what do you say when kid come to say he's quitting

i ask them if they are sure. Explain how quitting is a life long punishment. Ask them once again. If they still say they are, i explain that they can return NEXT YEAR after the team decides if they can return.

All good stuff.

We tell kids that we will not accept a "quit" decision immediately. We tell them that they have great friends and people that care about them on the team, and that we want them to be a part of thigs. We tell them (especially if they are troubled) that we think football is a good thing for them, and we can see that they are benefiting from being involved. We tell them that they don't want to make a decision they may later regret, and that they should think about it over the next few days and return with a decision.

This is a tough question to answer because it really depends on the situation.

We've actually gotten a good deal of kids change their minds, because they have time to put it and everything you've told them into perspective.

Can't save 'em all, but you can certainly try.

You tell the kid that its a huge life long mistake.

while football isnt for everyone it is the coaches job to make everyone feel important and create ownership and pride in the program...even the biggest scrub can be proud to wear the jersey if he feels hes contributing somewhere. too often , way too often kids give up the great game of football because of coaches that are just arrogant jerks. guys that are verbally abusive and break down 15 year olds so they can entertain their favorites...its a real sin. you wont believe how much work i do on the jr high level to repair damage that was done to kids at the 10 year old level. and many times the kids quit again in high school because its too much work or they are mistreated...somewhere along the line a coach has to make it fun and important for the kids to belong...every kid must be made to feel important...its not an exact science for sure as each kid is different.

a few years ago, my backup center told me that he was quitting because his school work was suffering. i made sure his parents knew that quitting at football would lead to quitting at anything that was tough in life. i also made sure that boys grades were darn good. he started every game at center for me the following year. i feel pretty good about that.

We try to find out why, talk about how quitting has negative impacts for life, discuss the facts that football is not for everyone, collect up their stuff and tell them not to let the door hit them on the way out.

Quit now, and it will just be that much easier to quit later on in life when things don't go way the way you want them to. Ask them how they plan on supporting their families or themselves in the real world if they quit a job everytime their boss tells them to do something they don't want to. As others have stated, find out why...if it is to work to help the family pay bills in extreme circumstances, what can you do other than tell the kid you're sorry he has to become an adult so quick and not be able to have a full childhood. Give him a hug and tell him he can come back whenever he can afford to. Might even offer this kid some type of support role on a part time basis so he can still be a part of it in some sort of fashion. That will be in very few cases.

I agree with aleator...give them 24 hours, and if they would rather be doing something else, then that's what they need to be doing. Otherwise, their attitude will slowly spread to others. Attitudes are contagious, and you want guys out there who love the game and are comitted to winning.

just tell them: "the last day to quit was yesterday, sorry, but you missed it."

That is awesome, pegleg!

I will often pose the following:

When you are 30, someone will ask you if you played high school football. Do you want to say yes, or I did but then I quit.

I tell the kid the same thing as many of you (quitting is a habit, team-mates are counting on you....)

I also tell them that if you stay with us, on graduation you will give me a big hug and tell me thanks coach for not letting me make the biggests mistake of my life. Or you will run into me 5 years from now and ask me why I did not say more to convince me to stay out.

I believe that if they're thinking about quitting, they'll quit on their teamates and you when it gets tough. Screw them... I'd rather lose with kids I can depend on than win with great athletes who have bad attitudes.....don't get me wrong, I'll try to keep them, but there's a point where it's not worth it...part of coaching is knowing who to push & who to pull

i agree with ci

for some i will say, there is the door
for others i may talk to them and have them sleep on it for a few days

Depends on what kid it is.

Real good stuff,
When I was a freshman, I was ready to quit, I pulled the coach aside and told him after practice that I wanted to quit. He told me to take a week off, think about it, and get back to him. I came back ready to play and never looked back. I ended up a 3 year letterman and team captain my senior year.
I've now been coaching football at my alma mater since I graduated(This will be my 10th year....Thanks Coach Peluso...thank you all coaches

that's the one I use the most

surprising how often it works too