Sports specialization

COACH,

IN THIS DAY AND TIME, MOST COACHES TEND TO MAKE THEIR KIDS CONCENTRATE ON THEIR SPORT.
THE REALLY GOOD COACHES ENCOURAGE THEIR KIDS TO COMPETE IN ALL 3 MAJOR SPORTS, OR WRESTLING OR WHATEVER FOR THE SIMPLE FACT THAT COMPETITION OF ANY KIND MAKES THEM BETTER!!! I once had a young man who was an outstanding baseball player, who at the same time was a tremendous football receiver. When it came time for him to decide to stick with baseball 12 months of the year or to play football as well, I recommended him to stay with baseball. He did and went on to become the AA player of the year in pro baseball after a stellar college career with Mississippi State which was, and still is, a power house in the college baseball ranks. His choice was based on the injury factor being greater in football. His very promising career in baseball included two trips up to the majors. Oddly enough it was cut short by a freak injury on the diamond that ended his playing days.

At any rate you can only encourage them to play football, play down the injury angle as you can get killed walking acorss a street, and let them make their own decision. On the high school level, the head football coach is always top dog in the coaching pecking order, and lots of lesser coaches resent that and are just plain jealous of you because your program makes way more money than any other program in the school. Just a fact of life.

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE

LOU,

Appears that he may be in the same situation that you found yourself at Bishop Oreilly. How is he going to win in that situation? He needs players, if he doesn't go "recruiting" they sure are not going to come to him. I would be roaming the halls, the midle school, etc. and selling my program as hard as I could. Your thoughts?

Jerry

Jerry, I learned that you cannot beg players to play a sport as demanding as football. It requires too much overall investment. You must do the best you can with what you have and make those players as good as they can be in terms of alignment-assignment-technique-strength-speed-morale. I called EVERY male in the school when I was the head coach at Bishop O'Reilly and had no interest. This is no exaggeration... EVERY MALE IN THE SCHOOL! I suppose that's why 1 1/2 years after I resigned, the school closed.

I stand by my belief on this topic, Jerry!

Bill, I always encouraged our kids to play as many sports as they could and was usually surrounded by other sport coaches who did the same. But, on the other hand I have had other coaches not encourage their kids to play anything but whatever they coached, usually basketball.

Jerry

Thanks for your responses. Very helpful! Tiger one, what are some things you have found to be good selling points to the kids to come out? What have any of you seen them (especially those who have never played) respond to best?

Stay AWAY from schools that have "GREAT Basketball traditions". If you DO - you shouldn't have that problem! If you don't, you're "asking for it"!

PS: IF you are already in the situation where MOST kids "focus" on Basketball & Baseball - then you had BEST become a "SUPER SALESMAN" - because you have to out-sell the other coaches with YOUR product. Take COURSES in "SALESMANSHIP", or "HOW TO WIN FRIENDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE", because, that will be your ONLY HOPE!

BILL,

Your sure 100% on this one!!! Look at the job Rich Brooks has done at Kentuky, a basketball school if you ever saw one!!! HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE is Dale Carnagie's sales course of long, long standing and one of the first courses in sales I ever took. Like Bill says; you had better be not just average, but super good at salesmanship if you find yourself in a situation like we are discussing here. Just a pointer for the younger coaches: SINCERITY AND ABSOLUTE BELIEF IN YOUR PRODUCT ARE TWO OF THE PRIME REQUISITES TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN SALES. To remember that when presenting your program to prospective athletes, will serve you well. Those of you who aspire to go on and coach at the college level, you will find that if you can build yourself a reputation for being a good RECRUITER(which is nothing more than being a good salesman) you will be highly sought after.

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE

LOU HOLTZ, FOR BEING ABOUT THE SIZE OF A LEPRICHAN(SP?) SURE HAS A LOT OF KNOWLEDGE BOTTLED UP IN THAT LITTLE FRAME DOESN'T HE?

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE