Coach H
Sophomore Member
Posts: 146
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Post by Coach H on Oct 29, 2010 12:52:31 GMT -6
Coaches,
If your football program is in the heart of a community that is surrounded by drugs, alcohol, and violence. How do you turn them into winners? Also, There is a smaller school that is only a few miles away the wins.
Coach H.
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Post by gunrun on Oct 29, 2010 14:09:19 GMT -6
Sell it to the kids that football is their ticket out if they want to have a better life and show them your commitment to make that happen. Jim Tressel talks about the origins of the word coach, how it came from the word stagecoach--the coach helps to take people from where they are to where they want to be, like the stagecoach did back in the day. Sounds like you have your work cut out--emphasize to them getting better everyday and doing the right thing everyday and work to build on that daily success. Best of luck.
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tackle
Sophomore Member
Posts: 129
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Post by tackle on Oct 29, 2010 22:55:13 GMT -6
Your commitment to the team has to be way beyond football. You will have to build trust. A lot of kids in bad neighborhoods have been let down by adults. If you are respectful and loyal you will start to attract kids to you.
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Post by coachguy83 on Oct 30, 2010 0:43:39 GMT -6
I live in a very unusual community in that we are in a rural area, but face a lot of urban problems. We have a fairly high drop out rate, out fair share of teen pregnancy, and from reading the police blotters in the paper I would say drug and alcohol use is very high. Many of my players come from single parent homes and have no positive male role model in their lives. I try as best as I can to be that positive male role model and lead them by example and I believe the other coaches I coach do a very good job of also doing that.
We are still fighting to be as successful as we hope to be in terms of wins an loses, but in terms of reaching a lot of these kids we are being successful. I think the key is leading them by example and showing them what a man should act like. You respect them and guide them they will respond to you and you may just make a huge difference in a couple of their lives.
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Post by brophy on Oct 30, 2010 9:46:03 GMT -6
You have to earn their trust until they will fully buy in.
Give, give, give and then give some more. Just do it with clear guidelines, because the minute they see that you can be the mark, its over. Understand the 'triage' culture of crime / hustle; this is how your kids are filtering everything.
Be yourself and reach out/be inclusive (careful about throwing down punitive gauntlets on folks). Reach out and talk with the community/church leaders because that is an easy way to gain the support of the mommas and your future booster club members (because you won't have any money in the program)
Spend time engaging the kids outside of the game and the one thing they are looking for is for you to defend them/have their back.
After your first year, TAKE THE KIDS OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD on field trips. Go to state championship games, spring games, campus visits....anything to open their eyes to the world they don't normally see
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2010 10:48:01 GMT -6
So the key to coaching in a place like that is to focus on "winning" with kids in ways that aren't obvious on Friday nights?
I'm taking mental notes of all this stuff, as I expect to be working in a similar environment very soon.
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Post by phantom on Oct 31, 2010 10:53:20 GMT -6
Looking over the answers is it REALLY that much different from coaching anywhere else?
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Post by PSS on Oct 31, 2010 11:28:04 GMT -6
Looking over the answers is it REALLY that much different from coaching anywhere else? Phantom, no and yes. From my experience of coaching in a smaller community as described, those kids had very little to nothing. The coaches went and picked up kids before school. Took them home after school. We fed them quite often. The coaching staff became an extension of their family. It was a 24/7 job. Now I coach in a school that the kids are better off. Most have their own vehicles. But we win them over in a different way. We make sure they are getting to class. Talk to teachers about grades. Set up tutorials. Yes it building relationships and caring, but doing it in ways that fit the situation. Every situation is different. |
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