Rating Youth players for team drafts

Jerry,

Welcome to the Youth Forum coach!

I coach 10-12 year olds here in Texas and we do hold a "Player Evaluation Combine" for all 8-9 and 10-12 year olds that are eligible to be drafted each season. Our combine is comprised of timed runs of 20 and 40 yds., the "I" shuttle (5-10-5 yds), as well as, throwing from a dropback postion to a stationary receiver (coach), throwing from a sprint-out position to a stationary receiver (coach) and catching a ball thrown by a coach. Each player gets two attempts at each activity.

Our combine is obviously not nearly as comprehensive as the evaluation process you mentioned. We usually run about 75-100 kids through in a couple of hours.

As far as an extended evaluation more similar to what you described, with our first week of practice dress being helmets only with no contact, I use the first 3 days of practice that week to evaluate and establish an offensive and defensive position for each player to start the season.

Day 1 - We retest our entire team (rookies and returning players) in a 20 and 40 to validate the combine results and to see how our returning kids look, search for a punter and placekicker and run everyone through a stance circuit for OL, WR, QB, RB, DL, LB and DBs. Teaching a good stance is very important to me and we spend a lot of time as a staff on it, especially early in the season.

Day 2 - After reviewing times and looking at what our team's needs are, we assign the kids to position groups based on their overall athletic ability. We try hard not to fall into the familiar trap of just assigning a kid to a particular group based on a stereotype, but to look closely for both athletic and personality attributes that will give them a chance to be successful at a particular position. We continue to work a "circuit" of drills throughout our first week of practice prior to putting on pads. The kids enjoy getting to work at different positions and it allows us as a staff to get a pretty good handle on our players' overall abilities, strengths and weaknesses heading into full contact work.

Day 3 - "Offensive" Circuit (stance, get-offs, handoffs, securing the football, catching/throwing the ball, blocking (fits on dummies), loose ball recovery. By the end of Day 3, we will be running 3-4 base plays during our team period against air.

Day 4 - "Defensive" Circuit (stance, get-offs, tackling (fits on dummies), man coverage skills, block protection (emphasizing the use of hands), CPR (club, punch, rip techniques) and takeaways (fumble recovery and intercepting a pass). By the end of Day 4, we will have installed our base front and will begin running team pursuit drills during our team period.

Day 5 - "Special Teams" Circuit (stance, get-offs, kicking, punting, deep-snapping, blocking fits, running to the ball, receiving a kick/punt, blocking a kick/punt, the meaning of POISON, kickoff and punt rules of the game and how they differ. By the end of Day 5, we will have installed our kick and punt returns and our kickoff and punt teams. We usually try to begin working on kicking a PAT during week 2 or 3 depending on our kicker's ability.

If I had a week to evaluate kids prior to our draft, I'd probably stick with pretty much what we do during our first week of practice. Not only does it provide you with a good idea as to where a child is athletically and emotionally, but it actually benefits the kids by teaching them fundamentals they can use no matter which team they wind up with.

Coach, I hope this is of some use to you and we look forward to your future participation here on the site as well. There are a lot of terrific coaches who frequent the site and all of them are extremely willing to share their vast amount of experience with all of us so please, don't hesitate to ask!

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach