Kids miss all summer

Unfortunately thats just the way it goes sometimes. We are heading to team camp short handed because of family reunions, FBLA Nationals, and everything else you could think of.

Drives me bananas! But really, all you can do is coach the kids you have like there the only ones you got! Like we tell our kids, only worry about the things we know we can control.

At my last stop we had boys and parents sign a contract. If you did not successfully complete spring or summer it was a 1 game non dress per offense in the fall. If you missed/didn't complete both, it was a 3 game no dress. If you didn't do spring fundraiser you didn't play in spring game which equals an incomplete spring. The only acceptable excuse for missing spring was spring sports playoffs. I believe the summer was you couldn't miss more than 3 days for the 6 week summer program.

No. If you don't come during the summer or lift year round then you do not play football for us.

1. If you're not there you don't know whats going on.
2. If you're not lifting year round then we look at it as a safety issue of putting you on the field.

I've never had a player that was such a freak athlete he could skip all summer then show up in the fall and play.

Like coachklee said, if you're at a struggling program and he will be one of your best 11 then you're probably gonna have to play him. If you can have some success and go from losing seasons to a 6-4 ish type season then you can start preaching about commitment. Success breeds success.

All workouts are mandatory in the summer. We take role and you make up the days you missed and you don't play until you do. Had a kid who was a great athlete, straight A students and very polite and hard working that missed all summer because his parents are divorced and he stays with his dad in the summer.

Are you guys that say you wouldn't allow him to play gonna kick a kid off the team in that situation??? IMO let them come out, make them make up anything they missed and if they don't want to do that then they either just practice all year without playing or they will quit.

Maybe it's different in your states but NOTHING can be mandatory until the first official day of practice per our state association. Highly recommend and encouraged but mandatory, no. So unless you want to get yourself jammed up I would guess you have to let the kid on the team. How long they last is another question, some places cut some don't and it doesn't mean they will actually contribute or play any significant time.  And I am sure making them make up what they missed, for stuff you can't even make mandatory wouldn't go over real well either.

This is where I have changed the most as a coach. I don't go all berserk on this stuff any more. We encourage it, we market it, and we work like heck to improve the kids and get them having fun in the off season...but we don't lose our minds when someone doesn't show.

Nothing can be "mandatory" for us until August first day of official practice. So, it's not. And I don't enforce some secret code about "well, you can be on the team, but you won't play if you aren't around all summer" because my job is to field the best team I can week in and week out. Period...end of discussion. That's my job.

So, if some kid rolls in on the first day of official practice in August, is a great teammate, is coachable, and can help us, I'm going to play him in September. Why the hell else wouldn't I? It's High School football. These kids aren't under contract. Some go away for the summer. Some of my best players are doing summer baseball or lacrosse all summer, traveling around the country. Some have to work full-time to support a single parent family. Why would I want to stop them from doing that if they can still help our team during the season? Just to serve my ego about how important our summer activities are?

Summer activities are opportunities for kids to get better and to gel as a team. As it happens, most guys who work out all summer end up starting, not because we favor them over those who don't, but because they've got a distinct advantage. We work with whoever shows up, and we're happy we're making those kids better. If a dude can show up first day of practice and beat someone out after taking all summer off...well $hit more power to him I guess.

We have good attendance. Not great. Not everyone. Good. I want them to get better and build respect with each other, but I also want them to continue to have lives and be kids...and I want them to be fresh and hungry all season, not feeling like they've been playing football for 8 months.

In my state, you can't use off season attendance as a prerequisite to being on the team. 

So what did you do with that kid? Did he get to play?

A player. Missing all summer while your staff and players make sacrifices to be there all summer is special treatment.

This is a tough question I ask myself every day right now. We have been at less than 50% attendance so far this summer. Under 25 kids on average at a place where we should have 50+ on the team. Apathy is high and work ethic and drive are low. A couple older kids talk about not showing up until fall. Can they win a spot? It's possible but not likely. Plus what kind of message do you send to young kids that have had opportunities all summer? It's a tough hill to climb when your opponents of similar size are average 50+ kids per day at their sessions. I don't think we can walk out there and be better than those guys busting their tails when we're not. We recognize and reward those that are there. I don't know what else we can do. Those guys that show up in the fall? They will have to start low on the chart and work their way up. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But like I said I don't know if it's the right answer or not. No good way to know what's right.

Is this the kid taking the SAT class?

Assuming that he doesn't do anything during the summer with the team, when practice starts in August, how will he objectively compare to the other players at his position who lifted all summer?

Or, looking at it another way, is this kid good enough to play for you this fall even if he doesn't do anything this summer?

I don't think that there is anything wrong with rewarding the kids who participate in the summer program. Give those kids "Ironman" t-shirts. Put a leader board up in the weight room and only kids who participate in the summer program are eligible to have their names and weights up there. Do cookouts and stuff like that.

But, once the season starts, I think the best player at each position has to start, regardless of what they did or didn't do during the summer.

Per our state/section rules summer workouts cannot be made mandatory. However, for the football team to be successful the players have to be in condition. If players miss the summer workouts they will miss both the cardio and weight training. We cannot make up the strength training, but we can make up the cardio work.

For the players to be conditioned, they have to run. Once we start fall practice in August the coaches will provide the opportunity for the player to get into shape each day after practice.

For us there are 36 summer sessions possible - 4 sessions per week, for 9 weeks. Each session is 2 hours, from 5-7PM. For the first two weeks we have been averaging 41 players per session, of a team of 60-65 so I’m pleased so far. And we have 7 7x7 competitions so we are busy during the summer. I have asked the players to make 2+ sessions per week to achieve the strength and cardio conditioning I feel is necessary for the team to be successful. Each player earns 2 points for each session they attend. The goal for each player is 38 points - 2 points for 18 sessions plus 1 session to be over the 50% mark, 19 total sessions x 2 points = 38 total points

At the testing combine on August 6th the point total for each player will be posted. For each point the player is less than the 38 required he will have to run a set of the sprint “2 Pointer”. The sprint has 2 points possible, 1 point for each set. Completing the full sprint earns the player 2 points. The 2 Pointers will be run after practice each day, coaches will monitor the players. The 'hammer' is that the players will not be permitted to compete in the scrimmages or games until the points are brought up to 38. And there are 13 practice sessions before our first scrimmage, 18 before our second so there is time for the players to get this done. The players must be conditioned and there will not be sufficient time during practice to fully condition them. We will still condition during practice, but those that missed summer workouts will be behind.

A "2 Pointer" is a sprint 100 yards, walk back, sprint 90 yards, walk back, and so on until they sprint the final 10 and walk back. That 550 yards of sprinting is worth 1 point. Rest 2 minutes, run it again. 2 sets = 2 points = 1 practice.

For us, by the time we get to the end of July, in a normal 2 hour (120 minute) workout, the players are sprinting about 1,200 yards (next week we will be at 700 yards/session, +100 yards per week), with some core and crawls and jumps and hops and such, in 40 minutes. 40 minutes of weights, and 40 minutes of football (we start with the football). So the 2 Pointer is basically going with the level of running the team is doing the last week of July.

I'm not going to turn kids away for missing summer sessions, lots and lots of reasons they will miss. I am looking at hammering a couple of players right now because they are going to basketball practice, which is right before football practice, and then going home. Not a work thing or family thing, that is a choice thing.

But you aren't keeping kids off the field as a punishment for missing in the summer. You aren't playing them because they aren't good enough (by whatever objective metric you are using). I don't think that is a problem. Ultimately, you are playing the best player at each position. Those kids who didn't participate aren't the best players.