leadership and overall mindset for the upcoming season

Shane Woodward

At our school we utilize time during the off-season to meet with our soon-to-be-senior football players for a Leadership Training Program. Every other Tuesday morning, from 7am to 8am (before school), we bring those kids in and have a topic that we teach on and discuss. We have six sessions that lead up to our spring practices. The topics are: Influence & Relationship, Character & Integrity (Moral Courage), Humility, Staying Power (Commitment), Service, and Love & Encouragement.

We like to make sure that each session is interactive and engaging for our kids. We will use YouTube videos, discussion groups, and anything that can keep our kids attention and on the important topic of leadership. We also will bring fruit and donuts to a few of the sessions to make it worth their while.

It is difficult to think that there any negatives to implementing a character program. For us, it is at the core of our entire football program. In our effort to develop young men into leaders and strong contributors to society, the time we get to spend with them in intentional development is vital. Not only does this give our kids something of value that they can hold onto well past their time in the program, but it helps our immediate leadership needs for the current team. All of these aspects of the Leadership Training Program are essential to who we are as a program.

Matthew Kiesle


I think that a leadership program can be an outstanding asset for a high school football program. The modern student/athlete is often reluctant to take a leadership role due to a fear of ridicule or failure... it would be beneficial to train these kids in leadership skills, giving them the confidence to come forward and lead.
I have often felt that there has been a leadership vacuum in my program and we have recently worked with a non-profit group called Urban Champions who have been using our kids to try out some leadership training concepts. I have seen the benefit of teaching the kids something about leadership and we have seen results. This has encouraged me to start my own leadership program during the Spring and during the season. In the spring we meet twice a week for about 20 minutes during lunch and have one longer Monday evening meeting each month that features a guest speaker (we have been fortunate enough to have worked with former 49er Guy MacIntyre and he has brought several current 49ers to speak to our kids). During the season we have a 30 minute "Character Class" each Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 before our 4:30 study hall (we practice at 6:00 every Wednesday Night). We will have a short character or leadership topic that we discuss with the team, encouraging active participation by all players, this weekly meeting has been successful in my estimation, bringing about a little change each week.

Aaron Wheeler

On our team we like to create an environment that allows all players to lead in some manner. Leaders on the team help the coaching staff tremendously. They have a different relationship with the players than the coach does and hearing things from a peer can at times be more beneficial than coming from a coach.

In the past, we always choose leaders right before the season started. Just seemed like the best way since we had all of the players together and the season was upon us. A few years back, however, we sat down and realized that we needed more attendance and production from our off season conditioning programs so we decided to make a change. We now choose our captains in January. These captains are responsible for helping the coaches with player attendance throughout the off season activities as well as keeping their peers motivated in the tough winter months when football seems light years away. Their attendance is mandatory to a certain degree and they must maintain a certain GPA.

At the end of the summer we as a staff re-evaluate the captains and meet with them to discuss the season. We also open it up to the team to see if they would like to add one or two for those athletes that play other sports and were ineligible for the first selection. I have seen this work several ways and each year is different but one thing has never changed, we have never had an off season captain that was no an in season captain as well. Which tells me that the plan is working and these leaders take their roles to heart.

Matthew Butler


If I had a leadership program, I would make sure that it involved all sports participants, not just football. I think it would be really beneficial to the whole school, not just my sport. The program would involve ways to improve communication, teamwork, and organization skills of the participants. Those key skills are important in all sports, but more important if the student wants to be a leader. The program would be held twice or three times a week and participants are not required to be in attendance. Since it involves all sports, there will always be someone in a sport. So if the student can make it, great if not, oh well.

I think this would help all our students be leaders on the field and off the field. The only draw back from invovling all sports is that it will be hit and miss from some students and they won't be able to get everything from the program. But I feel if they learn just a couple things, that's more than they started with. Although, with the diverse background of the participants, there will be a lot more discussion from the other sports. And if we can teach the players to get away from some of the stereotypes they have, it will help create a better climate throughout the school.

Thomas Ross

The philosophy of our organization is to take nothing for granted. In our efforts to cover bases and create good habits, we stress routine over randomness. Especially as we embark in a start-up college program, we go into each segment of the season presuming that our players don't know how to do it yet. Within our coaching staff, we have designated coordinators for our five musts, offense, defense, special teams, recruiting coordinator and academic success coordinator. Additionally, we have liaisons for our support staff in video, equipment, and field supervision. These duties are delegated throughout the staff to the extent of their expertise and each as autonomy to their respected area.

Our season is broken down into In-season, Post-season, Off-season(+ limited spring practices), Summer, and Pre-season. For the players, the focus outside of in-season is primarily on academics and physical enhancement. Additionally, players will assist in on campus recruiting as hosts for prospects. We will also have team functions in the community on and off campus.
Physical conditioning will entail agility, speed training and lifting throughout the year. The lifting will be broken into stages of bulk and strength based on each individuals needs to their bodies and positions, and time of year.

In our program, especially academically, we are in the business of recruiting, mentoring, and then graduating our players and getting the most out of them on and off the field. Therefore, we expect and train our players into putting in a minimum of an eight hour workday towards academics. With eight hours of sleep, that leaves another eight hours to play football, workout, play X-Box, whatever. Our challenge is to set priorities to take care of business first. This is a year round focus for the staff led by our academic coordinator.

As a Division III program, recruiting is a year round process. Recruiting will generally begin in April to begin organizing our data base of current prospects and to make a push to gather more. In June through the beginning of August, we watch a ton of hudl to rate players and to assess their academics. As a higher academic school, we are focused on good students. We will determine our top prospects down to approximately 250 of which we will write personal postcards each week during their senior seasons of high school football. This is time consuming, but very worth the time. In-season is about getting prospects on campus for a gameday visit. Then in the winter months, getting them back for a another. We estimated that one out of six visited players will eventually enroll. So for a class of fifty, we will look to get 300 on-campus visits. This year we did even better, almost one of three.

Wade Houchin

The pros obviously outweigh the cons in considering the implementation of a leadership "academy" into our programs. The primary benefits to its implementation in my opinion are: the relationships that can be developed with our players outside the realm of the specific sport we are coaching, the ability to connect and apply the topics being taught/practiced in both sport and real life, and the ability attained to go forth and lead others using the tools that have been practiced and repeated over and over again... in order to positively influence those around them. Ultimately, the goal is to produce better human beings through the practical application of what I would refer to as "timeless truths".

What we have begun in my first year as a head coach (it's been about a month now) is to have bi-weekly leadership meeting on Sunday nights at my home. At the moment, this is just for seniors. Eventually, I will find a way to implement this program into every grade level in a scaffolded fashion, but for the time being, I'm trying to build some trust and credibility with my seniors who are in a tough spot, adjusting to a new HC for their last year of HS football. I want to give them the best opportunity possible in what will be their last opportunity to represent their school as a football player. We have a large group of student-athletes that are on the fence about whether or not they are going to play football or not this year and the most often given reason that I've heard is that it "isn't fun anymore". This team was 1-8 last year and has been struggling for the past 2-3 seasons, so morale is down and kids are looking for any reason to justify not playing. Thus, my initial plans are to secure the guys that we have, invest in them heavily, and then use that momentum to help reach those "on the fence" guys through the experience that I'm striving to provide the ones who are committed. As a result, my player's subsequent sharing of that experience can help to generate a renewed interest in the game and hopefully bring some of those guys into the fold. Here is what we've begun to implement in our Sunday meetings:

General Agenda:

- Talk/catch up on life - get to know you questions - state of the union matters

- Listen/watch our lesson for the week

- Discuss practical implications and "take-aways" from the lesson

- Assign "homework" to be completed for the next meeting

Week 1: "Be the Best Version of You"

Week 2: Finish week 1 - Begin "Discipline over Default"

Week 3: Finish week 2 - Begin "The Power of Belief"

Week 4: Finish week 3 - Begin "Overcome Resistance"

Week 5: Finish week 4 - Begin "E+R=O Mindset"

Week 6: Finish week 5 - Begin "Press Pause"

Week 7: Finish week 6 - Begin "Get Your Mind Right"

Week 8: Finish week 7 - Begin "Adjust and Adapt"

Week 9: Finish week 8 - Begin "Make a Difference"

Week 10: Finish week 9 - Begin "Build Skill"

Week 11: Finish week 10 - Begin "Outlast the Cynics"

*These "topics" will be addressed, taught, and applied in measurable and observable ways throughout the season to the whole team during our daily pre-practice meetings throughout the season.

Cons:

If not implemented correctly, or by someone who lacks the "clout" to influence young people, a character/leadership program can easily backfire. I'm not saying that you have to be some super motivational speech guy, but it DOES matter what the kids think of you and how they interpret your level of credibility. I'll even go so far to say that if you don't believe this, you are probably one of the guys that kids don't see as credible. It doesn't matter what you know. It only matters what experience you give to these young people. If we don't connect to them on a different level, a personal level, then all of our good intentions will likely fail...or at best, produce lackluster outcomes. Thus, for me, the only other "con" besides not having the correct people in place to lead, would be the lack of a systematic approach to how your program is being implemented. If we simply come up with "topical" material (although good, needed, and relevant) with no structure or program direction, that's a risky philosophy in my opinion. We don't have to be "reading from the manual" word by word, but rather by using research-based and/or highly reviewed practices, we can have a solid foundation to build upon, allowing us the freedom to interject our own personalities into the curriculum.

I feel that the best combination is to implement a system (which I suppose we could create ourselves if you choose to make the time) that is practical, simple, and aimed at producing specific outcomes that can be easily measured and identified...intermixed with dynamic people who are great relationship builders to facilitate the process. It takes a lot of humility to truly reflect and ask ourselves at the current moment if we are the right person to be delivering these messages. If the answer at the moment is "no", then we must do the work to get better in those areas and begin to win the hearts of our players so that the messages we're preaching and teaching resonate with them and in turn, become actionable functions of their behaviors.