Getting kids to care

Million dollar question coach. We are in year 2 of our rebuild and dealing with the same problem. My resume has been upgraded and hopefully i can take the next step in my career, because this place is going to kill my career and I aspire to be a head coach.

I think having a tough off season strength and conditioning program can help but not necessarily cure the problem. Those who don't really care will quit and the ones who do care will be better bc of it

Weight room has been an issue for us here. This is year 3 and my first in the building. In charge of the weight room finally and have roughly half our kids in there. But those who aren't in there, they won't get a lift out of season because the other sports here don't lift at all. No $hit, the track coach doesn't want his kids to lift in season because they will get sore, bball doesn't want to do extra work, bball plays practically every day once March gets here. So our out of season strength program only gets so many kids. Frustration is hitting the boiling point.

Those of you who are in rebuilds, what all have you tried? Any ideas are helpful.

If winning and losing are not evident in your practice and seen in your program, I don't know what you expect after a game or during a game. Forget the final score a Friday night, if you don't hold them to a high standard on day to day basis...i.e its just about football...you get what you get.

Harsh words would have been in order. 

Done it. Yelled, screamed, cursed, apologized for using profane language, yelled more, gone horse, took away playing time, suspended players for being cancers, removed them. I just can't seem to get them to care.

I think rsmith627 is right.

Run them, HARD work their butts off. Run a lot before practice, wind sprints at the end of practice, do updowns, whatever. You may lose a few players who don't want to put in the work but for most of them there will come a point where they have too much invested and getting beat isint fun, funny or unimportant.

Have you tried the other approach?
Sit down.. team meeting..no yelling, no being pissed...and just asking them  "Guys, do you guys care about winning?  We lost one the other day, and it didn't seem like you guys really cared about it. "

Just be yourself consistently. If you change your approach based on what is working in the short term, kid will get confused and put off.

I would think that running a bunch of kids who don't care would either make them care less or quit.

You have to be able to live with the repercussions of kids not doing what you tell them to do. If your goal is to run off the kids who don't care, you have to make sure you still have enough to roll with.

This probably isn't what you want to hear, but if the locker room sounded like a party, it might be tough change the attitude of the team in September. That mindset has to be cultivated in January-July. But, like others have said, if there are kids that have influence on the team causing problems, talk with them privately and discuss specific issues they see.

I feel your pain, because we are still dealing with this to an extent, and it is frustrating. It's cliche, but when seemingly everything is going to crap, concentrate on small victories (great effort play in practice, good team period, player corrects himself on film, etc).

Well said nhsehs. I agree that it has to be cultivated in the spring/summer, which is something we have never had here. Just venting some. I'm not the only one in this situation, just frustrated as all h3ll.

I learned this a long time ago - HS coaches are at the mercy of 15-18 year old kids.

They are never going to care as much as we do, and there's not much you can do about it.

It's like recruiting in college - regardless of how you sell it, it has to be their idea to choose your school or in this case to GWTP.

For a lot of kids, Football's not even their favorite sport. It's just what they do in the Fall, or they play because their buddies do.

Some groups have already decided, through youth leagues or lower levels, that they're not very good-not going to win much, so why bother working hard? Sometimes it's a school or community thing. Hard attitude for us to relate to, but I've seen it.

If you get a group with talent that is also dedicated, then you've got a chance. Some classes have talent but have consciously or otherwise decided they're good enough and don't need to put in more time or effort. Also tough to understand-accept.

My approach is to be Positive but Demanding, don't compromise on what I believe in, and live with the results until I can't. 

yeah brophy hit it on the head.

to kids, football is either a passion or a hobby. Getting them to care during the season starts in the off-season...get kids to stop thinking of football as a "thinking i'll play football this year" to a "I need a plan to get ready for football"

I believe a big part of that is how tight the kids are...friends wise. And today, I think kids have a hard time making real friends (as opposed to facebook friends).

My recommendation in the off-season is to give kids the tools to organize activities together. Study groups, weight lifting, basketball pickup games, PS3 NCAA football game tournaments (my favorite) etc. Work with your team leaders to bust their butts to organize these things, and get the younger kids involved.

You'll never get a kid to care about football more...but you might be able to get a kid to care about their friends more. I've seen it.

How do you plan to change it?

I have tried everything I can.  Weight lifting club after school.  Tried to bring in a certified SCC to talk to all our coaches/admins about the importance of strength training for all sports, paid for by football.  Offered to stay after practices.  Offered to come in early for a zero hour.