scottc
Sophomore Member
Posts: 149
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Post by scottc on Dec 7, 2010 13:33:47 GMT -6
A similar thread was started about missing practice to attend the world series but I am needing to revamp my miss policy. How do you handle the following situations:
If a player misses because he was:
Not at school that day
'self diagnosed' injury by himself or parent
'too sick to practice today but at school'
Just thoughts and input on what you guys do with these situations and not judging what one does is better etc. Just need some ideas to help this in my program.
Input on what type of make up work and how it affects playing time is what i am looking for...
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Post by airman on Dec 7, 2010 14:23:00 GMT -6
not at school depends on why he was not at school. if he skipped or if he was sick. our school has a policy is you are not at school you cannot come to practice.
we have a full time training staff so the self diagnosed injury would have to go by the training staff before he can come to practice again.
my basic rules are
if you miss practice and you do not have proper paper work you miss game time. proper paper work means not from home, note from teacher, not from principal.
If I get a note from a parent saying little johnny is injured then he has to prove he is injured, the prove he is not injured before he can come to practice again.
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Post by slseahawkfootball on Dec 7, 2010 20:47:56 GMT -6
This is a great topic and I hope that a lot of coaches chime in. We struggle with this as well. For the 2010 season we took accurate attendance, and that helped with keeping records and allowing for consistency in consequences.
Our policy is that no absence that is communicated after missing a practice - aside from a player or family member being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance - is considered "unexcused." When a player hits three unexcused absences, this player is suspended indefinitely and recommended for dismissal to our AD (who has to approve all decisions). By including this as part of the definition of what will be an "unexcused" absence to both players and parents in the pre-season reduces the number of great excuses used by kids to miss practice.
Next, we inform our kids that even if they let us know ahead of time that they are going to miss, it still may be counted as unexcused. If a player says five minutes before practice that they have to stay after school to take a quiz, and two hours later this player still hasn't reported to practice, the absences is marked as unexcused.
Like all coaches, if we have players missing critical practice time, they will miss playing time. We suspended several starters for the first quarter of our first playoff game this year because they were absent from the Monday practice that week.
I think for most part players who know that they are going to receive playing time make it to 99% of practices. It is the role playing kids or the kids who know that they are not likely to play that will work to not come to practice because of "excused" absences in many different forms... knowing that even if one of the absences is not excused, that they don't have any playing time at stake anyway. This is where I need help. How/what do other coaches include in their policies to keep this group accountable and invested? Right now we are seriously considering having cuts in 2011 to eliminate that portion of the team before they grow disinterested in November, right when our playoff run is starting... But cutting in August is not ideal if other policies are out there that effectively combat this dilemma.
Thanks!
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Post by coachplaa on Dec 7, 2010 22:41:53 GMT -6
Our message to the kids is if you come to practice, you will play in front of kids that miss practice. It works for us. Kids that miss practice aren't as prepared as lesser kids that miss a day of practice. If they miss two days of practice, they definitely won't be ready. I don't care how good they are. And if you play a kid that misses a day of practice, you send the absolute wrong message to the 95% of the team that is doing everything correctly and looking up to you as a coach.
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Post by rocketcoach on Dec 8, 2010 9:49:33 GMT -6
Brainstorming here:
I have wondered how it might effect things if we linked lettering with practice attendance. I know in some schools/regions that lettering is hallowed ground and you don't mess with the process. Maybe a shift in lettering qualifications, from game time or starting or percentage of quarters or whatever you do, to contributions other than the 48 minutes on a Friday night or some sort of blend of each. Can we reward kids for the 10+ hours a week they put into football the week before the 48 minutes under the lights. There are kids that don't contribute on the field but at our size we NEED those kids that come to practice everyday to give us someone to practice against, and maybe someday they will get there but we all know there are many that won't. They may not be "contributing" on Friday night but their "contribution" during the week is HUGE! If I'm a kid on the "scout team" and get my butt kicked every week only for a little clean-up time in a game and play in the JV game maybe I would be a little more willing to be there if I knew the program would recognize my efforts for being there day-in and day-out. Some kids/schools don't put much emphasis on lettering so it might not be as valuable in those settings but I just wonder what a blend of practice time and playing time would do for attendance, morale, etc. I lettered throughout and had buddies that knew it didn't matter how hard they worked or tried, they weren't going to be out there because of their ability level. I had to talk one out of quitting his senior year. This will be a hard sell to admin but I think I am going to work through this and come up with a workable blend. Maybe a kid that is there all the time gets a letter and the starters or those that would normally letter under regular qualifications get a certain pin for the letter? Maybe that kid has to put in two full seasons at a certain attendance percentage before they can letter? Just rambling and brainstorming here. Probably a new thread here!
Any thoughts?
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Post by mariner42 on Dec 8, 2010 10:06:23 GMT -6
Not here? Don't expect to play. If we're rolling, then we won't need you and if it's tight, then we need someone who is fully prepared, which isn't you.
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Post by TMGPG on Dec 8, 2010 12:14:53 GMT -6
1st unexcused practice- Miss the next game
2nd unexcused practice- Off the team
Has been our philosophy and in our handbook for the last 8 seasons and have not had many problems at all with players missing practice.
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Post by gunrun on Dec 8, 2010 13:54:25 GMT -6
Good definition of an unexcused absence. The less grey area, the better. Otherwise, kids will just show up whenever they want. I also like the idea of lettering kids that have put in work to make the team better.
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Post by coachplaa on Dec 8, 2010 17:19:56 GMT -6
They had better call or text before practice, not during or after practice. And telling their buddy to tell the coach they are going to miss is not acceptable.
We started using the "last one in" policy for kids that miss a practice, about 6 years ago. And to be honest, we have had VERY little of these problems since then. The message I keep sending the kids is if you want to play on Friday, you'd better be here the entire week of practice.
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Post by TMGPG on Dec 8, 2010 17:24:22 GMT -6
Well we don't have kids just show whenever. They are to be at any function no later than 10 min. early for the start time. An unexcused practice is anything that I do not know about prior to practice. Trust me, I had a kid try this during team camp my first year and sat him for the first game and have only had one other incident since 2002. Pretty sure they get the message that they better be at practice.
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Post by blb on Dec 8, 2010 17:58:05 GMT -6
Don't miss, don't be late.
"Coach, I want to play football!"
Fine. Then if you're not early you're late, and if you miss, you don't play.
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Post by TMGPG on Dec 9, 2010 8:41:46 GMT -6
I think the more we ask of them the better off they are and they like the discipline no matter what they say.
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Post by jgordon1 on Dec 9, 2010 9:35:08 GMT -6
This is a great topic and I hope that a lot of coaches chime in. We struggle with this as well. For the 2010 season we took accurate attendance, and that helped with keeping records and allowing for consistency in consequences. Our policy is that no absence that is communicated after missing a practice - aside from a player or family member being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance - is considered "unexcused." When a player hits three unexcused absences, this player is suspended indefinitely and recommended for dismissal to our AD (who has to approve all decisions). By including this as part of the definition of what will be an "unexcused" absence to both players and parents in the pre-season reduces the number of great excuses used by kids to miss practice. Next, we inform our kids that even if they let us know ahead of time that they are going to miss, it still may be counted as unexcused. If a player says five minutes before practice that they have to stay after school to take a quiz, and two hours later this player still hasn't reported to practice, the absences is marked as unexcused. Like all coaches, if we have players missing critical practice time, they will miss playing time. We suspended several starters for the first quarter of our first playoff game this year because they were absent from the Monday practice that week. I think for most part players who know that they are going to receive playing time make it to 99% of practices. It is the role playing kids or the kids who know that they are not likely to play that will work to not come to practice because of "excused" absences in many different forms... knowing that even if one of the absences is not excused, that they don't have any playing time at stake anyway. This is where I need help. How/what do other coaches include in their policies to keep this group accountable and invested? Right now we are seriously considering having cuts in 2011 to eliminate that portion of the team before they grow disinterested in November, right when our playoff run is starting... But cutting in August is not ideal if other policies are out there that effectively combat this dilemma. Thanks! We have been thinking of cuts too...We had very little problem w/ the varsity....I think you need to take time away from the JV games..My problem was I tracked misses but never communicated to the JV coaches to sit those guys down..consequently, we had problems w/ the JV squad...This is my first year as a HC and keeping my thumb on those guys is going to be a much bigger (unfortunatley) priority for me next year |
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