"I won't do it." 's

1) get rid of him
2) get parents to hold bags for 10-15 minutes in practice
3) get a team mom

.......I'm not saying that is best, but it is what I have to do now, because I have guys "on staff" but only one guy can actually do anything (when he's there). Not great, but at least I can divide the kids up into groups to work on fundamentals, then correct the large picture in team. Put the Oline together.....to work stance on their own, while you start the backs working together on a circuit, once they get going, go back and teach the Oline.

YOU take the Oline (it is the most important) and just have the backs & QBs work on mesh exchange, parents can hold bags for that or oversee them.

I don't have the answers, and I'm sure we will struggle this year because of it, but it is what it is.

Cut him loose and make a plea to parents.

All you need is someone that can follow simple directions, make it clear to the parents, no experience required, following the coaches direction "required".

Some of my best youth football coaches never even played the game. BTW some of my worst ones were former college players.

Steve Calande in his JH Days used to do it all by himself. You may want to beg a favor from him. I think he often had his O-line show up early and leave early so he could have one on one time with each group. Something to consider.
I require all my head coaches to coach the O-line BTW and I coach it even though I was an offensive back in HS and College.

Youth coaches are hard to come by but thats why we do mandatory coaches clinics and coaching contracts to make sure they know what is expected and how we are going to do things. Some of those rookie coaches really sink their teeth into this stuff, are willing students of the game. Those kind of guys are my preferance.

Last night in scrimmage, had qb break finger on throwing hand. I can't wait until practice tonight and the coaches meeting i'm going to have. Game 1 is in two days... i'm gonna make red faced Giants Coach Tom Coughlin look shy.

Thanks for the great advice again, this time i'll take it.

Dave, he has no allys, not after winning one game in three years. What I DID do was sit down and write him a long letter, including some quotes from previous posts stating, "cut him loose," and "get rid of him!" It felt so good to put all those comments down on paper that by the time I saw him next practice, it just didn't seem as worth it, anymore.

What I did instead of giving him the nice little letter, which now that I take a look at it again, would have made a grown man cry... was to sit him down and tell him exactly what I needed from him and rewent over the offense. He looked a little uncomfortable that he was taking direction from me at first but when he began to see the brilliance of the offensive system and how it really worked, his entire demeanor changed.

So, he's still there. He missed a scrimmage the other night but his role is as minimal as I can make it so it wasn't so bad. Now I have him concentrating on the non-playside stuff and although he isn't following directions and still doing whatever he wants, at least I feel like the HC again. Not that it was of primary importance but at least he no longer steps on my toes.

God, I hope i'm not making the same mistakes over and over and over. Sometimes, I think i'm too nice. But you are right, it is volunteer and that makes a big difference, I suppose.

It's not that easy Brophy. Ever coach by yourself with no assistants? Its not fun or safe. I'll grow some stones, when assistants grow on trees. Until then, I have to take what I can get, unfortunately. If I was in my third or fourth year, I might try to do it but until than i'm stuck.

In a very rare instance I am defintely agreeing with Brophy on this LOL. Ive lived on both sides of this fence and had to make the decision lots of times. Whenever I kept the guy, it was a HUGE mistake by end of season. I always kidded my self, THIS time will be different, this guy is different. After a bunch of those I said nah, let em go everytime. Mind you I do this for lots of teams as I coach my own teams and run an org with many teams etc.

There are no "options" here, there is simply a challenge to your authority. The only answer to that challenge which will leave you with any power at all to coach your team is to excise the cancer.

Jim: Don't get me wrong -- I gave you my opinion, and you as Hazza Gazza are free to ignore it. (Opinions are like arseholes, remember? Everyone's got one...)

You're Jimmy-On-The-Spot, so you get to make all the hard decisions, accept the accolades when you get it right, and duck the rotten produce when and if you screw up.

Meanwhile, keep coaching, coach. That's what your kids need most.

dubber: Jim's using the youth Wing-T that I put out earlier this year. There are a few youth teams running the Wild Bunch that I'm aware of, and those that stick to perfecting the core plays are doing very well.

Those that decide to mix and match with other schemes, OTOH...

Jim, although there's no excuse for insubordination, I believe that you created some of this by micromanaging. One of the many jobs that my boss hired me to do is coach the OL. He does not tell me how to do that job. He certainly would not tell me what stance and technique without discussing it with me.

8-9 is the youngest so far (state champs in Utah), but I'm sure I could get a subset going very well at age 7...a small subset.

;D ;D

I try not to micromanage... my two DC's have autonomy, but when we were doing offense this guy was changing things... thats over now, thank god.

Regarding Ted's Offense: Simply brilliant. My kids picked it up in a week and took about five weeks to master. The first game I don't count because my QB broke his finger and the new kid at QB had only been doing it 3 days. Also, my squad has only twelve kids... some towns have 40. They play both sides of the ball. We lost 47-0 our first game.

The second game we played the 2005 champs. They had 7 shutouts coming into the game... we scored 4 TD's on them/250 yds on the ground. Our D gave up a lot of big plays. I had our DC's start teaching "boxing" for game three. We lost 42-24 in a very respectale/pretty game.

Game three: Failed five times to tie up the score, including a TD called back or holding, and a FF on the twelve yard line with 2 mins. left. One of the most dramatic youth games i've seen. We lost 8-0. Racked up 200 yards rushing.

With such a small team and 90% new kids, they are competitive against anyone. Can't ask for more. I expect to get a few wins... but if not, they look great trying. The jet sweep with only one stud, if he's fast... and a full team (with subs) is unstoppable. And very pretty to watch. Oppossing coaches, other coaches, parents, refs, and spectators have probably given me nearly fifty comliments already. We have scored more than the entire 2005 season, by game 3. It has turned around a team on the brink of extinction, the kids love it.

We are getting about 200 spectators a game, just to see them play.

Thanks to you guys and Ted. And a team with a heart of gold.

I just compiled my WB/TB stats (after 3 games):

TB:

Att.... Yds...... TD's:
30..... 420...... 4.

WB:

Att.... Yds...... TD's:
16..... 38....... 0 (had 4 during scrimmages.)

Working on getting ball to FB more, counters, and installed 3 step w/jetmo yesterday.

Nah, I got what you meant, I just get advice here; never take anything personal. In our WT, they downblock at angles. Heh. He wanted them all standing up and pushing them backward. Alas, no. Wrong offense and an obviously uneducated guess of WT. And telling. He's no longer on O and excels on D, where I shoulda just put him in the first place.

Live and learn. To the two of their credits, our D has only allowed 2 TDs in 6 qtrs. So far so good. Looking for first win, this weekend. I'll advise.