VISION

Robert Shklov

Aloha All and thank you for the great class, discussion and feedback. Glad to see there are so many great coaches all around the country. If anyone is ever interested in traveling/bringing a team to Hawaii or hosting a team from the islands on the mainland, please let me know. On my CUI or Yahoo! (Robertshklov@yahoo.com) Email accounts.

Days 1-120 - The off-season

I would want to conduct exit interviews as soon as possible. Get the outgoing seniors to share some honest feedback as they turn in their equipment and gague which juniors are ready to step up to leadership roles and which sophomores will take the leap.

Meeting with the JV/Intermediate Coaching Staffs: We would want to make a rough outline of our off-season activities, get some dates straight and check on each other's availability. JV coaches will recommend players for call up.

Call up coaches and schedule non-league pre-season games for all three levels. If we are traveling, confirm plans with administrations from both schools.

Meet with the parent committee on community service, fund-raising ideas and other team-bonding events.

Conditioning/Workouts will be organized and administered on the following days: MTWR-7am-830am or 330pm-5pm
My expectation is not groundbreaking; I want each player to improve their strength and conditioning by showing numerical progress in their lifting routines. However, I believe it is important that we practice our camaraderie as well so I will be mandating attendance at least twice a week, but the expectation is that you are working out four times a week. My rationale is that some players do better work when away from distractions at school. Some may have rehab work they cannot complete on campus but there is no other way to build team unity than to be together working towards a common goal.

Meet with the equipment managers and discuss any potential repairs or new equipment we should be ordering.

Meet with the training staff to make sure each injured athlete has an action plan to get healthy. Share any concerns with coaches of second season sports who have a football player recovering from injury.

Have a season ending meeting with my AD. Discuss any staff changes and receive feedback for the previous year. Outline current season's plan.

Meet with program coaches to discuss football philosphy> I want to make sure the Intermediate/JV football coaches know they have my full support no matter what, but I would want them to run as close to our system on both sides of the ball as possible. I do not want to tie a coach down if they have injury or roster concerns. (EX. If they don't have a nose-tackle, I don't want them playing a boy out of position where he might get hurt just because I demand they run a 3-4.)

Defensive Philosophy: In Hawaii, the offensive lines are generally pretty big. and In my experiences, Linebackers have usually been the best athletes on the team, so I would definitely lean to a defense that featured 4 linebackers or the safety acting as a rover. 3-4 or 3-3-5 would be ideal in that you can counter the beef on the offensive line with speed. In either defense, the defensive lineman need to focus on occupying the OL and controlling their assigned gap. The LB's will use their speed to be the play-makers. I favor a man free on the goal-line and a cover 3 as a base d.

I want our defense to be Aggressive: I want my defense to fly to the ball and be able to quickly diagnose plays. I would want to blitz from everywhere to keep the offensive line guessing. I want my defense to look to create turnovers, not to just bend but not break. I would love to be able to have sub packages if the opposing team/our depth allows. My defenders should come out of the game tired not because of lack of conditioning but because of the full effort exerted. I wouldn't necessarily pull my studs, but I do want to be able to give as much on-field ownership over our success as possible. I believe that if you have guys that can play, there is no use saving them until they are worn down, if someone can give me 100% effort mentally and physically and I trust him, that is better than wearing down someone so they are functioning below capacity during crunch time. That is just my philosophy though and it requires depth and trust, luxuries not always afforded, but hey, this is my ideal defense right?!

I want our defense to maintain their Discipline: It may sound a bit contradictory but I want my defense to be disciplined as well. Despite wanting to blitz and take chances to create turnovers, I want my defense to know and understand the scheme of each call so they can make a judgment as to whether or not the risk is worth the reward. Because I want to play a lot of guys, this requires each player to be responsible for learning terminology and studying film/concepts. One thing I hate are controllable penalties. Unsportsmanlike and off-sides penalties are not to be tolerated and the offending player will be pulled immediately. Depending on the severity, it will be up to my discretion as to whether he can gain re-entry to the game. (I know some penalties are bogus but I want to discourage even putting ourselves in positions to give away 5 or 15 free yards.)

Finally, I want our defense to have Accountability: I want to make sure my leaders know it is ok to demand accountability from themselves and their teammates. When someone messes up, its always OUR problem. WE will make sure to talk about it and learn from the mistake. There is never any need to be negative with someone, but the offending party also needs to know WE all count on them and finding ways to share that collective responsibility is a great way to ease the burden of a disappointed player who messed up.

Offensive Philosophy: Again, to match personnel so a broad outline of my ideal offense would be to play fast, dictate tempo and take care of the ball. I like the old-school running game, being able to just line up and run straight ahead and feel like its demoralizing for a defense to keep having to take on blockers and make hits. However, I also favor the spread passing concepts, taking the edge, overloading a zone, optioning defenders etc. While I initially thought this represents two different visions, it doesn't have to. In fact, being known for two distinct offensive traits may cause the opposing team to throw fits all week in practice preparing for our various schemes. I love to rotate out specialized groups and will try to utilize each player's strengths in different ways.

Begin our off-season leadership academy that coincides with our lifting program. The month by month breakdown includes the following themes:

•January

Lead Yourself Before You Can Lead Others

•February

Empathy, Kindness and Service

•March

Leading By Action

•April

Local-Restoration National-Conservation Global- Preservation

•May

Becoming Leader-“Less”


Days 120-127 Spring Ball

Discuss format with coaches and talk about which players we may want to try out at different positions or how to share two-way athletes.

Formulate Depth Charts (IN PENCIL!) And ID potential Special Teams players.

Install Skeleton Base D/) and concepts.

Make decisions on whom to invite to camp.

Spring Community Service Event


Days 128-158 Team Building/Character and Leadership Education

Continue off-season workouts. Can supervise but no footballs. (Dead Period)

At the end of this month we run our kids camp. We will also do a campus clean up the following day.

Work with the coaches to develop our special teams strategy. Now that we have seen what we have, we can decide what types of teams we want to run. My hope is that we have enough depth to give players who aren't starters a role. If we don't, starters playing is a risk that needs to be taken to make sure our special teams are solid.


Days 159-219 Summer Workouts

Participate in pass leagues and camps.

Make sure players who have college football aspirations are working on their applications, videos and contacting coaches. Inform them of camps that could be helpful.

Work out Team Camp Schedule with coaches. (Who will be staying overnight, when people are available, activities, guest speakers etc.)

Find team managers.

Make cuts/send down to JV

On the eve of camp:

Pre-Season Parent Meeting

1. Outline Expectations for Player and Parent

-Policies on missing practice.

-Communication is so important.

-No disrespectful comments to anyone.

-Go over player contract.

-Gameday prep.


2. Explain My Role

-Coach, mentor, teacher

-Go over the in-season character education


3. Introduce Assistants, important personnel. (Trainers, AD's, other staff)

-Make sure the parents know who is responsible for what and what is appropriate to talk to whom about.


4. Introduce Parent Committee with a Team Parent being named and secure more volunteers

-Go over major team events and calendar.

-Emphasize no preferential treatment comes with extra volunteer work.


5. Give out my Contact Information

-email, cell and appropriate times to call


6. Have them read, review and sign a Parent's Code of Conduct:

-Includes a 48 Hour Rule where they cannot talk to me until 48 hours after a game.

-They Must Attend a PCA Parent Workshop for their son to be eligible.

-They are held to the same standards as their boys. So no cursing at officials, or other players/parents.

-They may NOT talk to me about another player on the team that is not their son.


Days 220-227 Camp

Two Field sessions a day and one classroom session. At the end of the week, we'll have a pre-season game and a potluck with both teams to celebrate the beginning of the new season.

Days 228-339 Regular Season

Get to our routine! Scout-Prep-Practice-Play!

During the year we will have a value of the week and a corresponding activity. It will be broken down like this:

Value – Hawaiian Quote/Activity/Coach Responsible

Perseverance - HO‘OMAU Churchill – Conditioning – DB’s

Communication – KĀKOU Rollo May – Game Night – WR’s

Leadership - ALAKA‘I John C. Maxwell – Trust Walk – OL

Responsibility - KULEANA Abraham Lincoln – My Responsibilities – DL

Cooperation – LŌKAHI Webster’s – Team Builders – LB

Humility - HA‘AHA‘A Theodore Roosevelt – Volunteer – QB/RB

Faith - MANA‘O‘I‘O John Wooden – Trust Fall – OC

Integrity – PONO Confucius – Grade Checks/College – DC

Love - ALOHA Martin Luther King Jr. – Love Letter – HC

Service – KOKUA and HO‘OKIPA Kamehameha III – CommService – Team Parents


Days 339-356 The Post-Season

Playoffs don't change the way we prepare! Try to stay in a routine as best we can.

Post Season Banquet: As we've learned, the hard way, try to schedule this at least a week or two after the championship game. Ahem, you know, just in case.

Patrick Montgomery

I believe the pros of a leadership academy far outweigh the cons, but there still are obstacles and challenge that you and your team will have to overcome to make this work. The cons include having players that are in other sports that do not get to participate in the activities or feel left out. As a program you do not want to pull athletes out of the season that they are in to be a part of your leadership academy because you are then sending a message that what they are doing does not matter or is less important. This is why we have the message to our athletes that we want them to compete and if they participate in other sports we fully support them doing so. They are getting better and becoming better leaders by competing and being part of that team. This helps solve some of our issues that we run into. The other major con is the time commitment that enforcing a leadership academy takes with the players, as well as, the head coach and assistant coach. One way we try to solve this problem is by incorporating it in team activities we are already having, such as lifting times or conditioning times.



The leadership activity that we have put into place follows the same ideas used by major college programs such as Ohio State football, as well as, other college football programs. It is the Unit leadership model. We had the awesome opportunity of having Tim Kight, a motivational speaker and leadership guru, who has worked with major companies and schools like Ohio State (which is located about 25 minutes south of our high school) come and speak to our staff and students. His message was about E + R = O, developing leadership units, and how we measure leadership through a player’s R factor, or response, to an event that will produce a desired outcome. So, as a staff, we took this idea and ran with it in creating our leadership academy and what we wanted out of it. The first thing we do is break the team up - freshman through juniors (or to be seniors) - and we place them on teams. Each team will have different position groups and players of all ages and abilities. We want this because we do not want the players to focus on their friends or people they feel comfortable with; we want them with people that they can grow a bond with and become better teammates with. Once we have the teams, which usually consists of 12-14 players, they are assigned a head coach. The head coach for each unit is in charge of that unit and is responsible for the one on one work with the unit. This is comprised of all the position coaches in program. If we have less units than coaches, then coaches will double up with a unit, or if a coach coaches another sport two coaches will be with that group for when they are gone. These units will stay the same and will only add players to them as seasons end and we get through the summer into the following fall football season. We start this journey in December and it ends the following August 1st with the beginning of two a days.



Each unit has a few important aspects that they all do and all have to follow. Each unit will come up with a nick name, slogan, and team colors. Once they have done this t-shirt will be made for the unit to wear on competition days. Each unit and unit coach will meet twice a week for an hour each day. The groups will meet on Tuesday and Thursdays after school from 3-4 before any skill work practice is done. It is the opposite days of our lifting program. It is also up to the individual leadership units what time fits best for everyone’s schedules. If they want to go before school on those days that is fine as well. If they want to stay past 4 and continue the discussions and talk or set up times to meet we encourage that, but we have a designated time that is mandatory to meet at. The first day is for unit grade checks and progress reports. We check in on how each athlete is doing in school, lifting and conditioning attendance, and personal issues that need help being resolved. The unit works together on these issues and finds solutions together helping each other out. The second time the unit meets they have a theme of the day - this happens on Thursdays. The unit leader, or coach, comes up with an activity or reading about leadership, communication, or teamwork that the group works on together and to have a discussion. Everyone is to participate and be involved. This gives equal leadership opportunity and the ability for players to show themselves to their teammates through talking and action. The units also compete together during our workouts/workout finishers or competitions and this is when you see the comradery and leadership really being to show itself. Every Friday, at the end of our workout, we have competitions and these can be one-man competitions, team competitions, or small group competitions that the teams get points for that build up through the off season. We see players who do not want to let their units down compete at high levels, as well as, groups pulling and cheering and leading each other through difficult tasks to see group success because of the relationships they have built through the unit meetings.



Through all of this we are still working to build a strong and unified team, but we are able, because of these leadership units, to create leaders and build relationships that will help us tremendously throughout the season and in crucial moments in games. To do this you have to have complete “buy in” from your coaching staff. They have to lead by example because how the players will be hooked is the coaches showing enthusiasm and pride in the unit and work to make each player in the unit better. Players start to develop an understanding of what it takes to be a leader and, most importantly, how to lead and this gets back to the R factor we talked about and is a big part of our unit philosophy. You can control your response and that is what we are trying to teach them. Is your response going to have a positive impact on the program and be something that lifts players up so that we get our desired outcome? Or is your response to an event going to be individualized and self-centered and why me? Because that is going to have a negative impact on the team. We are two years into this leadership academy at our high school and we have seen great success and have seen the impact that it has had on individuals and the overall team.