Installing Today’s Hybrid Pistol Offense Run & Pass from Top to Bottom
This manual provides you with the full offensive line, receiver, and quarterback mechanics for installing each offensive play presented. Coach Campbell has left no stone unturned for implementing today’s Pistol Offense into your program.
Does anyone have an actual parent letter they can send me to help me out? I just took over for a program that went 2-8, but has had some success. The school district is affluent and I want to make sure everyone understands my approach, philosophy, and mentality from day 1. Any help would be appreciated. My e-mail address is mevancho@wilsonareasd.org OR Matthew.Evancho@svpanthers.org
Lou - while we DID visit with parents individually as needed (& when practicable), much of what we did was scheduled PARENT MEETINGS as a group (before school let out; & before practice began in August). We invited parents to Pre-Game meals when playing at home. We had "Parents' Night", in which the mothers received flowers, and the fathers' were given baseball hats in school colors with their sons' numbers on them. Parents were honored at the Football Banquet, & presented with professionally done DVD's of the season's hi-lites (set to music).
In the PARENT MEETINGS - we talked about:
1. Introduced the staff and talked about our philosophy.
2. Team Policies and Expectations (for players & parents).
3. Eligibility
4. Itinerary (WHEN we expected them there for Summer Conditioning, August "2 a days", etc.). You MUST get this across to the parents long before school lets out if you want the kids there. Stressed the IMPORTANCE of out of season conditioning. We explained to the parents our motto of "if the TEAM is to be there - it is important for every INDIVIDUAL to be there" (I.E.: "TEAM RIGHTS SUPERCEDE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS")!
5. Values of participating in football. Also explained that not everybody will get equal playing time - but we play as many people as possible (encouraged them NOT to let their sons "whine" to THEM about lack of playing time, but to stress to them to be determined to EARN the right to be on the field).
6. Lettering Policy.
7. Downplay injuries. Football is safer than riding in a car, even skateboarding. We provided them with National Safety Council stats to back this up. I once coached at a school where (coming in) parents were afraid of knee injuries in football, but not basketball. There were only 1% more knee operations in the NFL as opposed to the NBA that year. Parents need to know this stuff (it WAS handed out to them). We stressed seeing our TEAM Doctor (if needed) so we could have a standard way of dealing with any minor injuries. Showed parents the LATEST in the safest & best equipment money could buy.
8. Procedure for Contacting Coaches.
9. Served snacks.
NOTE: Documentation in the form of Parents signing a statement that they understood (& approved of) what we covered in the meeting,
ETC.
PS: We did ALSO send letters to parents - but meeting with them face to face was FAR MORE PRODUCTIVE!
Coaches, please send me your email addresses and I will send you the information I have put together as I am getting requests for it.
Love the part about injuries here. I have some actual stats as well about injuries across the board comparing them to football.
VERY eye opening for parents.
Some of the best athletes on our campus don't play football because "I can't get hurt for basketball."
It drives me CRAZY!
Coaches,
Though having a face to face is very productive it is NOT the most important thing. What you have written IS. When there is a controversy the first thing that WILL be said by a parent is "He never told me that" or "I was never informed of that". What you have written and signed by the parent will be the only thing that will "bail" you out of those situations. We mail out the parent letters and then have them bring them with them for the meeting. It is at that meeting we see if there are any questions about the letter. We then receive their signature and file it for future uses. Their son CAN NOT play football until we have that signature.
The best is when you have a problem with a parent and they say I did not know that or I was never told that and you pull out the sheet with their signature on it and say "Did you read it?" when they say "no" you can say "that is not my fault, you signed saying you read it". That ends the controversy right then and there.
Please send me the stats to: JWright@pinebushschools.org
Thanks,
Karjaw
We dont lose any games we just run out of time.
Fisher Deberry
FACE TO FACE YOU CAN GO OVER THE DOCUMENT KARJAW MENTIONS, ANSWER QUESTIONS, & WATCH THEM SIGN IT. IF YOU MAIL IT TO THEM OR SEND IT HOME BY JUNIOR - SIGNATURE CAN BE FORGED!
IF THEY DO NOT ATTEND MEETING - THEN YOU VISIT THE HOME! GET TO KNOW EVERY PARENT FACE TO FACE!
TALK TO ANYONE WHO EVER PLAYED FOR ME (SOME ARE ON THIS SITE) & I CAN ASSURE YOU PARENTS WERE NEVER A PROBLEM!
We do both .. mail out a letter to parents and host a pre-season parents meeting in August. At the meeting I put together a Parent/Player manual that goes over alot of what Coach Mountjoy talked about and make sure we cover the basic outline of our program, levels of play, expectations, contact info, etc.
Like Bill, discovered that parents are the KEY INGREDIENT in any high school coach's success or failure.
If you are perceived to be teaching the correct things about good moral values, academics, etc. your win and loss record becomes almost a moot point in most instances! If you are perceived as a win at all cost coach on the high school level, you won't be around long! This is an observation of 42 plus years of coaching, with 30 of them on the high school level. Like the game, parents and their attitudes towards coaches, have evolved over the years and not for the better I'm sad to say. There was a time that we were treated like the professionals that we are, but as the younger mentality of QUESTION EVERYTHING
took hold, it all began to unravel. The coach who wants to succeeed at the HS level today had better learn real quick that DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOR. Don't be going off half cocked, stay under control and let your good sense prevail in instances of confrontation with an unruly parent. IT IS A LOT EASIER SAID THAN DONE, BELIEVE YOU ME I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE. However, found out early on in my career that meetings with the parents will ward off a great deal of controversey! 'm not asking you to be a whimp, just asking you to learn to discern between a smart approach to the parent problem and a dumb one.
Coach Easton- TIGER ONE
J.C. EASTON<BR>HEAD COACH<BR>GA TIGERS FOOTBALL<BR>PROFESSIONAL MINOR LEAGUE
Following is a talk I gave at a Parents' meeting. I related it to what I would want for MY Grandchildren as a result of their participation in athletics (& from being a student in our school).
I prefaced it by stating that I HOPED that each parent present would desire the SAME for THEIR young men:
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT by Coach Bill Mountjoy
#1 What do I wish for in the education of my grandchildren?
#2 (VINCE LOMBARDI) “Character is the direct result of mental attitude. You can’t dream yourself into character. CHARACTER RATHER THAN EDUCATION IS MAN’S GREATEST NEED AND MAN’S GREATEST SAFEGUARD. I BELIEVE THAT CHARACTER IS HIGHER THAN INTELLECT and the difference between men is certainly in energy, in invincible determination, in the strong will; but leadership is in sacrifice, in self-denial, in love and fearlessness and in humility and the disciplined will. This is the distinction between great and little men”!
#3 (JOHN WOODEN) “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Character is what you really are; reputation is merely what you are perceived to be”!
#4 (PAUL BROWN) Character = “the eternal verities”. “The “eternal verities” will always prevail. Such things as truth, honesty, character, and loyalty will never change no matter how people and times change.” (loyalty is a two-way street; if you “stab someone in the back” – you have “sown the seeds of discord”).
#5 (PAUL BROWN) Example of workers in a bank: “you can teach people to add and divide, but you can’t teach them to be honest”! (loyalty MUST be inherent).
#6 (PAUL BROWN) “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”.
#7 (VINCE LOMBARDI) “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will”!
#8 IS character a product of upbringing, or later experiences in life?
A) (BEAR BRYANT) “When we have a good team, I know it’s because we have boys that come from good mommas and papas”. (“Football doesn’t teach character as much as it reveals it”)!
B) (WOODY HAYES) “I recruit young men from home where the PARENT(S) are a strong authority figure”. (“I don’t teach character, I get rid of the people who don’t have it”).
C) THESE LESSONS BEGIN AT HOME BUT MUST BE CONTINUED AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS!
#9 CHARACTER EDUCATION COURSE PROPOSED CONTAINS:
A) Trustworthiness; B) Caring; C) Responsibility; D) Courage; E) Citizenship;
F) Respect; G) Perseverance; H) Fairness; I) Self-discipline.
#10 MAJOR PROBLEM IN EDUCATION TODAY = Teachers are given the responsibility, but rarely the authority – to do a good job (& quite often – no support)!
#11 WHAT I PRAY THE END RESULT WILL BE: (VINCE LOMBARDI) “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work”! (“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men”).
#12 IN CONCLUSION: I pray that my grandchildren exemplify the following attitudes:
A) (VINCE LOMBARDI) “It’s not whether you get knocked down , it’s whether you get up”!
B) (GEORGE C. MARSHALL) “Never make even the slightest compromise between right and wrong”!
C) (WINSTON CHURCHILL) “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense”!!!
Best material I have read in quite some time is in the CURRENT (May-June) issue of "Scholastic Coach" magazine. It is entitled "DEALING WITH PARENTS IN THE 21st CENTURY" by Coach Richard Geddes (Head Coach in Colorado Springs, Co).
Strongly suggest all that are interested to obtain a copy. The phone number for "Scholastic Coach" is: 212-343-6372