Signs of trouble in summer football

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It’s not uncommon to see a private coach come up to a basketball or baseball player, but I had rarely seen it happen in football -- until this weekend’s seven-on-seven competition at Central Park in Saugus.

Private coaches are supposed to be behind the scenes and out of sight, offering help and suggestions far away from the high school coach. Except it’s clear to me that some people are trying to make the summer football experience similar to travel basketball.

They want to be directly involved and make money off their clients. That’s why we’re seeing a rise in independent seven-on-seven tournaments with players involved but not high school teams.

I don’t think it’s a smart trend that’s going to help players or schools. It will only lead to more controversy, with private coaches being accused of directing players to different schools and intervening in situations in which they shouldn’t be involved.

Of course, they’ll say they’re just doing it for the kids. In fact, there’s lots of money to be made. Football is really the last sport that hasn’t been turned into a travel-ball atmosphere in the summer.

The question is, will high school football coaches allow this stuff to grow without a challenge? They better step in now or they’re going to face the same problems that are associated with high school basketball, which isn’t considered a model of how to do things the right way.

-- Eric Sondheimer