What have you learned so far this season?

Right now I am a freshmen head coach and I go in the booth for the varsity games. Here are a few things that I have learned.

1. If players can tell you their assignment it doesnt mean they can execute it. You must make sure a player can PERFORM an action and not just tell you what he should do. It may sound simple but we take it for granted sometimes.

2. Make sure you can communicate your ideas. It doesnt matter how much you know. It matters how much you can relay to the kids.

3. Be thouroughly prepared everyday.

4. Expect greatness and you will achieve it.

5. Be sure you have drills in practice that equate to skills kids need in game situations.

6. Make practice fun.

7. Have fun yourself.

Never coach to potential. Bum Phillips said, "Potential is a word that means you ain't worth a damn yet." I mean if a kid has potential and is improving day in and day out stick with him, but if he is not working to get to his full "potential" then sit him down and play someone else.

Athleticism doesn't equal heart.

These are just two of the hard lessons I had to learn this year.

Also I learned not to coach effort. Effort has to be understood from the get go.

I learned it is critical to have enough time each practice to coach position skills. Our freshmen team consists of players from the 9th grade and the two middle school's 8th graders. By the time they all get to practice we have about 1 hour of practice time.

For about 5 weeks we went strickly 1/2 offense vs scout team and 1/2 defense vs scout team. This hurt my Defensive linemen, who without repetition, lost their strike, engage, pass rush, tackling, and reading techniques which we pushed hard during 2 a days. The past 2 weeks, we have worked more directly on my linemen and they have showed a great improvement because of it.

That is a lesson I won't forget again and will argue for more time with any head coach I have in the future.

John Thomas

I wouldn't say this is something "new" that I've learned...just an affirmation of what I already know. You better have an offensive line coach who loves what he does and who is not afraid to do what it takes to thoroughly prepare his kids....it is, without question, the most important position coach on the offensive side of the ball and possibly on the team. If you have a coach with a poor or negative attitude, it would be best to remove him immediately and adjust your staff somehow than to allow him to remain and pollute the whole system. Your best coaches should be your offensive line coach and your secondary coach....if you are weak in those spots, you are compromising your program and you won't reach your full potential. pdow

Here is another....we completed our season last night (Thur)....we were a team that averaged nearly 450 yds of offense per game...however, we gave up nearly that much on defense. If we win last night's game vs. the top rated team in the area we go to the playoffs. We are getting beat bad in the first half (by 20)...we turn the ball over a couple times and we simply cannot stop them (as had been the case for most of the year)....however, second half our kids came out and played with a great deal of tenacity....we got a couple turnovers, they gained less than 100 yds. in the second half vs. nearly 300 in the first half and we score 28 points and pull to within one point only to lose by 6. Now what can you say about a team that showed it's potential only in the last half of the last regular season game. I have never been so disappointed in realizing what could have been...our staff needs to look hard at why are kids would not get themselves up once a week and play at peak level...it's disturbing...Fans saying "great second half, coach....way to go"....I say,....why couldn't we play all of our games with that same aggressiveness and tenacity....we had the ability, our kids, for whatever reason, chose to use it only during one half of a game. I guess you can refer to the saying "want means nothing without will". pdow

We have 1 more game to play and we are 0-9. My first year at this school but I have rebuilt a team with a similar start a few years ago. What I have learned is that if the kids are improving and learning they are having a successful season no matter what their won lost record is. If you are having a long season it may not be all the players fault. Many of football programs are in a state of ruin and there is no immediate fix. A good staff is a loyal staff with energy and enthusiasm.

If the players are happy, then the parents are happy, if the parents are happy the community is happy and the administration will also be happy. even though we as coaches are sickened by our won lost record life goes on. We will coach again next year and be thankful to God for the opportunity He has given.

Coach Kidd

I learned that you need athletes to win. That's all for now.

Amen to that!!!

Kids that play even if only for a few plays are your best recruiters for the future. I worry about the 2nd and 3rd teamers more than the starters. I know that if my backups are happy then I will have fewer headaches with their families. So I am hard on the starters but fair with the backups.