JV & Varsity Practicing together???

This is how we did it:
-varsity is on defense individual period, jv is on offense and vice versa.
-skelly and inside run were seen as an extention of indy time (for planning purposes). DB coach for skelly would make the script (obviously from the direction of the OC) and who is on scout and when. Same would be for the OL coach on inside run. The key here is that they had to be organized, who (as in players) was running with which group and when. This sounds a lot more difficult than it actually is.
-team period the JV OC and JV DC along with one other coach would go to one end of the field and everyone else was on the varsity side. There was a lot of flexibility with that though. Coaches were free to float depending on the emphasis of the practice/situation/players and what they were all working on.
-special teams were varsity kickoff vs. jv kick return. spread out the coaching duties on specials so everyone has a job and not one coach is running around in five different places.

This is not the first time we've two-platooned, but the first time our coaches will two-platoon (coach one side of the ball only). Including our JV, we will have 8 coaches (6 paid / 2 volunteers). Therefore, we would have 4 coaches on each side of the ball, instead of every coach coaching two positions.

Annually, we have have 50-55 on varsity (SR/JR) and 35-40 on JV (Soph). Our JV's play on Thursday nights.

As far as numbers in programs we play against, they are pretty equal. We are the second lowest enrollment in our 9 team league. (8-2, 6-4 the last two seasons).

We're hoping that by two-platooning, our kids will get better at just one position because they will be busy the whole practice. Obviously, there will be kids that will have to play on both sides, but that only applies to a couple players.

I've done it that way before. It worked fine, however we had to supplement some of our varsity kids on scout team in order to give us a good "look". Some years more varsity on scout than not.
What I like about this concept is the JV kids are getting quality coaching by the varsity coaches. Plus if you are shorthanded on coaches but have quality depth in players, it gives you a system to be able to 2 platoon.
I'm sure there are other ways but I've always been on a staff that has had only 13 coaches for 9th through varsity running 3 freshmen teams, 2 jv teams and the varsity. So you can see where I'm coming from on this.

During individual time we have the two squads work together, then we separate them for team time.

My Alma Mater did it that way for years. Both when I played and when I first got into coaching. The HC liked the idea of one big staff 9 coaches for both teams. He felt it made for a better class of Jrs every year. Also felt there was a heck of a less learning curve for all those kids.

All JV kids were on the same page. The JV lineman where forced to swap paint with the varsity lineman everyday in practice. So they had no fear come game time. No we had to keep the JV package a bit smaller but we always had winning records on the JV. The Varsity did ok with 2 state titles and 10 straight playoff appearences in the mid 80's and early 90's

I am a huge fan of practicing together in order to better utilize a staff. We started doing this last year with all three levels and this year we are letting freshman go on their own and just working with varsity and jv. I love what this has done for my position coaches and what it has done for our jv as they are getting more attention than they other wise would have. It has allowed our varsity to get more one on one coaching as well and really pushed us toward two platoon system. This next year out of about 50 varsity players only 7 will practice both ways. We do not scrimmage one another though as I am not sure how it would benefit our varsity, too big a gap in talent. All individual drills may have a combination of both jv and varsity at a specific position but there is an emphasis on which ever level is technically the one scheduled on that side of the ball. I also love how the varsity kids have started to help the younger kids during drills. I don't ever want to switch back to the old way of coaching two positions.

Best thing we ever did as a program is have our Varsity and Sophomores practice together.

We are a school that has 45-55 Juniors and Seniors and about 30 or so sohpomores. We play in 5A (out out 8 classes) in Illinois. We have a sophomore and a varisty game back to back on friday nights.

We practice Offense with our Varsity and defense with our sohpomores. Half-way through practice we switch. This allows our 8 sohpomore and varisity coaches to be split into 4 offensive and 4 defensive coaches.

On defense I coach both the sohpomore and varsity LB's. It really allows each player to hear the same thing from me for three years by the time they are a senior. We have great continuity in our porgram by doing this. I know as a defensive coordinator that the sohpomores and the varsity are running the same thing both conceptually and with the same terminology. The game plan will be different for both levels week in and week out.

I call the defenses on the varisity. The defenive backs coach calls the defense on the sophomores. I let him take the lead during sophomore team defense so that the sophs get used to following his leadership during games. This system really allows me to get to know the sophs before they get to varsity.

The only negative is that as a defensive coach I have no idea what our offense is doing. I spen the entire day on defense. Also the head coach really does not know what I am doing on defense so he has a lot of faith in me calling the defense. You really have to trust your staff when practicing this way.

We do not 2 platoon. We will have about 2 players each year play both ways though this year we may actually start 11 different players on each side of the ball. We almost never have your linemen, QB, or RB play both ways. Usually it is our TE or WR/DB types that play both ways.

Hope this helps