When did you know you wanted to coach?

I started doodling crap in my school tablet when I was about 10. My Mom dug some out of the attic a couple of years ago and it was funny stuff. Guess you could say that I was the original creator of the A11.

I knew I wanted to coach in college, but I thought I had to return home to prep to take over the family business. Growing up, I heard time and time again, that I was the fourth generation, blah, blah, blah. Growing up, my dad volunteered at the local high school so after college, I did the same. I only lasted three years before I went back to school to get my Masters in Education...been coaching ever sense.

When I was just into coaching I thought about getting into another profession. As I looked at other things I could even imagine myself anywhere but coaching. 14 years later (which I know isn't many years compared to most) I know I made the right decision and couldn't imagine doing anything else.

In 6th grade, I can remember turning in homework with plays doodled all over it. That was when I started to really learn to love the game. Never thought about coaching though until injury ended my college playing days and I spent one fall away from the game; it drove me nuts! Helped out a local freshman team the next summer and felt like I'd found my "calling"

I was always the kid that doodled plays to use playing touch football on the playground. I would draw up a shhet with four or five plays and fold it up and put it in my pocket. We'd be in the huddle and I'd break it out and show it to the guys. Back then it was just because I loved the game.

My first taste of coaching actually came when I was 15 and helped coach my little brothers soccer team. The dad that was HC didn't really know anything about soccer he was just there to look like a good dad and hit on soccer mom's. So at 15 I begin working with kids and found that I really enjoyed it, and I was actually pretty good at it. That yeat my team lost only one game and finished second in the league.

However football was always my true passion and a couple of years ago I decided to get back into it as a coach. I've spent the past two years coaching at the youth level, first 9-10 year olds and then MS age kids and I love it. This year I'm working on becoming a teacher and coaching at the HS level for the first time. If football is my passion working with young people is slowly becoming my lifes work.

my father coached me growing up... so i spent all my free time watching clinic videos, coaching instructional videos, and going to every clinic nearby with him as he learned and prepared for every season...

i was raised up being drilled and taught technique... he never forced me to do it, i have always been passionate about the game, but he showed me another side that most kids never see outside of practice... the hours put in fine tuning the "coach" so that he can present the best information possible... sparked something in me that through HS ball, College ball, and the short humble Arena experience i had i studied like crazy...

didnt hurt that my HS coaches had all lettered in the SEC as well, and taught me some priceless gems...

from my dad on... i honestly have always been around some ridiculously smart football men... i naturally strived to mirror them...

side note... i minister in different churches, and youth functions, and i STILL to this day teach certain principles from the pulpit that some of my HS coaches taught me about the game/life... when someone makes an impact on you like that, how could you not want to be that to someone else?

"E"

When I was a freshman in high school. My dad was a coach and I volunteered to help coach a 6th grade team while I was in high school. I enjoyed it but it really clicked after that first season was over and parents told me how much their kids looked up to me.

I loved playing the game. I was a bit of a jackass and got into trouble but football was the one thing that kept me in line. In high school, I loved studying film and I had great high school coaches. My HS head coach was a father-figure and influenced me alot. I started coaching varsity football when I was 19 and I don't think I could live without it

It is awesome that many of you have coaching in your bloodlines, I don't. I come from a long line of non-athletes.
Starting coaching my brothers when I was in 7th grade, in the yard of course.
Didn't get my own team until my Freshman year in college.

I remember drawing plays all the time in my Sophomore English class when I was in high school.

Orginally I wanted to get into communications and be a sports broadcaster. Teaching was always something that I had thought about (mom was a teacher for 37 years) and in my senior year I decided that I would much rather teach and coach.

Been doing it now for three (four if you count my student coaching/student teaching year in college) and can't see myself doing anything else.

I never knew that I wanted to coach...I always thought I would grow up and join the family construction business...the most of you are probably too young to remember but I graduated college in Jan 83..there was a big recession at the time..my father closed his business and basically retired..he was the same age in am now..after I was done playing football..I wanted to play for the newly formed USFL Boston Breakers..three of my teammates got tryouts so I thought..what about me...my college coach had to break the news to me that even though I was a starter I basically sucked...he said it nicer than than...so he asked me if I might like to coach (volunteer) and that he knew someone on the Breakers..he called him up a couple of weeks later I interviewed w/ the HC (Coach Dick Coury) he asked me when I could start..I said right now..the DC at the time (Doug Kay) literally haned me $5 and told me to go to Dunkin Donuts to get coffee for everyone and buy one for myself ($5 was plenty at the time)..I came back..drank the coffeee and started drawing the playbook with one of those big green templates..we were working in a hotel bedroom in Boston so I had to draw the stuff on the floor...it was the best first coaching job anyone ever had and I lucked into it...a couple of side notes..our qb coach was Roman Gabriel.always had a big chew in his mouth..even for picture day...Our DL coach was Curtis Jones whose son was about 7 at the time but grew up to be Corby Jones starting qb at Mizzou when they were good

I grew up a coaches son,grandson, and nephew of a coach. From the time I was in 1st grade, I knew what I wanted to do. I don't remember the exact moment, but I knew very early what I wanted to do with my life. I absolutely loved going to coaches clinic. It was summer vacation for me. I used to pride myself on knowing as many coaches as possible and where they coached at the time and where they had been. Nothing like being a coaches kid. Free T-shirts, everyone in town knew you, and I thought I was God's gift to the ball boy position. I was one of those that would scout "my opponent" during pregame. I would draw up these plays that dad should run that week. I can remember falling asleep on the couch at the fieldhouse at a road game, nights where dad couldn't sleep, calls at 10 o clock at night from pissed off parents. I mean I have seen it all and Wouldn't trade for it.

I got the opportunity to play D2 ball. I was a 3rd generation small college football player. My grandfather, father, and myself all played in the same conference. I can't imagine my life without football. Dad is still coaching and I am trying to soak EVERYTHING in, before he finally hangs it up. We are currently on the same staff together and it has been a blast!!! He is the most influential person in my life. I have learned so much about the game from him, but also about administration, parents, ordering uniforms, film breakdown, etc. Being a coaches kid sometimes got me in trouble during meetings and practice. Example: I can remember one day when I was playing. Brand new, hot shot DC comes in and says, "we are going to be running a 3-4" He goes to draw it on the board and I raise my hand and say, "Coach, isn't that just a double eagle 50 with a drop end." He looked at me, like what is a 50? I looked around the room with my fellow teammates and "future coaches" and I kid you not, one asked me what a 50 was. At that moment, I knew just how special it was being a coaches kid.

Dad (current OC) is an old SBV, flexbone guy who we still run all three veers. Midline, IV, OV but out of the gun with 2x2, 3x1 sets. It has been so much fun watching the option evolve. I am absolutely sold on the option game and love where we are at. I'm at every coaches clinic and love learning as much as I can. Some of the best information I ever got from dad was, "Every speaker you listen to, take away one thing."

Great topic dubber! So many great stories! Love it!

I dunno, maybe 8th grade? Definitely by my sophomore year of HS. Major factor was my frosh/JV head coach, love that guy, twisted ol' bastage that he may be...

Since 5th grade or so. I knew my playing days would end and I knew I wanted to be around it. From about 5th grade on I read everything I could get my hands on about the game. I was always trying to figureout how teams did things. It just grew from there. I honestly got playing time for 2 reasons. 1) I would hit 2) I honeslty could tell you what every position was suppose to do on offense and defense while in HS. I knew the techinques everyone used.

I also spent a large amount of time on scout team O because I understood how things were suppose to work. I also would get ticked at our OC who was running the scout O. I would just think to myself that is not how they lined up, or ran it and the likes.

It was the 6th grade,

On Monday mornings at the beginning of the day, we had Mrs. Cunningham for social studies, (we had PE class right afterwards). You NEVER missed school on Mondays. During class we would take turns picking teams and played 5 on 5 football during PE. And the teams were good for the entire week. The reason that you never missed class was there was this kid who always wanted to play football with us and he was horrible, so they only way he could get on a team was if one of the regulars were out on Monday and we needed a body.

Well, a buddy and me would go out into my back yard and draw up pass routes and we numbered them 1-6 ( our own personal passing tree). If one of us was the QB in PE, we would holler to the other a number for that play (hey we were no huddle WAY before the Bills....)

Funny thing, the pass routes were all based off us using this little pear tree my dad had planted in the back yard as our DB. We soon realized that running in circles around the tree and then taking off was not the same as doing that to a person. So, we had to go back to the drawing board (my back yard) and redesign our offense.

That and the fact that even when I was young I appreciated my little leage coaches taking time to teach me the game. I always knew that I would end up coaching little man football.

It just so happened along the way to becoming an attorney, I realized I would rather teach high school, and of course coaching football fell right in with that.