Standards for Classroom/School Behavior

If they are eligible and don't miss practice.

During season any grade below a 70% in any class means mandatory study hall before school with me. Any discipline problems the Principal will handle and we will also have extra stuff after practice for them to do.

We have used a series of "Incentive" program and other academic/behavior/character development programs in the past.

They've worked very well, as our GPA's increased, disciplinary problems decreased, school attendence went up, and overall group morale and attitudes improved. There are a number of ideas and programs that we used, that I have attached in a .pdf.

"The Champions Club" has been really successful in the past for us.
(It's on pages 8-10 of the attachment.) It rewards things like positive attitude, attendance, good grades, reliability and accountability, etc.
While these are all things that "should be done anyway" ... we all know that they're often not. After all, kids are kids, and will sometimes do dumb things. So, the more we can do to help get them squared away, the better it makes our own situation... we shave-off a lot of the potential problems we might otherwise end up dealing with in the future.

@ Coach FD. This is a great piece. Glad that I downloaded it, and more importantly, I READ IT! Great "blueprint" for what can and must be done with today's high school players. Great post!

I gave my admn a roster of the team. Anytime any one of my players are called to the assistant principals office I get an email from her telling me about the player who was in trouble. That day at the end of practice EVERYBODY has extra conditioning for that player getting in trouble. After a few times of that extra conditioning the players start to police theirselves and its no longer an issue. I not only do that for getting in trouble at school but things such as back talk at practice or loafs that I count on film or at practice. This is one of the best things I have ever done as a coach.

I'm in a unique situation here. We still use corporal punishment for behavior problems. If an athlete is a behavior problem in class they get a "pop" from a coach. Needless to say we don't have many discipline problems.

BTW, this is a school policy also. If it happens to be an athlete they are referred to us.

I try my best to hold my kid's behavior and grades in check throughout the school year.

The principal gives me a little time at the first teacher's meeting of the year and I make a blanket statement saying that the players will be wearing a jersey on friday, if they have ANY issues with my kids - academically, behaviorally, attendance, etc - to just let me know and I will do my best to handle it.

Some teachers have trusted that right away, some have come a long more slowly but are coming around and some will bust every kid no matter what.

My presence is felt throughout the building. I have 2 plan periods and they know it. It's not going to be a positive thing for the kid if I walk by their room and see them sleeping. I will go into that class and I will wake them up and it is going to be a situation. And I as I get to know their parents better and better every day I gain more and more leway in how I handle them.

On Monday my MIKE was sleeping in his math class as I walked by, so I went in the room, tapped him on the back of the head and told him to wake up, then asked the teacher if he needed to be seated, she said "no" so I took his chair and made him stand up the rest of the period. Now she eventually let him sit back down but that builds a positive relationship with that teacher. He went home and told him mom, who later texted me "Thanks for what you did today and going above and beyond for Logan." I asked him what she said and he said "She said GOOD, you shouldn't have been sleeping in class anyway."

It's gotten to the point now that teachers will email me about a kid messing around in class, my email comes directly to my phone (love the iPhone btw) - if I get that kind of email, I text that kid instantly and tell him to chill out. - it works wonders.

Is it a higher standard? I don't think so. I think it's the standard that is the standard. Be where you're suppose to be, be there on time and do what you're suppose to be doing.
How hard is that?

I'm not really an extreme hard@ss with them either. Educationally speaking I always talk to them in terms of graduation, college or eligibility for football or college. It's almost always an educated and blunt honest conversation sprinkled with character/respect aspects.

Grades wise - I speak to the player first, ask him if he needs help in whatever class. If he needs it I'll find someone to help him. Either way he has exactly 5 days to get that grade moving in the right direction or I involve his parents.

I have a stud WR/CB with marginal grades, I've been on him about his grades, I employed his GF to help me help him get his grades - and she is freakin gorgeous, so she was awesome leverage, he really out kicked his coverage on that girl. His grades had come up some, but not where I wanted them to be so I sent him this text: "Apparently taking you to Michigan was a waste of time. You can't get into a school like that with grades like yours."

and what do you know - like magic - A's and B's...except for science but we are working on it. Tiffany is on the case. He commented the other day "Coach, I've got to be the only guy in America who has to take a science quiz before my girlfriend will go out with me." Haha.
Heck if I was 17 and dating that girl I would be smarter than Stephen Hawking if science quiz was a date requirement for her.

In my opinion - it does no one, me, the kid, the program, the school any good to have a great athlete with a 2.0. If that's the best he can do, that's one thing but 99.9% of the time it's not. I know not all of my kids will go on to college, but when they leave my hands, they will have the grades and the course work to where that is an option if they so chose.

A coaches dream, no doubt.

1. Grade checks every couple of weeks. I am in a small school and it doesn't take much for me to figure out how the kids are doing in school. If they have anything below a C, they run their a$$es off until that grade comes up. I would sit them for a game but numbers don't really allow me to do so.

2. If they get in school suspension on Monday-Thursday, they run their a$$es off. If they get it Friday, they don't play. I don't care if it's a half a period, they don't play. One day of out of school suspension and they don't play that week. Two days and they're gone from the team. This is all relative too; I had a kid who was kicked out for a day because he sexually harassed a girl. I found out the specifics (nasty little sh-t) and I booted him, no questions asked.

3. I have two preps as well and I wander the halls when I can and I catch football players screwing around. They run for it.

Honestly, if you're in a position to hold the kids to a higher standard, friggin do it.

How lenient am I? Not at all. WTF you mean lenient? No.

Lets see - last year first day of practice we had 9 kids late. So I calmly told them "guys, this isn't going to work, we have to be here on time. This is a friendly warning, next time won't be so friendly." Very next day - 13 kids late. I didn't say a word. Kids came out for warm-up I lined them all up along the sideline, told them to lay down parallel with the sideline...and I rolled them...like you would roll in the grass as a kid. I rolled them across the field, then we ran a gasser (width of the field twice), then I rolled them back, then ran another gasser, then we went straight into our conditioning circuit for the next 25 minutes.

No one quit - I was surprised by that. Some stopped like they weren't going to keep rolling...mistake. I told them "go home, don't come back, we DO NOT NEEEED YOU."

No one was late the rest of camp.

I rolled them again once we were in season because after 8 days of school 3 players had 5 tardies to class. I rolled the entire team and announced that Jim, Jeff and John couldn't figure out how to get to class on time, and since the behavior of 3 reflected on all, we all should experience the effects. - I did have to send out an email to the staff and tell them that those 3 students may have some "assistance" getting to class for a few days. - I was smart to send that email, apparently all 3 were escorted to class everyday for 2 weeks. (it's like Ron White said "I don't know how many it would have taken to whoop my @ss...but I knew how many they were going to use).
~one of the kids was late 3 times to first period. His mother brings him to school. After we rolled for it she catches me after practice and tells me she's sorry, it's not his fault, she's the reason he was late. I told her "I don't care why he's late. Late is late. But if you can't get him to school on time then maybe you should be the one rolling." I'm sure that got me crossed off the christmas card list but he hasn't been late to school again this year.

Later in the year there was some screwing around at practice. I told them to knock it off a few times, they didn't so we ran some gassers - 3 of them. First one we did 5 up/downs at every intersection. So 5 to start, 5 at the first hash, 5 at the 2nd hash, 5 on the other sideline, and 5 on each of them both trips across the field. Then the 2nd gasser they had 5 pushups at each intersection and on the 3rd 5 situps at each.

That's pretty much the only 3 things I had to do this year for any kind of discpline things. After the rolling experience all I had to do was say "guys, I'm asking you nicely...next time I won't be asking" and someone would always say "yea, next time we will be rolling."

and after the "Happy Trail" (my nickname for the gassers with up/downs, pushups and situps) we didn't have any more grap@ssin at practice.

There is a running aspect to anything in football, but we don't just take off and run to run. They didn't sign up for cross country.

dc, I love reading your posts.

If you ever write a book I'll be first in line.

I'm not a big punishment guy unless we're talking about disciplinary issues in school or grades.

I handle on the field bullsh-t pretty simply; "GO SIT AND THE STANDS AND BE A SPECTATOR. COME BACK WHEN YOU WANT TO BE A PLAYER! DON'T TAKE REZ TIME DECIDING EITHER!"

It's their choice; come back within a reasonable amount of time or go away for good. I had in the stands until the end of practice and I told him that he made his decision and he needed to get his a$$ off of my field for good.

I very rarely punish the whole team for something. Unless they really mess up and I need to send a message. We were beating a team 57-7 this last year and our guys decided that they didn't like the PAT call(we hadn't been making them) and wanted to run the "Fire" fake and throw it in to the end zone. We did "Run-Bear-Runs" (20 yard sprint, 20 yard bear crawl) up and down the field for 30 minutes.

But, I prefer dealing with things at an individual level. It's easier just to remove the kid than futz with him for being an idiot.

Run them while having them recite Shakespeare, the noble gasses, and the quadratic formula. And then, follow PSS's example and smack 'em.