Post by davecisar on May 20, 2010 8:14:19 GMT -6
Some coaches have shared their nightmare season stories. Lets talk about nightmares that were turned around and how you did it.
Here is one from a few years back: age 13-14 “B” team. I fired the head coach and his staff just 3 days prior to their first game. This coach had stacked his team by taking walk up kids and NOT sending them up to the “A” team for evaluation. HE did this after I explicitly told him not to- it’s cheating. One player was very good and 235 lbs, another easily one of the top 3-4 backs at the “A” Division. In order to be fair everyone in the league puts their best on “A” the remainder on “B”, otherwise it’s cheating/stacking. This team also had coaches that refused to honor their coaches contract as to practice methodology. Their practice priorities way out of whack our base play- what the entire offense is based on- they had it wrong- total lack of effort to learn what we were doing, ex DI football player. Team totally lacking in fundamental skills development- really focused his time on cals/conditioning/pass catching. He had the coolest looking precise cals and agilities- 40 minutes worth every practice
After seeing there was no way to salvage the situation, I fired them all. Myself and another coach who were both head coaching other teams took this team over and committed to practicing 2 days a week with them- we had other obligations. We immediately sent 4-5 of the very best true “A” kids to the “A” team. We had a revolt with parents- the former HC had not communicated our expectations, mission and approach to the parents or kids- now 4 weeks into the season. They were NOT happy us sending the best players up, one of which ended up scoring 10-12 TDs that season at “A”. They felt their kids were getting shortchanged. Players thought we were going to get killed. One player didn’t have a position- he was the kicker, coach was ‘saving his leg”, he quit when we told him he was going to have a position on both offense and defense. We were down to 19 kids after 2 quick quits when this coach torpedoed the decision- talked to parents, tried to get everyone to walk out and quit, lots of phone calls and DRAMA etc etc So I lost 6 of the 25 kids before I got started and would lose another 3 more:
I met with the parents, set expectations, let them know it was going to be a struggle, but that the end result was we were going to have fun, everyone would be treated with respect and eventually we were going to be a sound football team. The positives were, everyone was going to play a lot, since we only had 19 kids and at 7-8 grade you can always count on injuries. Im known as being a bit strict, so some of the kids were very apprehensive and disappointed their original coach would no longer be coaching them. We went into game 1 with just 2 plays, an off tackle run and wedge. Defensively, he had not taught the kids anything- we put the base defense in the day before the game. We lost by just 2 TDs that first game, thanks to us using the clock up we went max slowdown from the opening gun and getting an onside kick back twice, I was ecstatic we had not lost by 40.
Slowly but surely we were building trust, with the kids through our actions and our character development program. The week of game 2, our starting QB and OLB broke his arm in a skateboard accident. We got him to keep coming to practice, but that meant we had a VERY weak backup QB starting and no one as a backup to him. So we pressed one of our RBs into service and put a direct snap series in. Game 2, we went in with 4 plays and an emergency back up offense. We lost by just a TD, progress. Game 3- our only “striped” player who started on the line on both sides- first year kid but making some nice progress. He tells me he cant play anymore, his dad got moved to a prison in Missouri AND the only time they can visit him is on same days we play. We win game 3 in very unlikely fashion- we quick kick from our own 10, the safety has no idea what is going on and “downs” the ball, touching it to the ground, but not securing it, we snatch it up and run it in for winning TD. Game 4 we lose another player, he is living with his sister also a teen- no mom/dad, he gets kicked out of school- per our code, he cant play. We do however pick up a player that played for us a few years ago and quit- since we are down to 16 kids, the league says we can add him. We had been talking to our kids and praying/asking them to recruit their friends to play, they beat the bushes and bring us a serciceable player. I have twins on this team 78 lbs- Im not exaggerating, 78 lbs first year players and IM playing them. Great kids, horrific athletes, chess player types. But the kids see we care about these kids, coaching them up, giving them rides from practice, getting them into games etc. Long story short, we end up winning out and taking 2nd place, our biggest margin of victory: 6 points.
We won another very unlikely game to take 2nd, we score to go ahead with less than 2 minutes to go, the clock goes out. The ref DOESN’T have a stop watch so he has someone from the home side (not us) keep track on his signal. After a MINIMUM what felt like 5 minutes go by, I finally complain and he says “4 more plays, games over” ,shrugging his shoulders. They score on the very next play. They kick to us, our kid runs it back for the winning TD, our first descent KO return of the season. But wait they still get 2 plays, guess who makes the tackle on their big 140 lb FB in the open field to seal the game? Yep the 78 lb kid who NEVER made a single open field tackle EVER in practice. Our injured QB came back for that last game and helped us limp to an unlikely win. Our starting FB was an 80 lb kid by the name of Oscar Simon, who had never started a game for us in 4 seasons in the backfield- we looked like the land of misfit toys team. Character/chemistry teams dont quit. One of our starting Wings hadn’t played the previous year, I had kicked him out of the program for throwing his helmet after a bad play 2 years ago- he didn’t like me, his parent really disliked me. He was the player that returned the kick for the winning score, he ended up being very respectful of me and his parent less hateful.
We made sure we developed trust early and over encouraged everything these kids did. We were firm with the parents and kids and made sure even though we were very short on practice time, that we made time to have fun at every practice. Every kid knew he was important and that we cared about them and valued them as players and people. We were scared stiff before every game, we needed every kid to show. We shortened the games, were outstanding at onside kicks and cross trained our rears off, heck that direct snap emergency QB series ended up winning us a couple of games but the main reason we did well: building trust, parent management, team management, chemistry dev, character dev, motivation skills
Here is one from a few years back: age 13-14 “B” team. I fired the head coach and his staff just 3 days prior to their first game. This coach had stacked his team by taking walk up kids and NOT sending them up to the “A” team for evaluation. HE did this after I explicitly told him not to- it’s cheating. One player was very good and 235 lbs, another easily one of the top 3-4 backs at the “A” Division. In order to be fair everyone in the league puts their best on “A” the remainder on “B”, otherwise it’s cheating/stacking. This team also had coaches that refused to honor their coaches contract as to practice methodology. Their practice priorities way out of whack our base play- what the entire offense is based on- they had it wrong- total lack of effort to learn what we were doing, ex DI football player. Team totally lacking in fundamental skills development- really focused his time on cals/conditioning/pass catching. He had the coolest looking precise cals and agilities- 40 minutes worth every practice
After seeing there was no way to salvage the situation, I fired them all. Myself and another coach who were both head coaching other teams took this team over and committed to practicing 2 days a week with them- we had other obligations. We immediately sent 4-5 of the very best true “A” kids to the “A” team. We had a revolt with parents- the former HC had not communicated our expectations, mission and approach to the parents or kids- now 4 weeks into the season. They were NOT happy us sending the best players up, one of which ended up scoring 10-12 TDs that season at “A”. They felt their kids were getting shortchanged. Players thought we were going to get killed. One player didn’t have a position- he was the kicker, coach was ‘saving his leg”, he quit when we told him he was going to have a position on both offense and defense. We were down to 19 kids after 2 quick quits when this coach torpedoed the decision- talked to parents, tried to get everyone to walk out and quit, lots of phone calls and DRAMA etc etc So I lost 6 of the 25 kids before I got started and would lose another 3 more:
I met with the parents, set expectations, let them know it was going to be a struggle, but that the end result was we were going to have fun, everyone would be treated with respect and eventually we were going to be a sound football team. The positives were, everyone was going to play a lot, since we only had 19 kids and at 7-8 grade you can always count on injuries. Im known as being a bit strict, so some of the kids were very apprehensive and disappointed their original coach would no longer be coaching them. We went into game 1 with just 2 plays, an off tackle run and wedge. Defensively, he had not taught the kids anything- we put the base defense in the day before the game. We lost by just 2 TDs that first game, thanks to us using the clock up we went max slowdown from the opening gun and getting an onside kick back twice, I was ecstatic we had not lost by 40.
Slowly but surely we were building trust, with the kids through our actions and our character development program. The week of game 2, our starting QB and OLB broke his arm in a skateboard accident. We got him to keep coming to practice, but that meant we had a VERY weak backup QB starting and no one as a backup to him. So we pressed one of our RBs into service and put a direct snap series in. Game 2, we went in with 4 plays and an emergency back up offense. We lost by just a TD, progress. Game 3- our only “striped” player who started on the line on both sides- first year kid but making some nice progress. He tells me he cant play anymore, his dad got moved to a prison in Missouri AND the only time they can visit him is on same days we play. We win game 3 in very unlikely fashion- we quick kick from our own 10, the safety has no idea what is going on and “downs” the ball, touching it to the ground, but not securing it, we snatch it up and run it in for winning TD. Game 4 we lose another player, he is living with his sister also a teen- no mom/dad, he gets kicked out of school- per our code, he cant play. We do however pick up a player that played for us a few years ago and quit- since we are down to 16 kids, the league says we can add him. We had been talking to our kids and praying/asking them to recruit their friends to play, they beat the bushes and bring us a serciceable player. I have twins on this team 78 lbs- Im not exaggerating, 78 lbs first year players and IM playing them. Great kids, horrific athletes, chess player types. But the kids see we care about these kids, coaching them up, giving them rides from practice, getting them into games etc. Long story short, we end up winning out and taking 2nd place, our biggest margin of victory: 6 points.
We won another very unlikely game to take 2nd, we score to go ahead with less than 2 minutes to go, the clock goes out. The ref DOESN’T have a stop watch so he has someone from the home side (not us) keep track on his signal. After a MINIMUM what felt like 5 minutes go by, I finally complain and he says “4 more plays, games over” ,shrugging his shoulders. They score on the very next play. They kick to us, our kid runs it back for the winning TD, our first descent KO return of the season. But wait they still get 2 plays, guess who makes the tackle on their big 140 lb FB in the open field to seal the game? Yep the 78 lb kid who NEVER made a single open field tackle EVER in practice. Our injured QB came back for that last game and helped us limp to an unlikely win. Our starting FB was an 80 lb kid by the name of Oscar Simon, who had never started a game for us in 4 seasons in the backfield- we looked like the land of misfit toys team. Character/chemistry teams dont quit. One of our starting Wings hadn’t played the previous year, I had kicked him out of the program for throwing his helmet after a bad play 2 years ago- he didn’t like me, his parent really disliked me. He was the player that returned the kick for the winning score, he ended up being very respectful of me and his parent less hateful.
We made sure we developed trust early and over encouraged everything these kids did. We were firm with the parents and kids and made sure even though we were very short on practice time, that we made time to have fun at every practice. Every kid knew he was important and that we cared about them and valued them as players and people. We were scared stiff before every game, we needed every kid to show. We shortened the games, were outstanding at onside kicks and cross trained our rears off, heck that direct snap emergency QB series ended up winning us a couple of games but the main reason we did well: building trust, parent management, team management, chemistry dev, character dev, motivation skills
