Balancing Academics and Athletics

Jacob Cullen

A leadership program is vital to the success and even more importantly the longevity of a football program. You might have a really skilled class or group of kids and have a successful season here or there, but to build a successful program, you need to build on all of your classes and the most successful programs are successful long term because of the development they create during the off season.



The pros of creating something like this are endless in my mind. You are building rapport among the players and staff, building people not just athletes, and again creating the potential for that longevity and success. The cons are far between but I feel like the biggest con would have to be the time. Something like this takes a large time commitment for both the players and coaching staff. During the offseason for high school athletes that is hard because at a smaller school, the athletes play 2-3 sports typically. The coaches coach 2-3 sports as well. Finding time to implement a good successful leadership program is difficult even in a large school as I am a coach who believes in and support well rounded athletes and coaches who are very involved in multiple sports.



For these reasons, I would attempt to implement something I could work in during the school day or in the morning. A neighboring program recently received permission for early morning practices/workouts, etc. Ideally finding a time during the school day or creating an elective course in leadership and character development that I could encourage my players to take would be best case. If not that, I would implement something early morning to allow as many players the opportunity to be there without interference in their other sports/activities.



Again with the course, I would make it a semester long, and juniors would take it the spring semester of their junior year and it would be daily or every other day. If I was not able to create a course, I would go with every other day, same thing, just in the morning before school starts and it would coincide with the offseason workout program.