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Post by Wingtman on Jul 23, 2015 7:41:38 GMT -6
Coaches,
We all have to overcome something every year; community, lack of coaches, lack of funds, etc. What is the biggest thing you have to overcome in your program? For example, I coach at a Military School, with 0 focus on sports. Sometimes practice gets cut to an hour, practice is supposed to start at 4, but I can count on one hand how often thats happened in three years, no more then two wins since Regan was in office. The kicker? Never knowing who's coming back year to year. We've planned our o/d for one thing, then first day of camp, the stud FB and wing backs we thought we were having aren't coming back to school. I will say, I have no parents to deal with, so thats nice. What do you face this year?
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DLgaDC
Freshmen Member
Posts: 80 
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Post by DLgaDC on Jul 23, 2015 8:28:47 GMT -6
Dang coach I would feel bad posting our problems after reading your post!! I'm here thinking about all the big lineman and stud LBs we need. You probably win this thread. Haha
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orion320
Sophomore Member
"Don't tell me about the labor just show me the baby!"
Posts: 211
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Post by orion320 on Jul 23, 2015 8:44:14 GMT -6
Lack of community support - attendance isn't great at our games but when we are successful we get more of the student body to the game. Had a great season a few years ago and most of the community didn't even notice.
Retaining Coaches - we have had 4 HCs since I started 7 years ago. For the 3rd year in a row, I am the only coach that was in the program when the freshman were seniors. Hard to build something with that much turnover.
Little to no support from upper admin -don't get me wrong I know they have a lot going on but it would be nice to see them use some money for facility upgrades, and get maintenance guys to help out more. The coaches are required to line practice field and line the game field (which takes away from classroom time). Our AD however is great, he helps out a ton.
Low Freshman Numbers - every year we struggle to get more than 15 freshman on the team. This is largely due to the fact our Pee Wee program is downright pathetic. Fall JH baseball doesn't help much.
These are all small hills in my opinion as we have had success in the past with very little support. Yes we could use some more athletes but the kids in our program love the sport, show up for practice, they just aren't the best football players.
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orion320
Sophomore Member
"Don't tell me about the labor just show me the baby!"
Posts: 211
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Post by orion320 on Jul 23, 2015 11:50:09 GMT -6
Forgot one thing....probably the biggest hill (at least this year).
Coaching a varsity squad with only 2 coaches due to HC resigning late and admin being slow to get a new hire. We have 5 coaches total on staff (3 working with JV, not really varsity ready at this time) and a definite possibility of not getting another coach. At least we have managers who film every practice.
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Post by canesfan on Jul 23, 2015 14:51:03 GMT -6
Lack of program history is ours. Kids expect mediocrity. Winning seasons are rare, and if we win 6 games, kids feel like its the state championship. Hard to get out of that immediately, I guess it has to be done incrementally.
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Post by marinercoach1 on Jul 23, 2015 21:20:35 GMT -6
Keeping the city kids in our school. a lot of the cities kids are on other city schools.
No history or foundation. School opened up in 2006 and started playing football in 2009. We can fix this but we really need to start winning.
Lack of support. People are already suggesting we axe the program.
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Post by mariner42 on Jul 23, 2015 23:29:44 GMT -6
Keeping the city kids in our school. a lot of the cities kids are on other city schools. No history or foundation. School opened up in 2006 and started playing football in 2009. We can fix this but we really need to start winning. Lack of support. People are already suggesting we axe the program. Plus, on a more personal level, you've gotta overcome being "The OTHER Mariner" on here... Tough, tough road...  |
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Post by marinercoach1 on Jul 24, 2015 7:48:52 GMT -6
Keeping the city kids in our school. a lot of the cities kids are on other city schools. No history or foundation. School opened up in 2006 and started playing football in 2009. We can fix this but we really need to start winning. Lack of support. People are already suggesting we axe the program. Plus, on a more personal level, you've gotta overcome being "The OTHER Mariner" on here... Tough, tough road... Yes that is a personal uphill battle I am currently faced with. Hahaha |
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Post by coachquig on Jul 24, 2015 17:53:47 GMT -6
Keeping the city kids in our school. a lot of the cities kids are on other city schools. No history or foundation. School opened up in 2006 and started playing football in 2009. We can fix this but we really need to start winning. Lack of support. People are already suggesting we axe the program. I'm in the same situation. We are entering our third year. Year one we had about 26 players as a JV team in 2014. Then went varsity with only 4 of the 26 players returning in 2015. The kid u was working with to play QB all spring never came out and we had practices In August with only 5 players with physicals. We went to our second game with only 15 players. I know we will never have over 40 players but 30 would be nice. |
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Post by jlenwood on Jul 25, 2015 6:19:56 GMT -6
Program hills: - Numbers
- Weight room commitment
Personal hills:
- Addiction to ice cream and all other "non-healthy" food groups
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Post by coachwoodall on Jul 25, 2015 13:15:15 GMT -6
That's the bane of coaching, there's always something to fix.
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Post by highball007 on Jul 26, 2015 8:47:38 GMT -6
This fall my program is faced with a few similar hills as mentioned.
1. Low numbers
2. No admin support
3. Weight room equipment
4. Two different leagues for youth to play in ( not a good thing)
5. Terrible football facilities
But the biggest hill that I have been spending the most time on this summer as it is my first summer as head coach, is getting kids to believe they can win. Getting kids to play as fast as they can. Getting kids to do the right thing, not their own thing.
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Post by chi5hi on Jul 26, 2015 10:38:23 GMT -6
OMG...I remember some of this from the past, and reading all of the above I want to cry. I sometimes forget how good we have it now. Private school, less than 1000 students.
At my age I can no longer put up with that. I love having a supportive administration (last year we got 2 new busses) an involved booster club, enough players to platoon, a new field, overhauled scoreboard and AV equipment to televise, along with remodeled coach's offices, a re-built weight room, and a new gym and baseball field which the local college also uses for practices and basketball games.
Maybe I've died and gone to heaven.
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Post by jg78 on Jul 26, 2015 12:05:36 GMT -6
My biggest concern is depth, inexperience and respectfully disagreeing with our HC on how to approach the season.
Last year, we had a very talented and seasoned football team. We played nine games and had a bye week two weeks before our biggest region game against the undefeated defending state champion, which we won by a TD. We played very well on defense (I coach defense) and held them to 8 points, which was their lowest scoring total in many years. The bye week helped a lot with our preparation. We were able to look ahead.
Well, this year, we are playing eleven games with a team that loses eight starters on defense and probably will have 3-4 players out there who will start that weren't with us in the spring and I have yet to see make a tackle. However, we scheduled a preseason game (that counts as a real game) against the top team in our league (which has a very long winning streak and is extremely talented and well coached on offense - fair on defense - and uses a bunch of formations and gimmicks that are difficult to prepare for) that will knock at least a week off our August development. The next week we play our 2nd most important region game. The next week we play an out-of-state game that will be at least a 400 mile drive. The bye week that helped us last year is gone and replaced with a decent team that we should beat but have to prepare for instead of looking ahead to a very key region game that could easily be the difference in making it to the state championship.
I found out about the preseason game in a text when I was on vacation in May. You'd think if the HC (who is the OC) is going to schedule a preseason game with the best offense in the league that he'd at least run it by his DC for an opinion since the heavy prep work is going to be on my shoulders. I told him some time later after he schedule the other game during the bye week that I thought we were putting too much on this team. I suggested nixing the preseason game and playing a scrimmage or jamboree instead to get our feet wet while preparing for the 2nd most important region game and making sure we don't screw it up. Didn't work. So we're playing 11 total regular season games. Three of them will be against the three best teams in our league - no doubt about it. Another game is the 400 mile (one way) out-of-state trip. And some of our other opponents will be better this year than last year.
Too much, in my opinion, for a team that can't afford to lose anyone and needs to focus on the region. But it's not my call.
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Post by dytmook on Jul 26, 2015 12:44:09 GMT -6
This year we are fighting lower numbers after losing what would be 2 four year starters, 2 three year starters, 2 guys who were going to be 2nd year lettermen, and the guy who were planning to be at left tackle. This is all since June also so it's been a kick in the junk to say the least. In good news the kids left are generally coachable and very fun to coach.
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Post by fantom on Jul 26, 2015 13:08:42 GMT -6
It's a First World problem compared to what others have but our problem will be inexperience. We lost 4/5 OL, two of whom were three year starters, and an All State TE. Defensively we need to replace both ends, both ILB's, and a safety. Th good news is that the guys who will replace them may be more talented.
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mhs99
Junior Member
Posts: 250
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Post by mhs99 on Jul 26, 2015 13:24:24 GMT -6
I officially steal the term First World problem and will use that and 3rd world problem when talking about issues.
Ours is managing expectations with all of our OL back and a real talented RB (8 of 11 defensive starters too) and realizing that despite our success last year we lost to our league rival who went on to win a state title and they are not hiding from us. They are the hill.
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