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Post by fantom on Dec 21, 2015 21:33:17 GMT -6
To get away from the heavy topics, what was the worst teams that you've been on either as a player or coach (Bad teams generally have better stories than good teams)? For me the answer's easy: The JV team that I played on as a soph. It was at a small school that was in it's last year before going into a jointure. The longtime coach had retired and, as a stopgap, they hired the basketball coach and his b-ball assistant as his only assistant/JV coach. Neither knew a damn thing about football.
The year before, we'd won the championship but the best players had graduated. Being a small school, we also had a very small roster, about 25 total varsity and JV. This, then, was a bad combination: Small roster, little talent, and bad coaching. The varsity wasn't terrible but you can imagine what was left for JV games.
Bottom line- we didn't score a point all year. The lowlight was the game where we showed up with 12 players and one got ejected. He was a street-tough Irish kid who would have been a varsity starter but he was in the 8th grade. He was a great guy but he had a mouth on him.
Mindful of our situation, the ref tried. They warned Jimmy about his mouth several times but didn't throw the flag. Now, keep in mind that this game was at a field, not a stadium, so anything above a conversational tone carried into the neighborhood. As the game went on, Jimmy's frustration grew. Finally, he'd had enough. He was also our punter and in the second half, he took the snap and yelled, loud enough to be heard blocks away, "Here I come, you c---suckers".
That was it, of course. Jimmy was out. His replacement was an unathletic, timid 120 pounder. We lost a future D.1 prospect and replaced him with a nice kid. That was the worst game but the others weren't much better.
So, what were yours?
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Post by Chris Clement on Dec 21, 2015 22:54:43 GMT -6
A club team I played on one summer. We had a population basin of 200,000, so the talent level was really good, akin to a county all-star team. Our opponents were drawing from between 10 and 40 percent of that. From day one it was daddyball. Coaches kids and their friends got plum starting spots that didn't make sense, and all started both ways. Most of those kids wouldn't show up to practices, sometimes they'd miss whole weeks of practice and saunter in on game day, not a problem. We installed coverages in pre game warmup by having the DC say "so this signal is cloud and this one is sky." We sent two off each edge every play because we didn't really have any rules for a TE. The DC was trying to recruit players to his high school, which was 20 minutes out of town. There was no "open enrolment" in the area so if you wanted to transfer they'd probably let you but transportation was your own problem. We took penalties like you wouldn't believe, teams could just goad some of our daddyballers into giving them 15 over and over again. We actually lost games for it. In week four it was decreed that we would go from being 95% run, on account of being much bigger and stronger than everyone else, to 65% pass, just because. We never ended up doing it but there were two practices where we frantically installed pass "plays." One team started cracking our OLB with their slots and getting big runs outside, so he and I had to invent the concept of crack-replace, because the coaching staff was stymied. I was the holder and got sent out for an extra point. The rest of the pattern was offensive players so they were already out there, and I came into the huddle with a play the coach had drawn in the dirt.
There was a game we'd basically pissed away with penalties and fights, but managed to take a late lead. It came down to a play on D where if we held them we'd win but if they got a first down they were basically sure to win (the details escape me). We held them and our idiot DT starts fighting, so in desperation I tackled him.
The craziest thing was that we had such a population advantage that we ended up dominating and winning the league handily.
I'm probably missing some of the juicier stories still.
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Post by coachjm on Dec 22, 2015 5:01:16 GMT -6
I have two but the best one is this: we had a team that had graduated most of our top players but had a few lineman returning, our top boy got in a bad car accident in the winter and we lost two prior to season for drugs/academic issues. We had some winnable games early in the season and breaking in a new QB (we will refer to as crooked helmet kid) we struggled losing a couple decent games in which CHK (crooked helmet kid) managed to have 43 fumbles in 4 games, naturally we brought CHK in for a quick meeting to let him know we were heading in a new direction he said whew thanks, I only played cause my dad made me... A couple hours later he came down and quit the team (I tried to talk him out of it) DAD was hot for me ruining his self esteem and running him off and spent the rest of the year stirring the pot... The following week the back-up who we moved from RB got hurt in our warm-up of the next game we got stomped and brought up the JV QB who played the following week (not ready and played the eventually state champions) the following Wednesday he gets hurt in practice (pulled muscle) and is out for the year) we find a QB for the next week and at this point there isn't a game we should win, week 8 we go out and beat a playoff team in what might be the most fun win I have been a part of. Ultimately on top of the QB issues we started 6 sophomores in a league in which we were the smallest school and really everyone was playing seniors and top juniors, so on top of that we were a TERRIBLE defensive outfit...
The highlight of the season is we did hold future heisman winner Mark Ingram to 6 carries....
(full disclosure he scored on all 6 and ran for 243)
In the end this is a group of kids I'm still really connected too and for the most part played really really well and hard and in hindsight I'm elated they were able to get a win although I know we could have done a better job coaching...
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Post by hunhdisciple on Dec 22, 2015 6:02:37 GMT -6
I've always found this one kind of amusing. It's not really a story or anything, but it's what our depth chart looked like from the start of our season to the end. Not sure I've heard of a team that had so many injuries.
WR1
WR2
LT1
LG1
C1
RG1
RT1
TE1
WR1
QB1
FB1
HB1
Then the playoff slaughter roster:
WR5
WR6
LT3
LG2
C1
RG2
RT4
WR1 who had to replace TE1, 2 and 3
WR4
QB3
FB3
HB6
100% accurate. Most of our end of season stares were freshman and sophomores who replaced "hurt" seniors who all suddenly had injuries once we couldn't win our district after week 4. The young guys fought, but just weren't physically ready for it.
One of the guys who ended up starting at WR was a senior who was slow. After our playoff loss, I made the joke that we had someone being recruited to go to dental school being covered by someone who had SEC and Big 10 offers.
I was glad to get that season over with. It got hard to find warm bodies to fill spots.
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Post by coachphillip on Dec 22, 2015 8:51:41 GMT -6
I once coached a frosh/soph team with a terrible staff. The RB coach was a locally known homeless guy. I didn't know he was homeless for sure until I offered him a ride since it was raining. We got to the train tracks and he said, "Right here is good." He got out and went to his encampment under an overpass. It was an interesting season. We had three offensive plays: jelly (IZ), peanut butter (pass block and the HC would make up a pass concept), peanut butter and jelly (PA all verts). WTF.
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Post by Defcord on Dec 22, 2015 9:16:37 GMT -6
I once coached a frosh/soph team with a terrible staff. The RB coach was a locally known homeless guy. I didn't know he was homeless for sure until I offered him a ride since it was raining. We got to the train tracks and he said, "Right here is good." He got out and went to his encampment under an overpass. It was an interesting season. We had three offensive plays: jelly (IZ), peanut butter (pass block and the HC would make up a pass concept), peanut butter and jelly (PA all verts). WTF. One school I was at a school and the jv team had three plays. Rodney right, rodney left and Rodney throw it as far as you can to Miguel (which was only ran on 3rd or 4th down and 15+). They went 7-2 because Rodney was a legitimate for 4.5-4.6 as a freshman. As you might expect the kid never really got any better because no one coached him everyone just became a fan as soon as the ball was in his hand. |
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Post by coachorm on Dec 22, 2015 9:25:18 GMT -6
Few years ago we had a team full of a bunch of good ole boys. Kids that you could hang out with and goof off but when it came to football and playing they just couldn't do it.
Offseason of that year we had a team camp at the school where they all brought tents and camped by the field. The first practice of camp we get an idea of the innocence of these kids when our starting center a senior doesn't get the joke of who rosey palmer is. Later that night our starting te at the time is proud to show us his flip flop that literally has a picture of dog crap on it. After dinner during a break a deer gets on the field, which is enclosed with a fence and only has three exits (all gates). The deer runs rampant for about 20 minutes, slamming into the fence multiple times. Comes within about a foot of trucking over crappy flip flop kid. Eventually it somehow got out. About 3am we got visited by a parent cause his kid decided to quit at that time and called his dad who wanted to talk to the HC. There were many other adventures throughout the year. The offense was so bad that year that the following year we returned the leading scorer who moved to center. we went 0-10... didn't even compete in any games. Also this was the middle year in a run of 20+ consecutive losses.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2015 9:52:48 GMT -6
The school I was at a few years ago has to take the cake: of course, I was green as hell so i contributed to the suck, unfortunately.
Small school that struggled with numbers. We had 18 returning from the year before, plus 9 freshmen. Of those 4 freshmen were on the starting offense from Day 1. By the end of the season, it was 7.
HC was 26 and thought he knew everything about football because he'd played NAIA ball and none of us had played in college. He hired me to be OC and install the Flexbone. The day I was officially hired, after weeks of trying to get in touch with him because I knew the job was mine, he told me that he didn't think he had a pitch back and wanted to run zone read instead. I talked him into compromising and running Flexbone from a pistol--he said we had to be in Pistol because it was impossible to be an effective offense from under center. Then we had to use his really weird, redundant system that just confused kids on both sides of the ball by making all our calls a mile long.
He gave me film from the year before, where they'd been in a 2 back pistol and trying to run the ball with a shaky OL and RBs at 12 yards deep. They were lucky just to get the ball back to the LOS. HC was coaching the whole backfield and thought I was crazy for wanting a dive back at less than 8 yards deep.
Anyway, so I get there. The whole staff was the HC, myself, a bodybuilder strength/RB coach who refused to learn Xs and Os or the playbook, and a 23 year old who was just getting out of the Air Force. The whole community was impoverished and politics were as dirty as could be. The Mayor was currently under investigation for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the town, so he kept trying to get his picture taken with us as much as possible for some better PR. The county commissioner was the former basketball coach and a notorious embezzler/drug dealer in his own right.
Oh, and our bus system was also privatized to individual contractors who owned and drove their own busses, so in a very spread out, rural county, some of our players would miss school, weights, practice and even games because "his bus didn't run" just because the driver was sick or didn't feel like getting up that day.
Our HC had grown up playing in a good HS program and tried to institute some of their discipline policies, so when the best athlete in our whole school came out to play football in the summer and was running circles around everyone else as a junior, the HC said he'd have to practice and make up all his missed lifts and practice going back to his freshman year. He told him he might get to see some playing time during week 8 if he worked hard, but it would probably be his senior year before he'd see the field. Kid quit.
Then there was the actual season...
We opened up against a terrible private school, but lost 35-0. Our defense's single coaching point on technique (HC ran the defense) was "fly to the ball," so that meant on a triple option everyone would swarm the dive, maybe somebody late to the party had the QB, and nobody even looked at pitch. We'd see that over and over again all season because that's how they were coached.
I found out the day of this game that even though our HC had hired me to run triple option, he thought mesh drills and veer drills were "stupid" so instead of doing those while I coached the OL up in group and individual, he just had them playing 7 on 7 and throwing the ball around. We had a total of 28 yards rushing that first game because our freshman QB had no clue how to run option. The kid finally told me he'd had to teach himself how to run it at home by playing video games. I was calling passes and we were moving the ball around through the air, but the HC got angry at me for that and insisted we run to nowhere.
Over the course of the season, I realized the offensive strategy he wanted was "run the ball every down, get blown out, and then once we're going to get a running clock and go home early, then we can throw." It was as much fun as it sounds.
It just got worse from there. The new Madden game came out, so over 1/3 of our roster skipped practice the next day to play it. When numbers were low, our HC would just do walk throughs. One week we played a Wing-T team and set up bags as OL with a scout backfield. Our scout offense with no OL still shredded our starting defense doing this because of the whole "fly to the ball" thing. In the game, we gave up 63 points, including 28 to their 8th graders.
Our best OL, a big and fairly athletic senior C, got 3 concussions by week 4 and was done (under the advise of his chiropractor). That weekend his grandmother got up in church and praised Jesus that the Lord had taken her boy out of "stupid football."
We had a total of 7 concussions, counting his 3, though 1 was probably faking. Our helmets were crap and kids realized that if we put them on OL and they didn't like it, they could just flop down and pretend to be concussed.
His backup, a freshman, broke his collarbone in the same game, and the next freshman broke his ankle the following week. We would go on to play 7 (out of 29) different kids at Center that year.
We finally won a game against a school that was worse than us and only had 13 players. You'd think that the first home win in 3 years, which came on homecoming, would have gotten them pumped up... but instead it's like the kids thought their job was done. A few quit that week and the rest started skipping practice or half assing.
That week, we had a starting 2 way OL/DL who had enough talent to be a small college prospect, but he was a head case. Over the weekend, he was goofing off in the woods with his buddy, a quitter, and "broke his shoulder" wrestling. He said he was out for the year. Kid showed up to practice with his arm in a sling. However, when we were in team he took it off and was waving his arm around to show the kids he was faking. HC had him running the camera to film the next game (we only got film about 75%, and only if a kid would do it). When we watched it, he'd filmed the huddles and standing around, but didn't film the actual game...
There is so much more I could say about that team, but I think everyone gets the idea. I bailed the next year after an assistant principal named himself OC (my title) without anyone talking to me about it. Getting out of there was one of the bed things I ever did.
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Post by wingtol on Dec 22, 2015 10:43:17 GMT -6
The school I was at a few years ago has to take the cake: of course, I was green as hell so i contributed to the suck, unfortunately. Small school that struggled with numbers. We had 18 returning from the year before, plus 9 freshmen. Of those 4 freshmen were on the starting offense from Day 1. By the end of the season, it was 7. HC was 26 and thought he knew everything about football because he'd played NAIA ball and none of us had played in college. He hired me to be OC and install the Flexbone. The day I was officially hired, after weeks of trying to get in touch with him because I knew the job was mine, he told me that he didn't think he had a pitch back and wanted to run zone read instead. I talked him into compromising and running Flexbone from a pistol--he said we had to be in Pistol because it was impossible to be an effective offense from under center. Then we had to use his really weird, redundant system that just confused kids on both sides of the ball by making all our calls a mile long. He gave me film from the year before, where they'd been in a 2 back pistol and trying to run the ball with a shaky OL and RBs at 12 yards deep. They were lucky just to get the ball back to the LOS. HC was coaching the whole backfield and thought I was crazy for wanting a dive back at less than 8 yards deep. Anyway, so I get there. The whole staff was the HC, myself, a bodybuilder strength/RB coach who refused to learn Xs and Os or the playbook, and a 23 year old who was just getting out of the Air Force. The whole community was impoverished and politics were as dirty as could be. The Mayor was currently under investigation for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the town, so he kept trying to get his picture taken with us as much as possible for some better PR. The county commissioner was the former basketball coach and a notorious embezzler/drug dealer in his own right. Oh, and our bus system was also privatized to individual contractors who owned and drove their own busses, so in a very spread out, rural county, some of our players would miss school, weights, practice and even games because "his bus didn't run" just because the driver was sick or didn't feel like getting up that day. Our HC had grown up playing in a good HS program and tried to institute some of their discipline policies, so when the best athlete in our whole school came out to play football in the summer and was running circles around everyone else as a junior, the HC said he'd have to practice and make up all his missed lifts and practice going back to his freshman year. He told him he might get to see some playing time during week 8 if he worked hard, but it would probably be his senior year before he'd see the field. Kid quit. Then there was the actual season... We opened up against a terrible private school, but lost 35-0. Our defense's single coaching point on technique (HC ran the defense) was "fly to the ball," so that meant on a triple option everyone would swarm the dive, maybe somebody late to the party had the QB, and nobody even looked at pitch. We'd see that over and over again all season because that's how they were coached. I found out the day of this game that even though our HC had hired me to run triple option, he thought mesh drills and veer drills were "stupid" so instead of doing those while I coached the OL up in group and individual, he just had them playing 7 on 7 and throwing the ball around. We had a total of 28 yards rushing that first game because our freshman QB had no clue how to run option. The kid finally told me he'd had to teach himself how to run it at home by playing video games. I was calling passes and we were moving the ball around through the air, but the HC got angry at me for that and insisted we run to nowhere. Over the course of the season, I realized the offensive strategy he wanted was "run the ball every down, get blown out, and then once we're going to get a running clock and go home early, then we can throw." It was as much fun as it sounds. It just got worse from there. The new Madden game came out, so over 1/3 of our roster skipped practice the next day to play it. When numbers were low, our HC would just do walk throughs. One week we played a Wing-T team and set up bags as OL with a scout backfield. Our scout offense with no OL still shredded our starting defense doing this because of the whole "fly to the ball" thing. In the game, we gave up 63 points, including 28 to their 8th graders. Our best OL, a big and fairly athletic senior C, got 3 concussions by week 4 and was done (under the advise of his chiropractor). That weekend his grandmother got up in church and praised Jesus that the Lord had taken her boy out of "stupid football." We had a total of 7 concussions, counting his 3, though 1 was probably faking. Our helmets were crap and kids realized that if we put them on OL and they didn't like it, they could just flop down and pretend to be concussed. His backup, a freshman, broke his collarbone in the same game, and the next freshman broke his ankle the following week. We would go on to play 7 (out of 29) different kids at Center that year. We finally won a game against a school that was worse than us and only had 13 players. You'd think that the first home win in 3 years, which came on homecoming, would have gotten them pumped up... but instead it's like the kids thought their job was done. A few quit that week and the rest started skipping practice or half assing. That week, we had a starting 2 way OL/DL who had enough talent to be a small college prospect, but he was a head case. Over the weekend, he was goofing off in the woods with his buddy, a quitter, and "broke his shoulder" wrestling. He said he was out for the year. Kid showed up to practice with his arm in a sling. However, when we were in team he took it off and was waving his arm around to show the kids he was faking. HC had him running the camera to film the next game (we only got film about 75%, and only if a kid would do it). When we watched it, he'd filmed the huddles and standing around, but didn't film the actual game... There is so much more I could say about that team, but I think everyone gets the idea. I bailed the next year after an assistant principal named himself OC (my title) without anyone talking to me about it. Getting out of there was one of the bed things I ever did. Dude....how are you still alive after that LOL And thank you for giving me one of those "Thank God I coach where I do and with who I do!!!!!!!!!" moments! |
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Post by coachirish on Dec 22, 2015 11:32:53 GMT -6
Few years ago we had a team full of a bunch of good ole boys. Kids that you could hang out with and goof off but when it came to football and playing they just couldn't do it. Offseason of that year we had a team camp at the school where they all brought tents and camped by the field. The first practice of camp we get an idea of the innocence of these kids when our starting center a senior doesn't get the joke of who rosey palmer is. Later that night our starting te at the time is proud to show us his flip flop that literally has a picture of dog crap on it. After dinner during a break a deer gets on the field, which is enclosed with a fence and only has three exits (all gates). The deer runs rampant for about 20 minutes, slamming into the fence multiple times. Comes within about a foot of trucking over crappy flip flop kid. Eventually it somehow got out. About 3am we got visited by a parent cause his kid decided to quit at that time and called his dad who wanted to talk to the HC. There were many other adventures throughout the year. The offense was so bad that year that the following year we returned the leading scorer who moved to center. we went 0-10... didn't even compete in any games. Also this was the middle year in a run of 20+ consecutive losses. We also scored 3 tds that year. The head coach at the time installed 3 offenses as well. Started with sbv, then spread, then ended the season with double wing. The head coach also refused to let the dc call the coverage of the defense. The guy was a total control freak that is no longer in football or education due to a circumstance that we wont go in to. Oh, and the year before he thought it would be a great idea to send our rival sh#t film on purpose. He looped the same play over and over (when we traded dvds). He also had us wear home jerseys when we played at the same rivals place. Had us show up 2 minutes before kickoff becuase he thought it made a statement. we got killed. He was 1-29 in 3 yrs. idk how I lived through that crap. |
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Post by coachphillip on Dec 22, 2015 11:33:54 GMT -6
Wow. He made it 3 years?!
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Post by wolverine55 on Dec 22, 2015 12:37:19 GMT -6
Worst team I ever played or coached for was my first year of college playing D3 football. I've been told to not watch D3: Football's Finest, because several scenes of that movie will describe our situation! Our HC was fired after one game, we went 0-10 with our closest defeat being 17 points, and by the end of the season, we started freshmen or sophomores at 19 of the 22 positions, or something close to that.
One story that sticks out is we were playing our Week 9 game and, coming off our best performance of the year, thought we had a good chance to win...yet were down 49-0 at halftime. Our HC walks in and says, "I'm not going to name names...but Mike Watson! You quit on that play!" Three or four guys had to restrain Mike Watson from going after our HC, the rest of us just looked at each other wishing the season could end right there!
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Post by coachirish on Dec 22, 2015 16:41:55 GMT -6
Wow. He made it 3 years?! 3 awful years of hell. Out of the 5 of us on staff only 2 are still coaching. We watched film after games until midnight on fridays. On saturdays he made the freshmen come in to clean the stadium and after they left the coaches stayed to watch film until 1pm. Then we had story time sunday staff meetings from 2pm until anywhere from 8 until 11pm. I dont know how any of us stayed married with that stupid weekend schedule. |
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Post by natenator on Dec 22, 2015 17:14:33 GMT -6
Wow. He made it 3 years?! 3 awful years of hell. Out of the 5 of us on staff only 2 are still coaching. We watched film after games until midnight on fridays. On saturdays he made the freshmen come in to clean the stadium and after they left the coaches stayed to watch film until 1pm. Then we had story time sunday staff meetings from 2pm until anywhere from 8 until 11pm. I dont know how any of us stayed married with that stupid weekend schedule. Can I ask... why do guys stay on? Is it an American thing? In Canada, I'd tell a guy to pound dirt. |
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Post by olinedude on Dec 22, 2015 18:57:51 GMT -6
The worst team I've ever coached was my first year as an OL coach not too long ago. I got the gig as a 6A OL coach in the DFW area in Texas, and from the outset it seemed like we could be really good. I was basically the run game coordinator, had a good relationship with the OC, and we had guys that were athletes. From the outset it looked like we'd be good. Had a bunch of good looking kids, had some athletes, and the place was one of those stereotypical "they've got athletes, they just need good coaching." That is where I learned; good athlete does not mean good football player.
Our OL that year was the worst I've ever coached, & it would be tough to find a line worse than that at that level. We scored something like 8 points a game. At the beginning of the season we thought we could be a playoff contender, until we got throttled 39-0 to open the season. We also got beat 72-0 later in the season, and it was easily the worst coaching experience, I hope, that I will ever have. We were terrible in every facet of the game. We couldn't block anyone, we couldn't throw the ball to save our life, and we risked a turnover every single time we snapped the ball to the QB.
The worst part of the whole season was playing the ONE team we figured we could actually beat. They had a D1 quarterback, but besides that they were terrible. We drive down and score late in the game and have a 5 point lead until they get ball with around 30 seconds left. They get to around the 40 yard line with 3 seconds left. We put 3 guys on the goal line and tell them not to back up. Of course they back up and they complete a pass into the end zone to win as time expired. That sealed an 0-fer season for us.
On top of how bad we were, 6 guys in our district signed with TCU in the last two years, 1 guy was the SEC freshman of the year last year, and there's no telling how many other D1 guys we played. It was like trying to start a fire under water.
We got better the next year though, and were 1 game away from making the playoffs with the same guys. Theres always hope for the future!
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creid
Sophomore Member
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Post by creid on Dec 22, 2015 20:52:39 GMT -6
Phantom would bet the worst team I was apart of was a new school that opened with no senior class and juniors could elect to stay at their old school. We played a varsity schedule that included the #1 ranked team in the country and a handful of of state powers and we got pounded every week. The amazing thing is those kids stuck it through and all came back. That team only scratches the surface of where I went next. I moved on to a d-3 college program that was in shambles. Started out w 24 guys and dressed 18 for the last game. We actually competed in most of the games. But this is about funny stories....well...one of the captains asked if he could leave Friday practice early for work. We asked him if he could get someone to cover and he could not because he was the featured stripper at a batchelorette party, I do need to mention that he had a giant wolf tattoo on his back and this was before many guys were inked up. We were skeptical but let him go. The next day our tailback shows up and tells the story of his sister was at breakfast and talking about being at a party the night before and seeing this stripper with a giant wolf tattoo! He asked her to describe the guy and sure enough our captain was indeed a stripper.
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Post by The Lunch Pail on Dec 23, 2015 18:31:23 GMT -6
When I was a junior in HS, we went 2-8. One of those wins was against a team in its second year as a school/program, and without seniors (4 juniors). We needed a 13 point comeback and a miraculous strip on our one yard line to win the game. Our other win was against a team who hadn't had a winning season in more than a decade. Even though we won two games, it was such a disappointing season. We went to a camp at Benedictine College in KS in June, and completely dominated programs with twice our enrollment. The only school smaller than ours had a 6'4 280 defensive end and WR who was committed to Nebraska. One of the other coaches said we were tougher than any team they had faced last year. Aside from our star FB/MLB tearing his ACL, we had tons of momentum going into Week 1.
So, week one, we're playing against a very storied program that we let get away from us the previous year, and we watched them ring a victory bell as they chanted right outside of our locker room. I was so pumped for that game that I was crying at the opening kickoff. Next thing I know, we're down at halftime 34-0. Then, we came back and made it look closer, 40-26. That was the narrative of that season. Get down 30/40 points at the half, and get our hopes up for nothing as we come back.
That wasn't even close to the worst moment of the season. Our HC was on the hot seat that year, despite giving our program its first two winning seasons only 2 years ago. But when you run the DW and don't have success, you're going to get a lot of pressure from the community for not being "exciting" or "creative" enough on offense. We had a big drop in numbers, and had to play a TON of freshmen. We were in week 3, thinking what would be a winnable game. It wasn't even close, and our effort wasn't great that game. So after the game, the HC yells for everyone to run to the locker room. I remember sitting in front of my locker, and he was HOT. He started off just yelling. Then, he threw small objects across the locker room in anger. Then, he broke his hand from slamming an expo marker against a whiteboard. And finally, he called us (including the coaching staff) "a bunch of brainless, heartless, pu$$ies". Somehow he managed to keep his job throughout the season.
Probably the worst part of the season was losing my starting job to a freshman. I admit I did talk back to an assistant during a game, and I was pretty average as a player, so looking back I understand. I had lost all confidence in myself, and had to carry that with myself until halfway through my senior year when I finally started to get back in a groove.
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ndcoach
Sophomore Member
Posts: 135
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Post by ndcoach on Dec 23, 2015 23:13:05 GMT -6
As a player my Sophomore year we were 1-9. We were a brand new High School, first year of the program, nothing but Soph’s and Juniors. No one had played a down of varsity football. Instead of a JV schedule we had an incredibly difficult independent schedule. We had section champs, private schools with multiple D-1 commits, it was brutal. We returned an interception for a TD the first week then did not score again until week 7 or 8. Not the best story because it was not the players or coaches fault, we were just out manned and it showed.
As a coach though (coincidently at the same school I played for) we had a spectacular disaster of a year in the one and only year I coached for them. I had interviewed for the head job and did not get it but was offered a job as a teacher, took it because it was a big bump in pay and I got to go back home. They guy they hired came in with a pretty impressive resume, had some big names like Mouse Davis and June Jones on it. I was excited to work there, figured I could learn a lot. Found out later in the year he had not worked with Davis or Jones but a friend of his had and his buddy got him invited to work a camp with them.
We had some decent athletes. 2 of our kids would play juco basketball and couple of our players could have played some small college ball, so it was not like we had a huge talent disadvantage. Had good numbers in spring but the wheels came off the bus quickly and it became a huge unorganized dumpster fire. The Highlights, or rather lowlights:
Finished 1-8, got outscored 342-92 and the 92 points are misleading, 22 came in the last game of the year and 35 came in our one win.
During summer and into the first week of practice we would have at least 2 hour chalk talks where he basically would repeat the same things over and over. The central themes were his offense is unstoppable and the corner route is the greatest route ever, he scored 27 Touchdowns on it when he played.
During the first week of practice the HC and projected starting corner got into a huge argument on the field and the kid quit to go run cross country.
The HC was always late to practice. He would go behind the gym and smoke and would not make it on time.
By the first game there were only assistant coaches left were the DC, me, and another guy. By the end of the year the other guy only came once or twice a week. There were several times I ran an entire offensive practice by myself before the replacement DC got there (more on that later)
Our first DC quit the day before our first game (He was the DC in name only)
Our first game we got at least 5 penalties for 12 men on the field and played at least 10 plays with 10 men. What happened was the HC wanted to switch between a 5-3 and 4-4 on defense. When we switched we would sub out a LB, but he never told anyone which group he wanted so a series would end and both kids would got out the next time and we got flagged, then he’d yell at them, both would come off and we’d play with 10. It was bad.
We were always 10 personnel had 2 running plays a dive and a toss to the single back. When we ran the toss we offset the single back, only play we did this. So you can guess how well that went. Week 6 or 7 it was decided by the HC we would run splitback veer as well.
The third game of the year the HC wore the colors of the team we were playing. He said it was because he was color blind but I don’t know how you miss the logo of our school that was on our coaching shirts.
At halftime of the third game the AD went into the stands to beg the DC from last year to come help because a bunch of kids were on the verge of quitting. The new DC taught at another school so he could not make it until practices were halfway over. The AD told the HC that offense was to be finished by the time the DC got there and the HC was to not interfere with the defensive portion of practice. From then on when the new DC got to practice the head coach would send the QB and a WR home and then leave.
We actually won the fourth game. It was against a team that was incredibly bad. At one point they lost at least 50 games in a row and a couple of years ago they ended up dropping football. The HC forgot to bring the footballs so we had to borrow one.
During an offensive team session the QB was sacked and the HC went off on our starting center chewing him out for missing the block, etc. The center waited until he was done then told him the back-up center was in during that last rep.
After we lost to our cross town rivals the HC got the ax (Week 7), we had wildfires nearby so the next game and week of practice was called off. Players basically refused to return to practice unless the HC was gone.
It was a nightmare of a year.
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Post by Chris Clement on Dec 23, 2015 23:17:01 GMT -6
A club team I played on one summer. We had a population basin of 200,000, so the talent level was really good, akin to a county all-star team. Our opponents were drawing from between 10 and 40 percent of that. From day one it was daddyball. Coaches kids and their friends got plum starting spots that didn't make sense, and all started both ways. Most of those kids wouldn't show up to practices, sometimes they'd miss whole weeks of practice and saunter in on game day, not a problem. We installed coverages in pre game warmup by having the DC say "so this signal is cloud and this one is sky." We sent two off each edge every play because we didn't really have any rules for a TE. The DC was trying to recruit players to his high school, which was 20 minutes out of town. There was no "open enrolment" in the area so if you wanted to transfer they'd probably let you but transportation was your own problem. We took penalties like you wouldn't believe, teams could just goad some of our daddyballers into giving them 15 over and over again. We actually lost games for it. In week four it was decreed that we would go from being 95% run, on account of being much bigger and stronger than everyone else, to 65% pass, just because. We never ended up doing it but there were two practices where we frantically installed pass "plays." One team started cracking our OLB with their slots and getting big runs outside, so he and I had to invent the concept of crack-replace, because the coaching staff was stymied. I was the holder and got sent out for an extra point. The rest of the pattern was offensive players so they were already out there, and I came into the huddle with a play the coach had drawn in the dirt. There was a game we'd basically pissed away with penalties and fights, but managed to take a late lead. It came down to a play on D where if we held them we'd win but if they got a first down they were basically sure to win (the details escape me). We held them and our idiot DT starts fighting, so in desperation I tackled him. The craziest thing was that we had such a population advantage that we ended up dominating and winning the league handily. I'm probably missing some of the juicier stories still. There was also this kid, nice kid, backup RB. He was known as quite a good hockey player but his mom was a legendary hockey parent. Now, hockey parents are insane, and put any football parent to shame. Most of the parents on the team saw the kids name on the roster and were filled with dread. She had all kinds of crazy ideas. She wanted her son to play a year up, she wanted no practices or games on Saturdays or Sundays because apparently her religion took a broad view of the sabbath, etc etc. then she finally comes out to practice one day and she's a full blown cougar, fake chest, bleached hair, fake tan, Daisy Dukes and halter tops in a convertible Miata. She spent the whole season trying to talk to anyone who would listen about whatever crazy new age thing she was on now. |
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Post by oguru on Dec 28, 2015 23:32:26 GMT -6
It was my first year out of college and actually met the head coach on this site. It was a joke from the start. Our DC's car was taken away for not paying and he worked on the north side and wouldn't come to practice and make it to the game so he had one of the coaches go and pick him up everyday. During our scrimmage I sent a play in with a kid and he said WTF are you doing Jerry Moore is special ed he can't even tie his own shoes. We as coaches also had to take a rules test so five of us assistants said lets each do 20 share the answers and get it done. He gave me his and told me to hand them in the day of the first game. So I collected all of them and took them in, and when the AD looked at them she said why isn't coach Jeff's done. I said B/C he didn't do it. The next Monday he told me I was suppose to do it and I said I was never told that and even if I was I wouldn't do that because it was wrong. We had a coach get fired because he had a GUN in a bag that he left on the bus from one of the games. After our homecoming game the parents always made treats for the players and this game they were cupcakes we got our butts kicked and the kids were excited about the cupcakes and he took the cupcakes and slammed them on the floor and said thats what I think about the PHUCKING cupcakes. He then told one of the coaches to clean it up and the coach said _ YOU. He also told the o-line in the middle of practice which was getting film that if they didn't do there job Desmond and Gary would not get their scholarship. Neither did and one didn't even get recruited for D3. After the season we were talking about the next year and I had already lined up some college jobs, and told him I was 99.9% sure I was not coming back because of that. A week later on a sunday I got an email from him telling me he is "Firing me" and that I was not to talk to any assistants on his staff. The email was sent at 12:59 on a saturday night. I immediately called three of the coaches and told them what time the email was written two of them was getting drunk and the other one was having sex with his wife at that time. I ended up being offered a college job that Saturday morning so I had already sent him my official letter of resignation. About seven years later he tried to take his skills to a suburban school and his principal told his supervisor to tell the school he was going to he was the greatest thing ever as the principal wanted to get rid of him. He was a horrible teacher and the new district realized this as the middle season of the second year there he was told he would not return as head coach or as a teacher. They then called his former principal and told him he was a liar. That off season due to my recruiting in the area several of the schools he interviewed at had people call me and asked me about him and told them about him and he didn't get any of those jobs. We had a great group of kids and assistants, however the Head coach was bad. It was by far my worse season ever. He is back in the district at a different school and I was told he is there because they had no other candidates.
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Post by natenator on Dec 28, 2015 23:38:47 GMT -6
It was my first year out of college and actually met the head coach on this site. It was a joke from the start. Our DC's car was taken away for not paying and he worked on the north side and wouldn't come to practice and make it to the game so he had one of the coaches go and pick him up everyday. During our scrimmage I sent a play in with a kid and he said WTF are you doing Jerry Moore is special ed he can't even tie his own shoes. We as coaches also had to take a rules test so five of us assistants said lets each do 20 share the answers and get it done. He gave me his and told me to hand them in the day of the first game. So I collected all of them and took them in, and when the AD looked at them she said why isn't coach Jeff's done. I said B/C he didn't do it. The next Monday he told me I was suppose to do it and I said I was never told that and even if I was I wouldn't do that because it was wrong. We had a coach get fired because he had a GUN in a bag that he left on the bus from one of the games. After our homecoming game the parents always made treats for the players and this game they were cupcakes we got our butts kicked and the kids were excited about the cupcakes and he took the cupcakes and slammed them on the floor and said thats what I think about the PHUCKING cupcakes. He then told one of the coaches to clean it up and the coach said _ YOU. He also told the o-line in the middle of practice which was getting film that if they didn't do there job Desmond and Gary would not get their scholarship. Neither did and one didn't even get recruited for D3. After the season we were talking about the next year and I had already lined up some college jobs, and told him I was 99.9% sure I was not coming back because of that. A week later on a sunday I got an email from him telling me he is "Firing me" and that I was not to talk to any assistants on his staff. The email was sent at 12:59 on a saturday night. I immediately called three of the coaches and told them what time the email was written two of them was getting drunk and the other one was having sex with his wife at that time. I ended up being offered a college job that Saturday morning so I had already sent him my official letter of resignation. About seven years later he tried to take his skills to a suburban school and his principal told his supervisor to tell the school he was going to he was the greatest thing ever as the principal wanted to get rid of him. He was a horrible teacher and the new district realized this as the middle season of the second year there he was told he would not return as head coach or as a teacher. They then called his former principal and told him he was a liar. That off season due to my recruiting in the area several of the schools he interviewed at had people call me and asked me about him and told them about him and he didn't get any of those jobs. We had a great group of kids and assistants, however the Head coach was bad. It was by far my worse season ever. He is back in the district at a different school and I was told he is there because they had no other candidates. Uhh paragraphs? |
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Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 29, 2015 0:17:59 GMT -6
Paragraphs? That's just Canadian propaganda.
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Post by John Knight on Dec 30, 2015 9:40:11 GMT -6
Senior year in college, 0-9-1
I don't want to talk about it! 1983 was not a good year for me!
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Post by blb on Dec 30, 2015 10:08:15 GMT -6
My Junior year in HS (1970).
We did not play our first two games because of a teachers' strike.
We lost our first six games. The sixth game we lost to a team that was 0-7.
Our HC announced mid-season he had resigned effective at end of season.
By then most of our black players had quit including two co-captains so roster was depleted.
Our last game against crosstown rival was postponed from Friday to following Wednesday because administration had heard rumors there would be "disturbances" at the game if played as scheduled.
We did win that one (and there was an on-field brawl near the end) to finish 1-6. Were outscored for the year 148-65.
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Post by Chris Clement on Dec 30, 2015 21:07:30 GMT -6
I was going to ask what "disturbances" meant but then I figured it was Ohio in 1970, so that explained that. I suppose I should also talk about The Zoo, so aptly named by (I believe) mariner after one of my stories from my time there. A key point: in this place, the three levels of team operate with a very high degree of autonomy, so being JV HC means having your own fiefdom. My first season coaching was with a little 9-man youth team in a spring league. 2-man staff, he did O, I did D, we had solid talent and we won the championship. Fun all around, and I caught the bug. As autumn came around I was looking for a hobby so I called. Up the local magnet/charter sports school (Quebec is weird) and asked if they needed a hand, no expectations of a fancy title. He told me they could use a frosh DL coach, which was fine by me, it was about the right level for where I was at the time, and it was an appropriate commitment level for something to which I was still very new. What followed would be five of the most ridiculous seasons you could imagine. Season 1 At first, this seemed like a utopia. There was a nice turf field with some bleachers built into the back of the arena, and our own locker room. My group was first rate dog rap, and I was forced to start a guy who was too out of shape to get into a stance, because they'd only given me four players. I had to put him into a stance on his fist as a stopgap measure, because hours of work on just his stance had gotten us nowhere. I got a bonus player, a loaner OL, during warm ups of our first game.all well and good, except he would line up in a 3 tech to the wrong side, so to the field we had a 5 tech, and to the boundary we had a 1,3,5. Spot the bubble? DC didn't understand why that was a problem, because he was 18. I was the second oldest coach on staff, with the second most coaching experience (1 season). The man child from my youth league team was on this team, and still a man child. In our first game he rushed for 500 yds and had 50 tackles, nobody else contributed. Fifty tackles. Our offense was a clusterfuck of unbelievable proportions. We would just add meaningless backfield actions and formations to jazz up crappy plays. We kept running A gap dive because it was basically our only play, and our blocking rules didn't account for the A gap defender, even if it was the nose. We got pasted every game. Passing wasn't a thing we could do, nor did we even think it could be done. The administration of the team was abominable. I had to go away for a week for emergency surgery (leave in the next hour or else...) so I left the HC of the frosh and varsity programs some frantic messages but couldn't get a hold of them, so I was just left hoping they'd gotten the messages I'd left at home, at work, with the secretary, etc. I came back and apologized profusely, and they hadn't noticed I was gone. The guy who speaks a different language, the only guy who isn't born and raised local, the guy with a cane at practice, they didn't notice when he stopped showing up every single day. The frosh HC was beyond aloof, but the only guy in the building. Season 2 So, for some reason, they played a full spring schedule. I was now moved to JV QB coach, which was fine, I'm better with more 1-1 coaching. Because reasons we decided everything was going to be HUNH ZRO. I was kind of excited myself because this meant my positional group would be a focal point, instead of ball caddies. The Varsity OC was now the JV HC because there was a strong belief that we had a talented group that could be turned into a very competitive varsity team, and the current crop of older players was basically playing out the string, they were not blessed with talent. I was still second oldest and second most experienced. This time the problems were on the defensive side of the ball (I promise it's not always "the other guys" fault). Our first opponent was an I wing-t team ripped from lochness fantasies. I'm sure that coach used our game for his next clinic presentation. They ran buck series all night, and a couple three step passes when they got bored. I usually flush this information when I'm done with it, but I can still remember it was trap, sweep, waggle, ISO, and power on the ground, and the pass game was waggle pass, boot pass, and a couple quicks. The offense, for its part, was bumpy. We were installing a new offense, so things went in fits and starts, but there was cause for optimism. Season 3 Now it's the fall season again, so this is the "big season" that counts more in people's estimation. Again the JV QB coach, I have three players: an obnoxious, spoiled little turd, a goofy doofus, and a kid who's nice and all, but has been inexplicably been anointed as the QB of the future despite being tiny, having hands too small to grip the ball, and no arm. The obnoxious turd starts and the goofy doofus moves to WR on game days. My crusade of the year is to get him to stop hitching because it takes too long and he under throws the receiver, and to throw it to literally anyone but the triple covered goofy doofus. The run game was a shitshow, the pass game was a shitshow, the defense was a shitshow. We had two hour bus rides for every game. We left one game in a snowstorm and arrived in sweltering heat and humidity. We were getting killed and kids started getting hurt, either legitimately or just checking out. At one point we had three players in the backfield weighing less than 225 combined. Our starting QB couldn't handle a snap. I know it's my department but I'm not sure what more I could have done. He was such an obstinate little dink, everything was someone else's fault. He would go on to be well recruited at WR but flame out after one year. Season 4 Still as the JV QB coach, but also STC because nobody else wanted it, we'd been booted from our division for being non-competitive, so our spring schedule was against the local non-magnet schools. Schools as little as one eighth our size whom we'd already legally pillaged for their best players, they were left with the rejects and the attitude problems. We started practicing in January with split practices in the gym, OL for two hrs, Recs for two hrs. QBs for about five hours. The freshly appointed JV HC was 19 and had never coached before. His claim to fame was being a pretty good, not great HS QB and once coming off the bench in a pinch to lead his CEGEP (think JUCO) team to a game-winning drive. The HC named a similarly inexperienced buddy as OC. This guy was a huge flake and was replaced midway through by essentially a carbon copy. We were installing plays left and right, they were so proud of their massive call sheets. I was the only staff member over the age of 20. We rolled teams every week, our starters would be out before the half was over. I guess that was good, but it felt hollow. This was probably the best season. I ruled the special teams with an iron fist, and basically WAS the HC, even if I didn't have the title. I had the experience and gravitas none of the other coaches could compete with. I had the presence to toss kids out of team for goofing off, when they weren't even in my group. I like to think I was appreciated for being the mean coach, not my natural role. One bright spot, I had a scout kickoff team at one point, and I noticed one kid flying around. He was a crappy backup receiver who couldn't catch and was kind of slow, but he was hammering people. I made him a gunner on all kicking teams, which vaulted him to starting LB by season's end, and he'll be playing college football next year. I didn't make him a natural hitter, I only coached him for one year and instructed him very little (we had bigger problems than an overly aggressive gunner) but i did contribute a little just by noticing him. Season 5 The HC of the whole program asked me to be the HC/OC of the frosh program, which practiced separately from the other teams for administrative reasons. I agreed pretty quickly but thereafter he was cavy about details. I thought nothing of it because I figured he was just disorganized and the team was threatening to fold. Then I showed up for the first practice and he'd appointed a known flake to that spot instead, a guy who, in his one season coaching, had bailed as RB coach mid season. During QB Indy it was basically me and the two other kids chilling out, because we kept changing what plays were in the playbook mid-practice, so what was the point... I sort of manipulated things to run the plays I felt were best but the actual plays were in flux until kickoff. At least I'd manoeuvred it so the QBs had the same jobs. Poor OL. Second last game of the year we're loading the bus and the HC isn't there. So I call the varsity HC and ask him wtf? And he basically says "well, you're the man now, dog." So we take our two hour trip, I run everything, because we're also short most of our assistants (this, we knew beforehand) and we actually win in OT (pro tip: zone read, great RB, fast QB, run to the side with the two good OL.) The flake isn't there for the next two practices before our last game, and come game time he's back and fully in charge. Thank God I didn't have any game time responsibilities because I spent the whole game steaming up and down the sidelines, just raging. I called my wife at the half and asked her to come pick me up after the game (30 minutes ish). After the bare minimum post game I hopped in the car and never spoke to anyone there again. |
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Post by fantom on Dec 30, 2015 21:22:15 GMT -6
I was going to ask what "disturbances" meant but then I figured it was Ohio in 1970, so that explained that. I suppose I should also talk about The Zoo, so aptly named by (I believe) mariner after one of my stories from my time there. A key point: in this place, the three levels of team operate with a very high degree of autonomy, so being JV HC means having your own fiefdom. My first season coaching was with a little 9-man youth team in a spring league. 2-man staff, he did O, I did D, we had solid talent and we won the championship. Fun all around, and I caught the bug. As autumn came around I was looking for a hobby so I called. Up the local magnet/charter sports school (Quebec is weird) and asked if they needed a hand, no expectations of a fancy title. He told me they could use a frosh DL coach, which was fine by me, it was about the right level for where I was at the time, and it was an appropriate commitment level for something to which I was still very new. What followed would be five of the most ridiculous seasons you could imagine. Season 1 At first, this seemed like a utopia. There was a nice turf field with some bleachers built into the back of the arena, and our own locker room. My group was first rate dog rap, and I was forced to start a guy who was too out of shape to get into a stance, because they'd only given me four players. I had to put him into a stance on his fist as a stopgap measure, because hours of work on just his stance had gotten us nowhere. I got a bonus player, a loaner OL, during warm ups of our first game.all well and good, except he would line up in a 3 tech to the wrong side, so to the field we had a 5 tech, and to the boundary we had a 1,3,5. Spot the bubble? DC didn't understand why that was a problem, because he was 18. I was the second oldest coach on staff, with the second most coaching experience (1 season). The man child from my youth league team was on this team, and still a man child. In our first game he rushed for 500 yds and had 50 tackles, nobody else contributed. Fifty tackles. Our offense was a clusterfuck of unbelievable proportions. We would just add meaningless backfield actions and formations to jazz up crappy plays. We kept running A gap dive because it was basically our only play, and our blocking rules didn't account for the A gap defender, even if it was the nose. We got pasted every game. Passing wasn't a thing we could do, nor did we even think it could be done. The administration of the team was abominable. I had to go away for a week for emergency surgery (leave in the next hour or else...) so I left the HC of the frosh and varsity programs some frantic messages but couldn't get a hold of them, so I was just left hoping they'd gotten the messages I'd left at home, at work, with the secretary, etc. I came back and apologized profusely, and they hadn't noticed I was gone. The guy who speaks a different language, the only guy who isn't born and raised local, the guy with a cane at practice, they didn't notice when he stopped showing up every single day. The frosh HC was beyond aloof, but the only guy in the building. Season 2 So, for some reason, they played a full spring schedule. I was now moved to JV QB coach, which was fine, I'm better with more 1-1 coaching. Because reasons we decided everything was going to be HUNH ZRO. I was kind of excited myself because this meant my positional group would be a focal point, instead of ball caddies. The Varsity OC was now the JV HC because there was a strong belief that we had a talented group that could be turned into a very competitive varsity team, and the current crop of older players was basically playing out the string, they were not blessed with talent. I was still second oldest and second most experienced. This time the problems were on the defensive side of the ball (I promise it's not always "the other guys" fault). Our first opponent was an I wing-t team ripped from lochness fantasies. I'm sure that coach used our game for his next clinic presentation. They ran buck series all night, and a couple three step passes when they got bored. I usually flush this information when I'm done with it, but I can still remember it was trap, sweep, waggle, ISO, and power on the ground, and the pass game was waggle pass, boot pass, and a couple quicks. The offense, for its part, was bumpy. We were installing a new offense, so things went in fits and starts, but there was cause for optimism. Season 3 Now it's the fall season again, so this is the "big season" that counts more in people's estimation. Again the JV QB coach, I have three players: an obnoxious, spoiled little turd, a goofy doofus, and a kid who's nice and all, but has been inexplicably been anointed as the QB of the future despite being tiny, having hands too small to grip the ball, and no arm. The obnoxious turd starts and the goofy doofus moves to WR on game days. My crusade of the year is to get him to stop hitching because it takes too long and he under throws the receiver, and to throw it to literally anyone but the triple covered goofy doofus. The run game was a shitshow, the pass game was a shitshow, the defense was a shitshow. We had two hour bus rides for every game. We left one game in a snowstorm and arrived in sweltering heat and humidity. We were getting killed and kids started getting hurt, either legitimately or just checking out. At one point we had three players in the backfield weighing less than 225 combined. Our starting QB couldn't handle a snap. I know it's my department but I'm not sure what more I could have done. He was such an obstinate little dink, everything was someone else's fault. He would go on to be well recruited at WR but flame out after one year. Season 4 Still as the JV QB coach, but also STC because nobody else wanted it, we'd been booted from our division for being non-competitive, so our spring schedule was against the local non-magnet schools. Schools as little as one eighth our size whom we'd already legally pillaged for their best players, they were left with the rejects and the attitude problems. We started practicing in January with split practices in the gym, OL for two hrs, Recs for two hrs. QBs for about five hours. The freshly appointed JV HC was 19 and had never coached before. His claim to fame was being a pretty good, not great HS QB and once coming off the bench in a pinch to lead his CEGEP (think JUCO) team to a game-winning drive. The HC named a similarly inexperienced buddy as OC. This guy was a huge flake and was replaced midway through by essentially a carbon copy. We were installing plays left and right, they were so proud of their massive call sheets. I was the only staff member over the age of 20. We rolled teams every week, our starters would be out before the half was over. I guess that was good, but it felt hollow. This was probably the best season. I ruled the special teams with an iron fist, and basically WAS the HC, even if I didn't have the title. I had the experience and gravitas none of the other coaches could compete with. I had the presence to toss kids out of team for goofing off, when they weren't even in my group. I like to think I was appreciated for being the mean coach, not my natural role. One bright spot, I had a scout kickoff team at one point, and I noticed one kid flying around. He was a crappy backup receiver who couldn't catch and was kind of slow, but he was hammering people. I made him a gunner on all kicking teams, which vaulted him to starting LB by season's end, and he'll be playing college football next year. I didn't make him a natural hitter, I only coached him for one year and instructed him very little (we had bigger problems than an overly aggressive gunner) but i did contribute a little just by noticing him. Season 5 The HC of the whole program asked me to be the HC/OC of the frosh program, which practiced separately from the other teams for administrative reasons. I agreed pretty quickly but thereafter he was cavy about details. I thought nothing of it because I figured he was just disorganized and the team was threatening to fold. Then I showed up for the first practice and he'd appointed a known flake to that spot instead, a guy who, in his one season coaching, had bailed as RB coach mid season. During QB Indy it was basically me and the two other kids chilling out, because we kept changing what plays were in the playbook mid-practice, so what was the point... I sort of manipulated things to run the plays I felt were best but the actual plays were in flux until kickoff. At least I'd manoeuvred it so the QBs had the same jobs. Poor OL. Second last game of the year we're loading the bus and the HC isn't there. So I call the varsity HC and ask him wtf? And he basically says "well, you're the man now, dog." So we take our two hour trip, I run everything, because we're also short most of our assistants (this, we knew beforehand) and we actually win in OT (pro tip: zone read, great RB, fast QB, run to the side with the two good OL.) The flake isn't there for the next two practices before our last game, and come game time he's back and fully in charge. Thank God I didn't have any game time responsibilities because I spent the whole game steaming up and down the sidelines, just raging. I called my wife at the half and asked her to come pick me up after the game (30 minutes ish). After the bare minimum post game I hopped in the car and never spoke to anyone there again. I'll never complain about a job again. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2015 21:45:27 GMT -6
Reading Chris Clement's post about the zoo (I remember when you were there!) reminded me...
At the school I posted about earlier, all our road games were a minimum 90 minute bus ride. The last one, it was on Halloween night, plus it was 30 degrees and had been raining all day, but our HC ordered us to wear our "uniforms": a Nike Dry-Fit T-shirt and khaki shorts. It started snowing right before kickoff and we had 2 inches on the ground before it was done.
Kids were taking themselves out of that game left and right saying it was pointless and they didn't want to get hurt--even when those 8th graders were in there scoring 28 on us. I have never seen a group of boys be as chicken$h!t about an opponent as they were towards that team. They even had a euphemism for it at the school: "catching the __opposing_school's name here_ Flu."
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Post by coachdubyah on Dec 30, 2015 22:41:04 GMT -6
I once coached a frosh/soph team with a terrible staff. The RB coach was a locally known homeless guy. I didn't know he was homeless for sure until I offered him a ride since it was raining. We got to the train tracks and he said, "Right here is good." He got out and went to his encampment under an overpass. It was an interesting season. We had three offensive plays: jelly (IZ), peanut butter (pass block and the HC would make up a pass concept), peanut butter and jelly (PA all verts). WTF. Is it weird that I laughed at this for 5 min.? |
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Post by coachdubyah on Dec 30, 2015 22:46:26 GMT -6
I once coached on a team that actually had a shoebox full of Asthma inhalers for away games. That tells you everything you need to know.
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agame
Junior Member
Posts: 378
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Post by agame on Dec 31, 2015 4:13:03 GMT -6
Only had 1 stop so far in my coaching stops where we were unsuccessful.. Brand new university team, starting from scratch..
A lot of things done wrong there from all involved, including myself..
Still my biggest regret in coaching is not being able to get that programme on steady footing.... Will stay with me forever
I could have / should have been better
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