Football 101. Michael Ashley
The most important thing for high school coaches:
Our team feeds high schools with the top 8th grade prospects After big games the top private schools are there to talk to them. The first thing Bill McGregor of DeMatha Catholic High School will say to parents is- My #1 coach is his SAT coach. The O’Connell coach will lead with ”98% of our students go to 4 year colleges”. The Gonzaga coach will say they are a top feeder school to Notre Dame. Top high school coaches sell grades not teams.
If we were public high school football coaches, at the first “Pep” rally, we would have all of the kids who have a 3.8 GPA or above stand up and identify them as the most important kids in the school. If the school’s scores are high, we can keep our top football prospects. We would start every rally with the same exercise and hopefully the amount of people standing up would grow.
Football is very time consuming and we would utilize the 3.8s to tutor the football team through the football season. This would improve grades and scores, build bonds and put an end to bullying. As grades improve, so will the quality of the football team.
Back to youth: Here is our head coach’s check list:
Off season:
Recruit and train great coaches
Go to coaches clinics
Develop new wrinkles for your system
Come up with next year’s plan
Winter coaches meetings for organizations
Have winter meeting with next year’s players
Set off season work out schedule
Order cloth for next year’s team
Try to convince your wife it’s not too much work
Take inventory of equipment
Talk to new players
Go to Lacrosse games and wrestling matches looking for players
Pre season
Organize and work on pre season camp
Registration
Equipment handout
Set up tryout schedule
Letters to parents and players
Coordinate practice schedule with organization
Get briefed on rule changes for the year
LINE UP A GREAT TEAM MOM
Season:
Run tryouts
Refit equipment
Jersey handout
Make yourself aware of any safety/medical issues
Grade players
Select team
Get new coaches up to speed
Set the players in the proper position
Set expectations for the team
Lock down pre season schedule
Put in base rushing offense and blocking rules
Put in passing offense with drills
Put in base defense with drills
Put in misdirection offense with drills
Put in special teams
Monday night organizational meeting
Convince wife you’re not crazy
Begin scrimmages and pre season games
Set coaches game assignments and communicate clearly with coaches their responsibilities
Send pregame instructions to players on nutrition and game preparation
Set and run pregame routine
Arrange for video and picture support
Manage the game and make adjustments
Review game film and pictures and make Pops list
Practice mistakes and install game plans
Win Championships
Order Championship cloth
Close season with a great team party with a highlight of how each player contributed to the team
And the beat goes on
Post season
Nominate players for after season awards
Pops list
Rubber chicken circuit for award winners
Talk to coaches on behalf of last years players
Did I mention you need to convince your wife it’s not too much work?
Assistant coaches:
Not all coaches talk the same. Some lingo sounds like German while others are may sound like French. Everyone must be talking the same language and using the same terminology. The assistant coaches need to all have the same mentality and philosophy as the head coach in order to come together as a team. In the bad times, you will need it.
Most youth teams rely on getting fathers to help out. It is a special thing for a father and son to share the experience of being on the same team, however, our #1 Rule is: Coaches can not coach their own son.There are plenty of other tasks to do and players to coach. Fathers are either too tough or too lenient on their own kid.
The key is getting a core coaching staff to stay together for many years. A returning coach, like a returning client, requires 1/10 the effort.
You need an assistant head coach and assign some of these tasks to him. The closer you get to the season, the more tasks this coach needs to take off your hands.
An offensive coordinator (OC)is a must. Head coaches can be more effective if they establish rules and have a solid coach that can follow the team rules. It takes a great deal of patience and discipline to stick to the plays you have been working on all week. The offensive coordinator should be like a database of “if” statements. Get someone with steady nerves and patience. They don’t need to be a encyclopedia of information, they just need to understand the rules and when to apply them. It will take a year or two for the OC and head coach to get in sync but once you are, the team is 10 times more effective.
Offensive line coach-This is your most important coach and a job I usually do myself for the first few weeks. If we can block, we can run and pass. There are many rules used in blocking so your offensive line coach needs to be in lock step with the blocking rules your team has. In our offensive section we have all of our rules and drills. DO NOT TRUST THIS TO JUST ANYONE. After a few weeks, your line coach should have the drills and rules locked down.
Defensive coordinator (DC)-A Defensive coordinator is not a guy that call blitzes and different defenses all game. He is someone that understands the rules of the defense and enforces them. If there is confusion he reinforces the rules. The