and won a play-off game, only one of them was still on the team. I think you can look at the history of wins and losses at Marshall over the past 20 years and see the impact that Coach Biddisen had on the school. I doubt there was any "luck" to it.
I think he stepped down from West springfield after taking them to the play-offs last year to spend more time with his family. Maybe we could get him back.

Excuses, excuses, it's not the kids, it's the coaches. Marshall hasn't had a coach that was worth a rat's ass in years. Yes, hire a good one this time, not some lackey looking for a stipend.

I can coach on my way back from the massage parlors.

hopefully every body knows that the statement "Biddison inherited a bunch of kids that got kicked out of South Lakes" is pure BS as "coach bug" said above.

we did NOT get a bunch of kids from elsewhere.

some of the rumors that some people start are really unbelievable sometimes.

as if in the public school system kids can get kicked out of one school then go to a different school to play sports!

is anybody out there who wants Marshall to bring in a good coach friends with the AD?
i have not spoken to him on this but on the team running better plays (experiment with something that works) and why aren't we passing the ball at all????

his response was that these kids aren't any good and the coaches have tried to build a passing game but the kids can't catch. and to ensure me that the coaches were doing a great job though.

i encourage everyone interested to contact the AD and whoever else will be making the decision on the new coach.
btw who are the others who will make this decision?
post it here so i can contact them as well if you know.

if anyone is going to speak with the AD at Marshall know this:

1. he knows everything about football
2. he played at Virginia Tech
although he will remind you of these 2 points if you speak to him, it's still good to know beforehand.

he's very defensive of his coaches because a bad coach means he made a bad hiring decision.

someone needs to break through all the bs of the administrators at Marshall and demand that they do a better job hiring a coach. someone who we can support and be proud of for years to come.

btw - sullivan wasn't fired for going 0-20.
he was fired for a multitude of reasons and going 0-20 was only the icing on the cake.
the main reason was not having a clue on how to build a football program.

I do applaud the AD for getting rid of this guy so soon though. I feared that he would drag on for another couple years so the AD could avoid admitting that he made a mistake. so right on AD!
next time don't hire someone based on being a Marshall alumni.

I know im only a freshman but Marshall didn't have very good athletes nor coaches. Coach Lapthorn coached my freshman team this year and we went 7-3 which is the best a Marshall Football team has done. We have good classes coming in and Marshalls football program will change in these next 2years all of the other freshman and I will be playing JV this season. If you would like to see what we bring to the table in changing Marshall come out and watch and game. Marshalls climb in sports is starting with the class of 2017. If you dont believe me watch this.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2972102/markel-harrison

Markel you are very, very fucking stupid. You didn't go 7-3 because Freshman don't even play that many games

Well Shane we went 2-0 in the preseason and 5-3 in the regular season so if you put that together thats 7-3 but maybe I did my math wrong because im so stupid right?

Marshall? Is that the school where the English teacher told the QB to "Pass It Blacker"?

preseason doesn't count. Marshell sports are terrible and always will be. Class of 2017 doesn't have enough talent.

They already have one



(picks up phone) What? Oh my god?

Turns out he's been dead for several decades. You were right, they are going to need a new timmy.

Im sorry hunny but Marshell is not a top football highschool program. They dont win games

M Harrison (Freshman QB) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know im only a freshman but Marshall didn't have
> very good athletes nor coaches. Coach Lapthorn
> coached my freshman team this year and we went 7-3
> which is the best a Marshall Football team has
> done. We have good classes coming in and Marshalls
> football program will change in these next 2years
> all of the other freshman and I will be playing JV
> this season. If you would like to see what we
> bring to the table in changing Marshall come out
> and watch and game. Marshalls climb in sports is
> starting with the class of 2017. If you dont
> believe me watch this.
>
> http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2972102/markel-harriso
> n


LOL the coaches are the same kid. Lapthorn resigned from varsity after a horrific stint, and the new head coach has been an assistant the past several years. No one wanted that job. Just because the kiddos had a good freshman season means squat in the big picture.

The school hasn't won a game in 3 years!!! Of course you can only get better and will in the new weak district you guys are in.

I literally cannot believe after going 0-20 Joe Swarm handed the HC position to one of their own assistant coaches.

Bring in new blood to revitalize the program. They play in a TERRIBLE conference where good coaching alone should result in wins (see TJ, FC) even without great athletes.

Did they interview outside the building or only shmucks on their own staff?

It's too soon to hire after the tragic accident that killed the last coach. Show some respect!

What's funny is there are more kids now at Marshall than when Biddison was there but they dropped down to the division where they can play either TJ or smaller schools where most of the kids don't speak English and have to work after school.

So, yeah, their record will get better but only because they are now playing tiny Asian nerds bound for MIT or the clean-up crew at Pollo Campero.

They still won't be as good as when Biddison was here.....

Last game they won was 3 years ago against Falls Church.

Will be better this season. Will win at least 3 games.
Nip

Marshall lost to Wakefield 40-6 last night. Ouch.

Bring Biddison back!

IB Scholar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What's funny is there are more kids now at
> Marshall than when Biddison was there but they
> dropped down to the division where they can play
> either TJ or smaller schools where most of the
> kids don't speak English and have to work after
> school.
>
> So, yeah, their record will get better but only
> because they are now playing tiny Asian nerds
> bound for MIT or the clean-up crew at Pollo
> Campero.

As predicted. Marshall went 2-8 last year, beating only the MIT-bound nerds (TJ) and the Pollo Campero clean-up crew (Stuart).