Instilling pride, effort, and discipline in a program.

Like Comet said - you might have to let the "MORALE BREAKERS" go home! The great Coach Paul Brown (founder of the Browns AND Bengals) said this: the “ME FIRST MENTALITY” is endemic to the philosophy of higher education today and has affected the quality of people in NFL. Selfish, disloyal people can’t sublimate themselves for the overall good of the team. They are like a “CANCER”.


Stress the TEAM concept. Play down INDIVIDUAL achievements, etc.

“TWO LAWS”


“THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE” (BY KIPLING)

“Now this is the law of the jungle,
as old and as true as the sky.
And the wolf that keeps it shall prosper,
but the wolf that breaks it must die.
As the vine that girdles the tree trunk,
the law runneth forward and back.
The strength of the pack is the wolf,
and the strength of the wolf is the pack!”


“THE LAW OF ATHLETICS”

“And this is the law of athletics,
as true as the flight of the ball.
And the player that keeps it will win,
but the player that breaks it must fall.
As the ball and the parts it is made of,
are bound and held fast by the seam,
the strength of the team is the player,
and the strength of the player the team!”

Coach,

I think you and I coach at the same school. I took over a lethargic program and in my first year, we went 5-5 (a great season by the school's standards). Now this past year, my second year, I knew it would be tough due to loosing 10 solid seniors. We had an outstanding summer and winter preparation period, but the hard work resulted in a 2-8 year. We have unbelievable talent but play with no heart. I struggle with getting kids to show up on time, saturday films, weightlifting, grades, playing with effort, etc. We are the most athletic team in the league, but you could never tell. i can remember losing a game 16-15 this year and our kids fighting over pizza in the locker-room afterwards. Take the advice of the guys above (Trust me, I am) and cut the guys loose. The cancers are going to screw it up for you. Who are they to destroy everything while we are working so hard. A wise coach told me, "Coach the kids that want to be coached." This winter, i will spend less time thinking about x's and o's. it will be spent on how to deal with my athletes. i am thinking about having a player/parent/coach contract and having all expcectations written down in stone. when jimmy shows up late or does something to hurt the team, we wont sit down and talk about it... we will just look to contract page #3 and say "it looks like you will be sitting the first half". I use to think that you need to reach out to kids (especially mine - with some pretty crappy family and economic situations, but not any more!) I have spent 90% of my time dealing with internal issues and 10% of my time coaching football. I would love to hear some input on how someone went in and made some changes at a inner-city type HS football program. I am getting very frustrated. Thanks in advance.

i have a 6-4 / 200 lb WR that as a sophomore, received 700 + yds and caught 9 TD's. This kids blew out his ACL this summer and did not play. This kid will not lift, his GPA is below 1.0 and ironically, he is a nice kid, but just does not want to work. he was slam dunking basketballs over middle school kids when he was 13 and stands out on the football field and BB court. but he just has no heart. now despite not playing this year, rick minter, def coordinator of notre dame, came into my office to see him a few weeks ago - keep in mind that this was on his bye week as he was preparing for USC. this young man was so fired up (i say this sarcastically) - that he went right into his football coach's classroom and answered 2 out of 10 questions on a math quiz. now if this was anyone on this message board, we would have been so motivated by meeting coach minter that we would have wrestled the teacher to the ground in order to get help on that quiz. but the kid just does not care... he will NEVER get into college and i sometimes wish he would just transfer or concentrate on BB. he is a cancer in the locker room because EVERYONE looks up to him. he is an ICON in our school! as a coach, i feel he can be saved, and selfishly, the kid can make me look good when he's catching balls and streaking down the field - but i am to the point where our program is better served if he just stays away form the program.

I have other kids like this. Yesterday, I tallied up my team GPA. I noticed a correlation with kids with the higher GPAs who are dedicated and kids with the lower GPAs who are late to practice, dont work hard, and seem to not care. so the difference is NOT intelligence in my opinion, BUT work ethic! they say you win with people and i just cant seem to win with some of the guys, that on paper, you would think you could win with!

Wow, it sounds like some of us coaches are in the same situation. We had the 2nd best team in our division this year, but due to poor work ethic and general apathy, we managed to finish 4th and go 5-4 and back our way into the playoffs. We made the playoffs for the first time in our schools history! For the first Monday practice we had 20 kids show up out of 36. Tuesday's practice witnessed a whopping 17 kids show up. Of course on Wednesday and Thursday, everyone shows up. And for our first playoff game, we proceeded to get blown out the water 56-0 by the #4 team in class 3A. They were a very good team, but not 56-0 better.

The kids seem to seperate themselves into neighborhood cliques, and generally the kids from our worst neighborhoods seem to bring everyone else down. My head coach is all about helping kids first and foremost, and I think this ultimately brings the team's on-the-field success down. We actually have a couple of minor D-1 A/AA prospects but they are the most undisciplined kids on the team.

I am all too familiar with teams with a lack of pride and heart, and it is very disheartening when you believe in kids more than they believe in themselves. You give them multiple oppurtunities to do better, and they don't take those oppurtunities. I've had to convince myself that you can't save them all, and thank God for allowing you to influence the 1 kid that you do positively affect. I know that when I finally get a head coaching job, it will be tough for me to drop kids from the program, but I know that I'll be doing it for the enrichment of the other kids that want the oppurtunity to improve.

How many of you are in inner cities that have these problems?

It took me one season, but I have learned. i was really spending a lot of time trying to be a father, but you cannot save everybody and we are a better team because of it.

Very well said GCTIGERS57. I took over a program 2 seasons ago that had 25 wins in 10 years (I really got things going that first season, went 0-10). But I believe that you described perfectly how to build a program. Find the couple of kids who love football and invest so much in them that the kids want to be like them. Same thing in the weightroom really really push those who want to lift, others will see their success and begin to raise their intensity on their own. Give me an email address and I have a leadership program I would love to trade with you.

Coac sls,
i tried to PM you but it said that you don't want them.
I was wondering if I could see a copy of your leadership program as well. If you've read any of my posts you'll see that I coach to develop men of character through football. I can be PMed if you would be willing to contact me. Thanks!

Coaches,

We all have these situations. I had let our fiercest player go. He was a real hitter on defense and tenacious blocker the kids loved him. I had a great connection with the boy, which made my decision very difficult. The situations that lead to dismissal involved tardiness and insubordination. The best question to answer was "What will happen if I do not take action?" Does your response fit your program goals? - Will our kids benefit from him being around? What harm will come from his participation? The team needed me to make the difficult decsision for them or the team would suffer. The kids respected my decision and knew it was theh correct thing to do.

Some helpful resources include
Jeff Janssen's "the team captains leadership manual" great aid for developing captains. Other things could be Winning State Football by Steve Knight. Otherwise get in touch with coach Roger Freeborn he has all kids of materials that could help in this arena.

Contact me any time as this is a real focus area of mine.
rkckramer@earthlink.net