What Makes Championship Youth Teams?

1.Team Chemistry
2.Mastery of fundamentals
3.Practice Priortities
4.Player Development
5.Individual Talent
6. Offensive and defensive scheme
7.Game day management
8.Size of team
9. Age
10. injuries
11. luck
12. Parental support
13. equipment

DC, I have won championships in 3 states and several different levels. Commitment to the program and fundamentals always seem to be the biggest things to a successfull team. After that I believe a cohesive staff is most important. Too often in youth ball I see daddy ballers, that is usually a reciepe for disaster.

Joe

1.Coach Loyalty
2.Blocking
3.Tackling
4. Having fun.

MH,

I adhere to that as well

LOTS of coaches know the game, but cant transfer knowledge

If you were in Orlando at PW or AYF I was there all week, what team?

Lots of people think coaching doesnt matter. Like you, Ive taken responsibility for every one of the 17 losses my teams have had in the last 14 seasons.

What color Jerseys did those 2 teams have and what time/field/day did you play that game. I stopped and watched a few 14U games for 10 minutes here and there. I was there on 3 different days mainly to watch the Spirit of Faith Warriors 5 teams.

If you played on the field nearest the parking lot and near the UA trailer I may have seen the early part of one of your games against an all black teams in Black and Red.

Dave,

I agree with you pretty much. I shuffled it around a little. Our run I felt was in this order.

1) Team Chemistry/trust/buy-in/character
2) Mastery of Fundamentals
3) Practice Priorities/Efficient Practices--- Total unity of the coaching staff
4) Player development
5) Offensive and Defensive Scheme
6) Player talent levels
7) Age- kids at upper end of age bracket
8) Game Day Management/Scouting/Adjustments
9) Lack of key injuries
10) Size
11) Parental Support
12) Luck
13) Equipment/Facilities

OK, I have been thinking this over the last few days. Here is some of the conclusions I have come to:

1) Good teams are organized and do sound football things that you can recognize.
2) They are fundamentally sound (block & tackle well)
3) They are disiplined (No stupid errors)
4) Their Coaches have a plan and an answer.

Poor Teams:

1) Run a hodge podge O & D
2) Can't block or Tackle
3) Have NO disipline
4) Honestly believe the better teams are Cheating to win

Why is it that these teams and orginazations think in this manner. I was lucky, I started in a very successful orginazation. Over the years I went to every clinic I could. Worked hard at having a plan. Coached the coaches for years. Football coaches for the most part are always willing to share their knowledge. Why is it some orginzations refuse to believe they can become better? The excuses range from : Well so & so recruits all the best talent.... The refs hate us.... Our kids won't come to practice..... We would have won if Lil Johnny didn't drop the ball..... Our parents aren't involved enough......... so on & so on

All of this can be corrected by hard work. Not only for the team but for the coaches. Too often I watch a youth practice and see 45 minutes of Cals. Then scrimage time. No indie time no basics. Isn't it our job as coaches to learn our craft. Coaching Football is a skill, it needs to be learned and developed just like the players.

Sorry for the rant it was just something that wasn't sitting well with me.

1. Player talent levels
2. Mastery of Fundamentals
3. Age- kids at upper end of age bracket


3 out of last 4 years with a championship. Ages 9-12 - 20 teams in each division.

Jimmies and Joes with top talent rule the gridiron, the older the better, and with a firm grasp of fundamentals = trophy.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and are shaped by their personal experiences which will be different for many. Glad you are reading the newsletter though

In the clinics Ive done, weve probably polled over 1000 people, Character and Chemistry have been the clear winner, the consensus of the larger group. The results arent perfect, the sample may be off a bit, youth coaches that attend clinics are in the minority. I find they are often times the best, most aggressive and most open minded coaches in their respective leagues compard to those that dont bother to attend.

In my 20+ seasons with the last 14 going this route with a 95% retention rate and 121-17 record in 4 different leagues- my personal experiences have been my best chemistry and character teams have been my championship teams. Talent levels were maybe 5th on the list. Seen so many talented opposition teams with simple awful records and execution. Where we play the "one man teams" usually don't fare very well.

Im thankful for that because I can affect team chemistry and character to a greater degree in a shorter time period than I can change a 5.6 fourty kid to a 4.8 fourty kid (youth football)

"I always admire the coaches who stay at one age and each year take a new group and bring out their best."

Coach,
I will agree with you on the point that it's impressive. I've had the privilege to admire a couple of coaches in my area that consistently do that, from afar.
But the question I pose is: What does that do for the children?
What I mean is this - unless you are in a program that has a standard O and D that they run across all age groups, then essentially the children will have to get used to a new "system" every single year.
To use my organization for an example. We have the 4&5's play together, but from age 6 through 10 they are all on separate teams. We then bring the 11 and 12's together.
So a child that starts at 4 and finishes in our program COULD end up with as many as 6 different coaches and therefore "systems" before going on to middle school.
Now our middle schools are almost mirrors of the high schools, so basically as long as a child doesn't move or redistricting doesn't happen, then from grades 7-12 the same child would have only had to learn, and therefore potentially master, one philosophy.
I personally believe that a child is better off with one rec coaching system as long as it's beneficial to the program.
Just a thought.

Nice post.

mhcoach,
That was a great post, and I appreciate your insight. At your program it sounds like it really works. I was just adding an opinion about what I see around me. I've only been coaching for 6 years and only 4 as a HC, so your experiences after 32 years are far more greater than mine and I respect that.
But with that being said, you are/were in a program that ran similar concepts and therefore the kids are just enhancing what they learned the year before, and I think those situations are great.
BUT we can't just generally put a blanket on the entire youth football situation and say because of "daddy ball" and 85 pound 14 year olds, that every year the child should have a different coach each year. I used to be a big advocate of the theory that, "if my child or any child is only coached by me, then they'll only know what I know."
This is very true, but as coaches then it's our responsibility to step our game up, right?
We work on-line and pay to attend clinics. We swap ideas with other coaches and watch hours of football...not just as a fan, but actually trying to be better at our craft, so that we can deliver a better learning experience to our children.
I understand what you mean about the teacher analogy, but I still think that is only beneficial to your program and programs like yours. In my few years of coaching, I'll watch games before and after mine and I haven't too often seen our opposing program with any 2 teams running similar offenses or defenses.
So, although a child will have a different teacher from k-12, the core subjects don't change. They will still have math, english, and social studies. They will just be advanced versions each year. So couldn't it be the same for the coach? I don't teach my boys exact same thing year after year. The concept stays the same, but there's a progression. I try to expand them a little more each season. But we surely wouldn't expect our kids to go from Algebra 1 to AP Calc the next year, and then back to Algebra 2 then jump to Trig. But this is exactly what COULD happen in a program that doesn't run a standard across the board system.
Coach Johnny may be a great...the parents and kids love him, but he may not be pushing the envelope on the 10 y/o team like coach Jack was on the 9's, but Johnny is the 10 y/o coach. That's his spot...he's been with the park for x amount of years. How does that work? Do we fire Johnny who's a volunteer? He may be successful in his own right, but coach Jack has his boys ready to go to another level that maybe Johnny doesn't teach. What happens to Jack's kids when they go to Johnny next season.
At our program we have a few dads that coach their son and there are some of us that don't. But how many youth sport coaches do you know that are involved in a program that don't have either a son player or daughter cheerleader? This would also include the ones whose children were in the program at one time or another. I would feel comfortable stating that probably 66% or more the youth coaches have personal interest in the team or program outside of just a passion for the game. I feel that a lot of youth programs run by dads being out there. So although I'm not a fan of "daddy ball", I am a fan of dads coaching...who else is going to do it? If you don't want them coaching their son, that's cool, but they need to be in the program.
Me personally, I love coaching, and when my son moves on to middle school...I will still have my basketball and football teams. I am fully invested in teaching the game to children, but I probably would have never got involved if my son didn't play. I'd be too busy taking him to the playground instead of practice.

mhcoach,

thank you for your input...all of your points are very well taken

On to the original topic:

Some of these were too close to call as far as priority...but with a gun to my head...here is my list.

1 - Team Chemistry
2 - Player talent levels
3 - Scheme
4 - fundamentals
5 - lack of key injuries
6 - luck
7 - practice priorities
8 - size
9 - player development
10 - parental support
11 - game day management
12 - equipment/facilities
13 - age (I coach individual age groups)