Keeping football programs simple and less demanding

1. Only practice 3 days a week in the summer.
2. No two a days.
3. Camp is only 2.5 days
4. No longer restrict long hair or facial hair.
5. No practice on Saturday.
6. Always take labor day off.
7. No minimum GPA, just don't fail.
8. We only do one 7on7 and it is not a tournament.
9. Cut back from 3 to 2 fall scrimmages.
10. No dress code on away games, be appropriate though.

the more rules you have the more you have to enforce

i have seen some team rules before, whether it be on here or talking to a coach in person... and it is just like wtf ... who gives a $hit
i dont have time to police that

i had an uncle that coached a few years ago and bragged how they only wore black cleats, you cant be an individual and blah blah blah
who cares

saw the no long hair/facial hair above... no offense coach, but who gives a $hit

i have so many more things to worry about ( making sure kids grades are up, getting kids in the weight room, feeding my kids, coaching my butt off) to worry about little things like those just seems rather shallow and pedantic


i personally do not care if every kid wants to wear 1700 pairs of wristbands, sleeves, neon green highlighter socks, whatever

from a demanding standpoint, i am trying to increase how demanding we are in the off season... i think any game we lose occurs in the off season, not with what we do in season
we give them every friday off in the summer, i gave the kids spring break off this year (this past week)
we have a relatively short practice compared to most HS teams
we are one of the only teams in our area who does not charge each player a fee to play

Don't mean to vent, but our HC once again has the kids scheduled 24 hours a week during the summer, the only thing we demand more of is kid's time (because after a while they wont be giving you high output anyways). The majority of this excess time is spent with coaches talking, so I think the one thing I am trying to convince our staff to cut out is yammering.

If the kids arent doing anything except listening to you talk then you are probably wasting time.

In that 5 years that I have been hc we have had the most success in school history. Won 9 games this season, only the 3rd time that had happened in 53 years.

We no longer restrict hair. I did year 1 because we needed the discipline. I've let it go know.

No 2 a-days (haven't done them in over 10 years)
Off season lifting (take November and March off, start back today)
8 days in June & 8 days in July
No weekends for kids (QB's can voluntarily come in w/ position coach)
No rules other than lateness & Unexcused absences (follow school policy for anything else)
No selling anything fundraisers (cannot stand them)
No conditioning periods in practice (practice at the right tempo to condition the kids)

Not gonna lie coachbdud, had to look up pedantic in the dictionary, consequently I agree with your assessment

still fairly common to pray before games
i dont always participate and i make it a point to stress to every member that they do not have to join, only if they want to 

it would be illegal for me to say that they all have to join the prayer 

this year our starting QB was muslim, when the team prayed he would go about 10 yards away and engage in his own prayer, often i would go stand beside him in support of him
i didnt want him to feel alone 

Interested in some your opinions on what you guys do if one of the coaches on staff simply doesn't put any time or effort in? It's always an excuse that something is going on with his family. I'm always a family first guy so I keep my mouth shut but it's a little ridiculous that 5 coaches do the work of 7 during the off season. How do you go about addressing this frustration? Both him and I are assistants, his best friend is the AD.... other coaches on staff agree but it hasn't been talked about as a whole. Personally my feelings are that if you don't have the time to dedicate to help turn a program around then why waste your time? Especially frustrating when we could use someone more motivated and football smart in his position....maybe I just need to relax but it's very very frustrating when he contributes nothing.

I wish I had the privilege of doing that. Unfortunately I'm not the head coach.And to complicate things further he's best friends with the AD and head coach...

Don't give him any responsibilities so you're not disappointed when he doesn't do them. When he tries to jump in remind him he wasn't around when the decision was made. It's tough but I've been in a similar situation.

You and he are both assistants? He's friends with the AD? Well, you personally can't do chit. 

One of our biggest rules is that your cleats can't be our big rivals colors. Had that happen a few years ago, it was kind of embarrassing. A lot of kids went in on a specific style and color, and turns out they didn't check with coaches to see if that was a good color scheme. Trotted out against that team, their cleats and our cleats all matched their jerseys.

We have a lot of diverse backgrounds in our area, despite being rural. Basically, if your actions are causing a distraction, it won't be allowed. Wear what you want, look how you want, as long as it isn't an issue.

Hell, personally I'd love to see a ton of O-line and D-line guys with full beards.

This is exactly what I'm trying to do. He was named Head Coach of 9th grade and JV teams recently so I have a little built up frustration but am working to improve in the areas I need to as a Coach just as I ask the kids to do as athletes and students.

In the last 5 years we have really sized down on things:

- Our offseason lifting is 2 days a week we coach up those who are there and give them some incentives and don't worry about those who aren't (still encourage them to play)
- Summer we go to three days and are always done in an hour and a half
- Cut back on camp dates and 7 on 7's
- Nothing on the weekends in or out of season
- No practice on labor day
- No two a day practices
- We no longer condition at the end of practice
- We no longer run formal structured stretching periods at the start of practice
- We don't hit much in practice
- We practice much less time per day then we used too..

Really the only thing that has increased is our use of film but much of this has to do with the availability to film due to Hudl... Our results on the field is a variable that is tough to judge because there are many factors that go into it (we have won more games) my view is our programs have benefitted because our kids are fresher, always seemingly wanting more football and are choosing to find ways to get extra work rather then dreading the fact that their coach is making them do something. The switch in culture due us REQUIRING less has led to our kids having more fun, our parents being happier with our staff and more approachable, and most importantly me happier as I'm not stressed about many of the things I was trying to control that I really had no control over...