|
|
Post by fullhouseo on Feb 6, 2014 18:45:49 GMT -6
What advice do some of you guys have for creating excitement at a football program that has been down and has a lot of focus on bball and baseball?
|
|
|
|
Post by blb on Feb 6, 2014 18:59:43 GMT -6
What advice do some of you guys have for creating excitement at a football program that has been down and has a lot of focus on bball and baseball?
Be positive, enthusiastic - but demanding.
Make sure kids are enjoying their Football experience.
Most of all, Win.
Nothing succeeds like success.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Feb 7, 2014 10:29:43 GMT -6
Off-Season:
One thing I did YEARS ago when we were in the exact same situation, is I bought 4-5 dozen flag football belts, some cones, and had five footballs in a bag. My classroom is by the football field. So at lunch time (we have two seperate lunches), I would let some of my football players know the equipment was out there, and no surprise that we generated a LOT of football buzz on campus and all the flags were being used on a daily basis.
In-Season:
The biggest killer of excitement is BORING practices. Anything that involves stretching, running laps, killing time, long practices, etc., will turn kids off. Pack a 2 1/2 hour practice into 1 3/4 hour practice, make kids move constantly, involve as many kids as possible with some practice planning, add music, and it will help kids enjoy the process. Its very hard work to get practice to be tolerable, because most youth & high school kids play for the excitement of Friday nights.
|
|
|
|
Post by bison123 on Feb 9, 2014 13:48:01 GMT -6
I was in a similar situation when I took over at my school. I focussed on 3 areas:
1. Reach out to the pop warner (or whatever youth program you have) and set up free clinics for the kids. I started with "Monday Night Football" in April. We did drills, played games, and I got some pizzas.
2. Start an intramural program at the junior high. I exposed a lot of kids who didn't play football to the sport and also to me as a coach. It created a great recruiting ground for the summer.
3. Most important in the high school I started "open gym". We don't have spring ball, so I found that the kids had zero football opportunities in the offseason. Each week we got together before school and worked on skills. At first it was all about fun and keeping the kids coming back. After a little while when attendance was stable, we started teaching schemes.
Good luck !
|
|
superg
Freshmen Member
Posts: 15
|
Post by superg on Feb 9, 2014 15:03:26 GMT -6
I agree with all that has been said... It must be FUN. Football is a time intensive sport and if it is not fun you will lose kids. Two other things to add is you must make connections with the kids and you must create a sense of family or community among the team. When you do this you will get those "fringe" players to play and give all players a sense of belonging to something that they find important.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2014 7:08:46 GMT -6
To add on the fun part, make it something kids want to be a part of. Make it to where they know if they invest, they get something out of it. When I learned early on that you basically are selling a brand, things started to come easier for me in terms of "selling" the program. Every kid that comes out wants to know "what's in it for me"?
Duece
|
|
|
|
Post by s73 on Feb 11, 2014 7:49:29 GMT -6
What advice do some of you guys have for creating excitement at a football program that has been down and has a lot of focus on bball and baseball?
Be positive, enthusiastic - but demanding.
Make sure kids are enjoying their Football experience.
Most of all, Win.
Nothing succeeds like success.
Winning is #1. Other things we do: Find ways to sell your brand as Deuce says. We have weight room shirts for goals achieved, we always try to find a cool theme for our summer camp and put that on a shirt as well. But the beauty of it is we ask our graphics classes to design the shirts for us and the teacher is happy to do so (that obviously helps a ton). So we have classes w/ football players in them and maybe a few considering football who design our t-shirts for us. I think this helps to "expand" our program or reach out if you will to others. I always ask players to help run our youth camps, we also have players attend our 8th grade orientation night and recruit the incoming class to sign up for football. We have current players work w/ incoming kids the Spring before frosh year in the wieght room. We hosted a Madden tournament this year after the season ended. I think anything that is fun but also gives the kids ownership of the program helps. Because it's no longer dictated to them. They become partners in the process. Just my 2 cents. PS - Food is always. One example is ordering pizza on occasion when weight room attendance has been really good. Let's the kids know that while you want them in the weight room to help program success, they are more than just a piece of meat. It shows you don't mind breaking bread w/ them and telling a few stories. It's an opportunity to let your hair down some. |
|
