Strong Program Components

I revoted and stick to my 4 from the last post...

Supportive Admin
Great Assistants
S&C Program
Great Players

I just wanted to throw this out there- I truly believe the idea of scheduled "team building" activities are highly overrated and ineffective. Teams are forged in the offseason s&c program and throughout the year at practices.

Artificial "team building activities" or FORCED FAMILY FUN are gimmicky and kids see right through these things typically. I was one of those kids. That crap never worked- it was just the coaches' way of putting on a show for us. Bull$hit wastes of time IMO.

Teams are built by
1) Setting common team goals and individual player goals that help us achieve our common goal

2) Holding kids accountable for their actions/effort

3) Allowing kids to take ownership of the program, police themselves

Teams are built on TRUST; without this you have nothing. Coaches must be able to trust athletes to do what they're suppossed to do, and the kids must be able to trust coaches to do the same.

I think we need to define what "continuity of staff" means.......

could be a bunch of different things.

1) strength and conditioning
2) talent of some kind
3) admin support
4) coaching staff- got to make talent out of the lemons

There's a big one here not listed, and that's "successful / well-coached feeder program." I believe this is a HUGE part of the success of a consistently strong program.

I came up with this as part of our "Plan for Success" that I give to all of our players and parents:

Copper Basin Football


Vision

A vision is made up of long-term goals, and our vision for the future of Copper Basin Football is to build a successful program. We define a successful program in the following areas:


1. A successful program has a winning season every year, regularly competes for the region title, and goes to the playoffs.

2. A successful program has a top-notch, dedicated coaching staff.

3. A successful program has an academic advisor and tutoring program, has a 100% graduation rate, and sends kids to college every year.

4. A successful program produces leaders who are men of character, integrity, and courage.

5. A successful program has great facilities and equipment and is always upgrading.

6. A successful program attracts parents and kids and has enough participation for a ninth grade and J.V. team.

7. A successful program is closely affiliated with all of its feeder programs.

8. A successful program has strong community support and financial backing.

9. A successful program has the support of the student body, administration, faculty, and staff.

10. A successful program generates enough income to fund itself and allow for growth.

Just playing Devil's advocate here, but what do you think those players and parents do with that "Plan for Success" sheet when they leave your meeting/office?

Mission statement, Vision statement, sorry, but I believe in Action Statement.

I have an action statement too, but that wasn't the title of this thread. 99% of the people in the stands don't have a clue that you do anything more than stand on the sidelines on Fri. night. If you want those people behind you, you have to show them where you are leading and how you plan to do it, especially if you know you are not going to be successful right off the bat. It doesn't matter what they do with the sheet, as long as I get my message across and they have a positive feeling about what I'm doing. If someone is bad mouthing you in the stands, one of your supporters will step up and say, "Hey, this guy knows what he's doing. Just give him a little time." I've heard them come to my defense many times. Community and parental support - That's a pretty big base to leave uncovered, and that's one of the ways that I try to cover it. Also, administrators love to see those kinds of things in interviews when you are presenting your total program to them.

I went with these..

Assistant Coaches- A Heach Coach can not coach all positions. At some point he is going to have to leave position with their coaches alone. Now what do they teach? How do they teach it? Those are all so things that are important. With a great staff a HC can look at the other bigger issues that are happening, and wont have to worry about the scheme, Xs and Os and technique as much.

Continuity of Staff- When it comes down to it, most teams have good schemes and plans. But executing in the crunch time is the differences between winning and loosing. And I think with a continuity of the staff you can build relationship with your players and they will know what to expect. Once they can do that you can get the kids to "give you more" as a coach because they know you care about them. And that really shows in how hard they work in the off season, in the classroom, on the practice field and game field.

Administration- It all starts at the top. If they dont want you to build a program and be successful you wont be. If they are committed to it, they will let you be commited to it and it will go down all the way to the players.

S and C Programs. To make a stretch run deep into the season and playoffs you need to be able to hold up physically. And by the S and C it allows you to practice harder, and play longer and it will show on the field. And its just not in the off season but also during the season S and C.

Had you asked me this question before the last 2 years at my present job, I would have answered completely differently... But I have seen first hand that these 4 are a necessity before the other ones are possible:

Administrative Support - If football isn't high on the priority list of the Admin & AD, then little things that are crucial to a program get left out. For example, this past season, the TOTAL budget they used for football was $7,000... Soccer is spending $10,000 just to have portable lights on their practice field so they can practice after it gets dark. We don't have enough shoulder pads or helmets for the number of kids we have out... We have different numbers for home/away jerseys because we can't buy a matching set of uniforms (too much money they say) as well as other issues with practice times, meetings, etc... Major problems. (Only 5 paid positions TOTAL for the program. Every varsity coach is a JV coach too except HC) By the way, AD is the Soccer coach

Community Financial Support - As you can tell from the above, $7,000 isn't even close to enough money to run a successful football program. So if you can get financial support from the community this would be key... (We aren't allowed to have a booster club! All concessions from football and the gate go to ALL sports - mandated by Admin)

Facilities - Being at such a small school, we only have 1 gym, football game field, baseball game field, softball game field, and one 50yd x 35yd square of a practice field to work with. Weightroom that only has 5 bars in it (total) and can only have a capacity of 30 max (yes it's that small)

Other - Discipline... HOLY COW have I found out this is important. If you are not consistant and strict with your discipline, then things can unravel quickly for you. There has been a lot about the GT coach who is probably gonna be coach of the year in D1 this year about his "option scheme" and his "gameplans", but what he really has done over the course of a year is COMPLETELY change the discipline with which the GT program functions. His expectations are clear, concise, and he never wavers.


I've seen too many programs with AWESOME talent that I couldn't be happier NOT to be a part of, because they are dysfunctional and terrible programs

The first 3 I voted for leads to continuity of staff, quality assistants, leadership and training programs, and salary schedules being better

If you have great staff, and a continuous staff, then the "natural talent" in the program will increase... weightroom stuff falls in line as well as all the other things.


I think that they are all crucial, but to have a chance to build the staff and program, you must have the Administrative Support, Community Financial Support, Facilities, and Discipline. The rest will fall into place quickly if build with those 4 as the base of the program.

If Admin support wasn't in your top two, then you probably have a decent administration. If you have it, I hope that you always do. I've been involved with administrators that do not support football (or the coach). They can absolutely decimate a program, and life can be hell.

Continuity of staff - we had our best success when we stayed together for a few years and didn't change our schemes constantly....good coaches trying ti improve is key.
Admin Support - vital, but you have to communicate with them as well.
Leadership training - we had good teams before the training but they took off after we actually trained the leaders.
Strength and Conditioning - the heart and soul of any program....
all the rest are important as well ....a lot of stuff to work on as head coach

cq: Thanks...I will keep that in mind when I start to look at possible HC gigs.

Admin support.
Great asst. coaches.
Booster club / community financial support.
Strength and conditioning program.

If your administration isn't supportive, you're dead in the water. If you are in a rural program, you need those teaching vacancies to help you get coaches.
If you can't trust your assistant coaches to get the job done, they are worthless.
I am a firm believer in not nickle and diming the kids to death. We are one of the only program left at our school that doesn't charge the kids to play ball. Spirit packs are optional. We have extra socks, tees, etc. for kids to borrow if they don't have items.
Strength is mandatory when you have average to below average athletes. It goes a long way to giving you a chance to compete.

Exactly this, although I'd argue that your 2 and 3 are more like 2a and 2b. You have to have community support for a lot of reasons. I'd also add parents that aren't helicopter parents and know when to let me coach and butt the hell out and keep their opinions  to themselves. I haven't really had parent problems, but I'm also not a HC yet. I know that one day when I am, it's inevitable.