Small Town/Small School Football

Three years ago I coached at a school with an enrollment of around 120 kids in the high school... and around 400 for the whole school.

The town is VERY rural with very little commerce. (mainly farming town)

When I got there they had lost 20 in a row. We had no athletes, and ended up losing our first 9.

We won our last game to avoid the 0-30 streak.

But, as bad as all of that sounds... every home game was packed. Every little kid in the school just HAD to buy every shirt you could make.

But, the bottom line.. they will never win.. this year they have 18 kids on the team.. and that includes a few 8th graders.

But, it was a fun place to coach at.. the kids never missed practice, and the community loved their team win or lose.

If you know the coaching issues going in that doesn't need to be a problem. Seems like, as Air said, it can be a lot of fun. The question is can you live there? Rural life isn't for everybody.

i coached at a small school, we averaged 30-35 per season, this year is down to 27 players. problem we had was the school has been down for the last decade or so, lots of 1-9's, and not a very experienced coaching staff. i think it can be very beneficial to coach a small team. as stated above, you get to set some real relationships with the kids, a lot easier if you're not coaching 80 of them. in terms of winning, it's all about knowing your players attributes and playing to their strengths. if you get yourself a good staff, rally the locals and administration, good things can happen. just be ready for many up and down years. at small schools, talent can be stretched out and only come every couple years.

you get an opportunity to coach kids who would never have an opportunity to play at larger schools....and build life long bonds with those kids...probably won't have many college or pro athletes, but you will feel very proud when you see those young men being successful in that same small town....probably because they had the opportunity to play high school football and the lessons they learned carried on into life..... those kids don't get an opportunity in larger schools....

that in my opinion is the best part of coaching in a small community

It depends on the small town and the small school.

Small town politics can either make or break a program.

Then you've got to figure out if you'd be happy living in a small town. That's not for everyone.

Also, how small of a school and how small of a town are we talking here?

Around here, the smaller schools tend to be older and much more rural, built back before consolidation became the trend since the 70s. You may be working in a poorly maintained building that's at least 60 years old, with heat and AC that only work sparodically, leaky pipes, duct taped textbooks that date back to the Carter administration (seriously...), no computers in the school, etc. You may also deal with a higher proportion of parents who dropped out of school, religious conflicts, staff (and administrators) who only got where they are because of politics, etc. That's stuff to think about.

I can't imagine coaching at a school with fewer than 200 kids and trying to field a football team.

It's kind of fun when kids literally drive their tractors to school, though.

I coached in a huge district one year, but outside of that have played/coached in a small town/small district my entire life.

IMO, you learn more about the overall game and what goes into a program at a small school. I am not saying that can not be done at a large district, but in most small district you have to be the equipment manager, water boy, ankle taper, etc. You are also involved in all three phases of the game. You will never just be the freshmen DB coach and have no interaction with the varisty coaches. You will be the DB coach, WR coach, in charge of kickoff, and call the defense on saturdays. After the jv game, you will go back and break down film with the other coaches.

That being said, and someone mentioned it before, the level of coaching can be different. I would not say worse, because I have met some darn good small ball coaches, including many on here. In alot of cases you must be alot more creative when coaching small school ball. You often do not have the time to be highly technical. Preach the basics principles and fundamentals. You should worry about the advanced techniques. Kids are often learning at minimum 3 positons, and often times more. You might find yourself getting very frustrated teaching the finer points of a wrong arm when you only have 20 minutes a week of individual. Concentrate on making sure the player understands where he needs to be on a pull and that he gets there. If it is not textbook wrong arm, but he gets inside the trapper than you may have to live with it.

You also have to be convincing, not only for the kids but for yourself. Sure that kid weighs 130 pounds, but he fills on an iso. I have coached all-conference kids that would get laughed off the jv team for a large school. To me, that is what makes small school coaching so great. You very rarely have kids that just fit a position. So therefore, you have make sure your coaching fits the kid so he can fit the position.

The cons have been mentioned above. In most small schools, be happy with a DVD player and 32 inch tv. Technology might include a desktop computer that ran slow 10 years ago. Rumors and hear-say are part of any small town. With people living together for so long, many being related, and lack of much to do in many small towns, the school and football team are the focus of the town.

Coaching at a small school will definitely make you have to get all your eggs in the same basket.

Worked at a small 1A school for 6 years, 5 of those with the winningest coach of all time at the school. We had a declining enrollment from 240ish down to 200 in that span. Now we had some good athletes, going to the semis twice, and final once. We always had good numbers, averaging around 40 for varsity, with another 15 or so for JV (kids could play 8 quarters)

You will have to do more than coach football. You better learn/know how to coach another sport. Plus you will get stretched thin with all the extra stuff. Our header was a single guy, but when would he have time to find a honey? He was the HFB, HBB, H B&G Tr, drove a school bus, AD, and taught a full load (Sp Ed). Plus he had to cut all the athletic field, and cut grass around the high school and around the elementary school (right down the road).

Facilities will not be the greatest, but usually the community will do all they can to try and make the best of giving you what you need. The parents might not have money to give, but if you needed the hot water heater replaced, they would come in and fix it, or building a little make shift tunnel for the kids to run out on the field. We had a relative of one of the coaches run our concession stand, and man did we eat good. You will always have some skinny little kid wearing a XX pair of pants, with the knee pads flopping around his ankles.

The local mill would always be doing something for the team, sending a load on concrete to pour a pad for the cheerleaders, donating materials for the press box, getting a new sign for the score board, etc.... Not any money, but stuff they had laying around or left over.

Kids will be great b/c there is nothing else to do. Now you might have to pile them into the back of your pickup truck to go a 7-7, or take a load home every day after practice. We had a Dad volunteer, and all he really was glorified water boy, but sure helped by taking home 8-9 kids in the back of his truck everyday. Even the little things you do for kids will be greatly appreciated. Our HC, during track season would always find a way to go to a track meet near the coast. For many of those kids, it was the first time they had ever seen the ocean. One year a coach bought some spats for the kids to wear. I thought they were ugly, but the kids LOVED them. The DC created a club of defenders called the Lawyers. To become a lawyer, you had to do something big in game (big hit, big play, etc.... some special) and then you had to get nominated by the other lawyers on the team. If you were nominated, you then had to repeat the accomplishment to get 'striped'. If you did that, then the DC would put a blue stripe down the middle of the helmet. He then went further, if one of the lawyers did something else big, they could become a judge and have 2 stripes down their helmet. Just something the kids thought was a big deal. Take kids on road trips if you can afford it. Some of the kids never have that opportunity. The year we played in the finals, our game was at 11 AM in a neutral site, so we decided to go the night before and stay in a hotel. A bunch of our kids didn't have a suitcase/bag, much less a clue as to what to pack. We had another road trips (4 hours) and went by a major university on the way. So we arranged to take a little break and tour the stadium. You should have seen the looks on some of the kids faces.

Kids can be frustrating b/c this is all they got (way of life). You will have several kids every year that have the tools to make something better of themselves (athletic talent, brains, work ethic, etc...) but all they want to do is exactly what all their relatives/friends do, just get a job at the local mill, farm, etc.... Also, be aware of cultural differences. We never practiced on Labor Day b/c that is the 1st day of dove season. We had our starting FB show up late to a game b/c he had trouble getting a deer out of the woods he had shot that afternoon. We always had 1 or 2 kids that would leave Wed practice early b/c of church. Some of your kids will literally have never left the county. The only time they get to 'town' is to go to the dollar store for back to school stuff. We had kids that had never been to a mall before.

You can't always expect the kids to do the things you have done at a bigger school. Might be b/c of home expectations, they play multiple sports, or it just was never done that way. Now they will do what you expect them to do, but they might not always have the means to accomplish it.

Fund raising will be a huge hurdle. Most small towns just don't have the resources to give you all you want. Find a way to make the most of what you have available. You probably won't be able to do the card blitz, b/c you might not have enough local vendors/might not be cost effective b/c you might not be able to sell but a few hundred; however if you raffle off a shotgun/ATV or sell hash/BBQ, the fans will line up for that. You will probably have not trouble getting your team fed, those folks love to cook. Giving a meal to some one is a big deal.

You have to imaginative with your schemes and how you use players. One playoff game, our team had a pretty disappointing finish and barely made the playoffs, we took our starting QB and moved him to WR and let the tailback play QB. 1st play threw a fade to the QB and scored to go up 7-0 in the 1st 10 seconds of the game against the #1 seed. Ended up hanging on to win b/c of that 1st play.

You probably won't need 10 different coverages, 12 different blitzes, 15 different offensive formations, etc...... Find a niche for your kids and rep the heck out of it. On the flip side, trick plays or gadgets will often be the deciding factor of big games. We were a formation team. Our HC would never show the same formation on game night they had seen on tape. Often after half time, we had some little wrinkle saved up so they couldn't adjust to in the locker room. We ran our same basic plays, but would change our blocking rules base on how they would line up to our formations. I know that sounds strange, but our kids could learn those new rules b/c we keep them very basic/simple. Now that often caused us to box our selves in, but we usually had a good plan.

Make special teams a weapon. Most small schools often have to spend so much time on teaching the basics, that a well executed punt block scheme, KO return, etc... can be a difference maker.

Some small towns are wary of outsiders. They may like you, but they might ever accept you. My wife is also a teacher, and she made this comment to me. Now I literally knew everybody in the area and everybody knew my family. I grew up there. They tolerated her and were very nice to her, but she felt like she was never accepted. You will always be the coach from "........" Small town politics are no different that they are in larger communities, other than the fact you probably go to church with the pain the arse. Small town just don't have many folks moving in and out like bigger town do.

Often, your staff will be in constant flux. Let's face it, ambitious coaches will always look for the bigger, better job. If you have a good coach on staff, somebody will come looking for him. We were very fortunate to have a quality staff together for most of that time. Most of us were local boys who had left and come back home. Again, you have to make the most of the resources you have at hand. You will have to teach and train your coaches as much as your kids.

So far as living there, don't expect your cell phone to work all the time. You better go ahead sign up for a satellite service. High speed internet, think again. Might have to drive 30 miles to get to a grocery store. If you are a private person, don't expect much privacy. Everybody knows what everybody is doing, or at least thinks they do. You will probably be able to find a great deal on housing, but don't expect to be able to sell it quickly if you leave. I still have a house back down there. If they really like you, you might not have to every pay for a hair cut. Now you might have learn to like sideburns, whitewalls, flat tops, etc.... If you have never been in a small town, expect culture shock. If you have wife, you better be a good salesman or really good at something else

Also, those kids can be TOUGH. Those farm boys are used to physical labor and will work. Some of the best hitting players I have ever seen didn't know a form tackle from fishing tackle.

Also, when you do get that stud OG, DE, FB, etc..... your success will not depend on getting him to play at a high level, his talent will enable him to play at a high level. You success will depend on getting that OTHER OG to play well at 130 lbs running his 5.3 40

That's the point. Not everybody likes the same lifestyle. You really need to do your homework before you commit to a move because if you find out that you can't stand it then life can be miserable.

I currently coach at a Small A school in VA with an enrollment of 380 students.

I love the small school atmosphere. Like others have said you really get to know your students and players on a different level by the low numbers.

The downside is we struggle to get more than 20-25 kids on a team. Last season we finished with 16 varsity players grades 10-12. Right now we have 24. And, like others have said before some of the players that start both ways for us would probably never see the field at a bigger school. But to me thats what makes it a good place to be. Those kids will hold a special place in their hearts for football the rest of their lives.

Our school has NEVER been good at football. The best recorded season was 6-4 back in 1979. So we are fighting a major battle to make it IMPORTANT to them. We are slowly getting there. Luckily, there is a good group of Freshman coming up and an even better group of kids which will be 8th graders next year so hopefully we can get things turned around here. With low numbers it can be a rollercoaster ride with the talent level.

One of these years I want to try my hand at a bigger program so I can really focus on the Football aspect of things. But right now I'm enjoying the relationships involved at the lower level.

A guy I look up to greatly coached basketball and football at a small school for years. He basically said the same thing to me. He was offerend numerous jobs at big schools to coach basketball (he won 83% of his games as a basketball coach in 28 years as a head coach). He told me "everyone always asks why I didn't take the challenge of going to a bigger school. But I felt like it was more of a challenge to try to maintain what I had built with fewer players". He also cared about the kids/community/school greatly so it was hard for him to leave.

George W Bush, Ike Eisenhower, Thad Cochran, and Trent Lott were all cheerleaders.

I coach in a school with a population of just over 100 students and we're in a very small, isolated community. There isn't a football tradition down here; basketball is king. I've only got 15 kids right now (8 man football) but we'd have over 20if a few guys had been eligible. It has been a great situation for me because the school has a hard time getting and holding onto coaches and teachers because we're so isolated. The teams haven't had very good coaching over the years and when word spread that I appear to know what I'm doing (lol), a lot of enthusiasm developed quickly. We're actually competing now, the kids are having fun and the community and the school has really banded together around us.

I will say that the small-town attitude puts your under a microscope. When I go into town, people great me by name; people I have never met in my life. That can be tough because the small towns can be nosy and intrusive which I am kind of struggling with right now. There's some personal stuff going on in my life and there are folks who are prying into it. You just have to be conscious of that fact; the whole town will become aware of things in your life if you allow it. It can be very cliquey as well; people tend to square off in a hurry. I've been doing my best to keep my distance from the people I work with; I'm pleasant, but I don't join them in social situations.

here in texas..small town football is great. You either have an overbearing school board filled with unrealistic parents...or a fully cooperative one who will help you with anything you want.
Not much of an in between.
I personally love small town foootball...and I plan on getting back to it one of these days...hopefully sooner than later. One of the few downsides is the cut in pay you will take....