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Post by airraider on Jul 17, 2009 1:05:03 GMT -6
In a day in age where we as coaches struggle to compete for the attention and time of our athletes.. I have ran across something that has gotten me thinking..
I use the term meaningless very loosely.. But I am talking about those kids who during the course of a game are for lack of a better term.. meaningless.. the chicken eaters.. the hey you's.. whatever you call them..
those 3rd tier guys who never seem to get into the game at all..
The sad reality is that even some of your not so meaningless kids are now having this same problem..
There are some bigger schools in our area who graduate 20-25+ seniors year in and year out.. we all know with those numbers.. there is probably a large number of kids who fit into that meaningless category on Friday nights.
Why do they stay??
We lost around 17 kids during the spring. Some of these were the hey you types.. but some could have actually ended up being football players.. special team type kids maybe.. whatever..
But.. at this point, our program is not something that you just want to be apart of as a means of being apart of something...
They have won 4 or so games in the last 3 years.. not a whole lot of kids beating down the door to simply be apart of the team..
So now we have a handful of kids who would only have stayed around is they knew they would have a chance at a starting position.
What are some ways you can get these types of kids to stick around?
Numbers are always good.. especially for practice..
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Post by gdf on Jul 17, 2009 5:55:16 GMT -6
airraider,
I think for those kids they stick around for the social aspect of the team. They enjoy hanging out with their friends. So we try to have activities, mostly during the off-season, that make if fun to be a part of the fb team. Some of the things we do:
- Team dinners during the season
- Team bowling night (as long as you've been in the wt. room or playing another sport, the boosters pays for you to go bowling/pizza).
- Community service projects. These may not be as "fun" but the kids usually get something out of them, and they enjoy doing them with their friends.
- BBQ's: After some of our speed training in the summer, we will bring down the grill to the field and cook burgers & 'dogs for the kids who are there.
I'm sure there are other things that I'm forgetting, but anything you can do as a team that is fun & rewarding, will not only get kids to stick around but it will also build team unity.
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Post by gdf on Jul 17, 2009 5:58:14 GMT -6
One more thing that is a favorite of the kids. In the spring, everyone who tests we take out for an afternoon of paintball...coaches too!
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Post by 19delta on Jul 17, 2009 6:01:44 GMT -6
air -
I am in the same situation.
I'm a first-year head coach of a program that hasn't had a winning season since 2001 and has only won 3 games in the past 4 years. Situation has been pretty bleak. We started the summer with around 100 kids total but that number has been whittled down to around 70 kids...kids dropped because they couldn't commit to the level of expectations that were set. No problem...addition by subtraction.
One thing we are going to do is commit to platooning as much as possible. I know that a lot of guys disagree with that and say you have to get your best players on the field to win but, we aren't even at the point where we need to be talking about winning...we need to lay the foundation first and what we think is a solid way to do that is to get maximum participation from your kids...especially the "hey yous".
The way we look at it is that we probably aren't going to win a whole lot of games this year anyway so, rather than playing the same 14-15 kids on offense and defense and only win 2-3 games, we are going to play as many kids as possible, especially younger guys, to give them some experience and some extra motivation to get in the weight room in the offseason. What we don't want to do is to sacrifice the future for a win or two right now...we are trying to stay focused on the long-term as much as possible.
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Post by jpdaley25 on Jul 17, 2009 8:19:19 GMT -6
We call them ERW's - Eat, Ride, and Watch.
We tell our kids they will not be allowed to do that.
"You are going to have to play and you are going to have to be ready to play and you are going to have to do whatever work is required to make you ready to play. Not in the future...Now!"
We are a small school of 200 kids 9-12. When I first arrived, 75 kids came out for spring practice. By game 1 we had 25. Thats about what we've had ever since.
"If you stay, you will play. And you will have earned it."
I'm not going to try to change what football is to accomodate lazy kids. We are going to friggin' work, and we are going to build pride in the fact that we are an elite group...the only ones at this high school tough enough to play football.
We don't have "mouthpiece chewers." Those are the guys that hide in the back and hold their mouthpiece like a pacifier and chew on it hoping that they don't have to go in. If you are on our sideline, you are going to go in. There's no hiding with us. We are going to put you on the spot and see what you are made of, time and time again. You will either grow or wither away.
"If your heart isn't in it and you aren't totally committed, you won't make it here."
For that reason, our numbers are low and everybody plays 9-12.
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Post by 19delta on Jul 17, 2009 9:38:34 GMT -6
We don't have "mouthpiece chewers." Those are the guys that hide in the back and hold their mouthpiece like a pacifier and chew on it hoping that they don't have to go in. If you are on our sideline, you are going to go in. There's no hiding with us. We are going to put you on the spot and see what you are made of, time and time again. You will either grow or wither away. I would like to think that is where we are at as well. We will probably only have about 70 kids 9-12 (school has about 1500 students) but we feel really good about those kids for the most part. The 30-40 kids or so who dropped out...we are better off for that. Those kids really didn't want to work and were just taking reps away from the kids who were more committed. |
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Post by airraider on Jul 17, 2009 9:40:45 GMT -6
Great responses guys..
Out oh my 30 guys we had in the spring.. we started 22.. No one started both ways.. and I intend on carrying that into this season..
The problem I see is not in games.. because I feel we have adequate back ups as 90% of our offense is backed up with defensive starters and vice versa..
My concern is practice..
But.. Back in 2004.. at a 4A school.. our new HC came in.. we started the season with 28 kids.. 3 of those were hey yous that never touched the field in regular downs.. one ended up being our deep snapper..
We lost our first game playing kids both ways.. was close early.. but we wore out and had like 6 go down with cramps.. they pulled away in the last few minutes to win by 2tds..
We then reeled off 6 wins in a row.. (were 0-10 the year before)..
We ended up losing our last 3.. and our first round playoff game.. but we made a 28 player team work in a 4A district.
Out of those 28.. NO one started both ways.. 22 starters.. Mostly sophomores started on defense.. Their senior year.. we were 13-1 and made it to the semis vs the state champs.
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Post by spartancoach on Jul 17, 2009 10:48:33 GMT -6
I really appreciate the perspective. We have the opposite issue, which I should just be thankful for rather than see it as a problem. We have about 110 varsity and jv kids, and another 50 or so freshman. But by 2 platooning (for the most part), and incorporating everyone into the game and special teams that will not hurt us, we usually get about 40-50 in the game on Saturday, and another 30 or so into jv games. At times we wish some of the "meaningless" kids would leave because it is darn challenging to get 110 kids reps in practice.
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Post by fbdoc on Jul 17, 2009 10:58:30 GMT -6
I have always used the "If you Stay, you Play" rule with our kids. There are always going to be a couple who you have to hide somewhere but if you coach them up so they can give a starter a few plays to rest up, you end up becoming a better TEAM.
As a young head coach - it was a small school - I implemented a 2 plattoon philosophy which worked well while we were winning. After a couple of tough losses there was complaining and backstabbing ( kids AND coaches) that I did not address properly. Since then I've typically put my best kids on the field as much as possible while still striving to play everyone. Once again, at a small school your top 11 are going to be ok - its that matchup of your 12, 13, ..... 18, 19th best player versus the other team that usually decides the outcome.
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Post by airraider on Jul 17, 2009 11:59:20 GMT -6
To dig even deeper.. I even had some kids who would be back ups and special team kids who quit because they would not have been an offensive or defensive starter.. The sense entitlement these days is really sad.
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Post by touchdownmaker on Jul 17, 2009 19:02:11 GMT -6
Its not your job to meet the kids expectations.
I think thats the problem some kids are having. They have expectations, you dont meet them so they quit.
Now, you havent been there long enough to build relationships to the point where the kid wants to play FOR YOU. That will come, build solid relationships with the die hards, win with the die hards, they will speak highly of you and defend you and your core grows.
Look, we could all lower the bar and pick up another 25% or so kids but for what?
I mean, in my own program...If I didnt post workouts, didnt use pride points, didnt mail home practice attendance, didnt have mandatory study halls, didnt have 3 hour practices, didnt make the kids rep plays until they got em right, didnt make them make up missed practices, didnt hold them accountable for breaking rules, didnt care if they attended practice, meetings or did their school work, I know darn well we would have more kids "playing" football.
Maybe I missed the point of the thread here but the bottom line is that you take the ones who want to go and you can put all of your energy into those kids, the truly deserving ones, the few and chosen so to speak and you make them winners. if you win without the loads your core of warriors will grow.
How do you make it meaningful? its about relationships. When it comes to football, theres practice, theres mop up duty, theres jv, theres scrimmages and all that social fun too...if a kid cant find meaning in that...well, thats on him, you dont have to own that.
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Post by captainpp on Jul 17, 2009 19:56:30 GMT -6
Good stuff all. In the lower levels, we would have certain plays that were all their own. We would have to mix in some 1st. with them, but it was their series of plays. We took practice time as much as we could to do so. It worked very well for us for several reasons. I would have to say that we did a good job at using them at the correct time. Not all plays were basic either, there were 2 that the first string didn't run. One was a screen and the other from a set that I came up with that's very different and unconventional. The last play of th 6 was a play that the kids them self drew up that was passed on by the coaches to set in place. Not really sure if this was what you were asking about but it did seem to help with moral and the such...
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Post by kylem56 on Jul 17, 2009 21:04:19 GMT -6
[glow=red,2,300]How do you make it meaningful? its about relationships. [/glow]When it comes to football, theres practice, theres mop up duty, theres jv, theres scrimmages and all that social fun too...if a kid cant find meaning in that...well, thats on him, you dont have to own that. touchdownmaker nailed it. Treat those kids the same way you treat the starters. Show them you care, praise them in front of the team when you can. My high school coach made it a habit to mention a scout team player who contributed to the success of the team's preparation every week when he spoke to the newspapers after the game. One thing we do is award a Scout Team Player of the Year award at our banquet and also our Coaches Award is usually a scout team player guy as well. The big thing though, like I had originally said is to build a relationship with every one of them.. |
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