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Post by bigmoot on Jun 27, 2016 13:08:16 GMT -6
Does the size of your program influence how you feel about it? Yeas ago I was coaching in a program that had 120+ players. Now I'm in a program with 40. I'd wager both programs hhave about the same percentage of attendence...but, if the top 3 players miss it "seems" like a bigger issue in the small program.
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Post by blb on Jun 27, 2016 14:36:05 GMT -6
Our players should receive grandsons of the year awards or babysitter of the year awards because I'm hearing so many excuses as to why guys can't make summer practice. I'm pretty reasonable and of course a family death or certain emergencies need to be taken care of before summer football but it's to the point of ridiculous now. I know for a fact our opponents do not have as many guys miss summer. Here's the other part. I think it's inpoeant for us as coaches to relax a bit and enjoy our summers too because when we don't, we can become bitter toward our players for missing. I haven't missed a practice, meeting, or workout in 12 years of coaching & the I never missed one as a player. It infuriates me when they don't have the same type of commitment. But I also make sure to take some time off and enjoy myself because if I don't I'll become a very cantankerous individual and that isn't good for anyone. Exactly this. We'll just wear ourselves out if we worry about everything. Going into the summer, most of us know the few kids in our program that just will not be at workouts regardless. Those reading with that perfect program that everyone comes to summer workouts and we will "hold their foot to the fire if they don't" I have summer ocean front property in Arizona for ya.
When you coach HS Football, you need to be intense enough to get the job done, but relaxed enough to enjoy it.
Or else why do it?
And if you're the HFC - remember, not everybody (other coaches, players) loves Football as much as you do.
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Post by gators41 on Jun 29, 2016 20:19:56 GMT -6
Back to the original post - how many of us have had kids who did not come to ONE Summer activity - lifting, conditioning, 7-on-7, et al - and make a significant contribution during the competitive season? 2 in the last 3 years, actually. One kid decided he wanted to play at equipment hand out as a senior (night before first practice). Started both ways for us and won our highest-honor coach's award. Other kid showed up after the first three days had already passed. Ended up working his ASS off in drills, winning the sportsmanship award (voted on by officials at each game) and started both ways. I ain't turning someone away who is a good dude and will help is just out of stubborn commitment to my own summer program. Ridiculous. Best guys with the best attitudes play. Summer helps you develop that. Miss it at your own risk. God bless if you can be a stud without it. I am very surprised with this thread. Much more acceptance of missing summer practice than i thought. In a lot of ways I am glad to see so many other peoples thoughts on this and you are still letting them come out to play. I am having such a hard time accepting that. How do you justify this to the other players? Someone who is there all summer gets their spot taken by a guy who never shows up. This is a lack of discipline in your program and i do not see how you could ever be really good if your players miss all the time
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Post by fantom on Jun 29, 2016 20:48:10 GMT -6
2 in the last 3 years, actually. One kid decided he wanted to play at equipment hand out as a senior (night before first practice). Started both ways for us and won our highest-honor coach's award. Other kid showed up after the first three days had already passed. Ended up working his ASS off in drills, winning the sportsmanship award (voted on by officials at each game) and started both ways. I ain't turning someone away who is a good dude and will help is just out of stubborn commitment to my own summer program. Ridiculous. Best guys with the best attitudes play. Summer helps you develop that. Miss it at your own risk. God bless if you can be a stud without it. I am very surprised with this thread. Much more acceptance of missing summer practice than i thought. In a lot of ways I am glad to see so many other peoples thoughts on this and you are still letting them come out to play. I am having such a hard time accepting that. How do you justify this to the other players? Someone who is there all summer gets their spot taken by a guy who never shows up. This is a lack of discipline in your program and i do not see how you could ever be really good if your players miss all the time I'm not sure where your quote ends and your comment begins. First of all, we never have anybody who never shows up then comes out and plays. Kids that don't work out as much as we'd like? Best players play. The lazy kid had better be clearly than the worker but if he is he plays. How do the other kids feel. The kids know who the best players are. They want to win. If we start a kid who's not nearly as good because he's a hard worker/good kid and lessen the chances of winning they'll be pi$$ed.
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Post by lochness on Jun 30, 2016 13:02:01 GMT -6
2 in the last 3 years, actually. One kid decided he wanted to play at equipment hand out as a senior (night before first practice). Started both ways for us and won our highest-honor coach's award. Other kid showed up after the first three days had already passed. Ended up working his ASS off in drills, winning the sportsmanship award (voted on by officials at each game) and started both ways. I ain't turning someone away who is a good dude and will help is just out of stubborn commitment to my own summer program. Ridiculous. Best guys with the best attitudes play. Summer helps you develop that. Miss it at your own risk. God bless if you can be a stud without it. I am very surprised with this thread. Much more acceptance of missing summer practice than i thought. In a lot of ways I am glad to see so many other peoples thoughts on this and you are still letting them come out to play. I am having such a hard time accepting that. How do you justify this to the other players? Someone who is there all summer gets their spot taken by a guy who never shows up. This is a lack of discipline in your program and i do not see how you could ever be really good if your players miss all the time I'm sorry that you feel that way. We don't, and it's worked just fine for us. I don't think it's appropriate for you to judge my program's "discipline" just because you don't agree with our summer philosophy, by the way. That's an extremely immature perspective. Every community and every program is different. Solutions vary based on a number of factors. Having a "hard time accepting that" is simply another way of admitting you are closed minded on the subject. Unfortunately, the world's not black-and-white, particularly where the state's athletics association dictates that nothing can be mandatory until a certain date in August. So, WTF am I supposed to do, arbitrarily bench a great kid and a great athlete just because they didn't show up to my non-mandatory workouts? Bull$hit. Our players want to win and have fun with their friends. The phrase "Nobody is owed ANYTHING" cuts both ways. Just because you come all summer doesn't entitle you to a role. The only thing that entitles you to a role is being the best. How you achieve that is interesting but not relevant. I'd love it if you achieve it by working with us all spring and summer. If not, good on you. Our motivation is to prepare to beat other teams, not win roles. That gets plenty of our guys to workouts and mini-camps. That's how we want it.
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Post by rsmith627 on Jun 30, 2016 17:14:16 GMT -6
I'm sorry that you feel that way. We don't, and it's worked just fine for us. I don't think it's appropriate for you to judge my program's "discipline" just because you don't agree with our summer philosophy, by the way. That's an extremely immature perspective. Every community and every program is different. Solutions vary based on a number of factors. Having a "hard time accepting that" is simply another way of admitting you are closed minded on the subject. Unfortunately, the world's not black-and-white, particularly where the state's athletics association dictates that nothing can be mandatory until a certain date in August. So, WTF am I supposed to do, arbitrarily bench a great kid and a great athlete just because they didn't show up to my non-mandatory workouts? Bull$hit. Our players want to win and have fun with their friends. The phrase "Nobody is owed ANYTHING" cuts both ways. Just because you come all summer doesn't entitle you to a role. The only thing that entitles you to a role is being the best. How you achieve that is interesting but not relevant. I'd love it if you achieve it by working with us all spring and summer. If not, good on you. Our motivation is to prepare to beat other teams, not win roles. That gets plenty of our guys to workouts and mini-camps. That's how we want it. Great post. The thing is, other teams have kids missing too, so we are all on an equal field. We have GREAT participation in our summer program at all 3 levels. Moreso than some nearby programs. They lift in football class and after school all year. Once summer hits we have the weigh room open for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. We ask our guys to lift 12 times. That last 6-8 weeks they aren't making massive gains anyway. Enjoy summer.
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Post by Castor on Jun 30, 2016 18:04:46 GMT -6
I think the other thing missing here is different state guidelines. Some of us aren't that concerned because we can't make summer workouts mandatory. So they aren't missing anything
so if we can't make them mandatory, why would we punish kids who don't come?
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Post by gators41 on Jul 1, 2016 15:24:54 GMT -6
I'm sorry that you feel that way. We don't, and it's worked just fine for us. I don't think it's appropriate for you to judge my program's "discipline" just because you don't agree with our summer philosophy, by the way. That's an extremely immature perspective. Every community and every program is different. Solutions vary based on a number of factors. Having a "hard time accepting that" is simply another way of admitting you are closed minded on the subject. Unfortunately, the world's not black-and-white, particularly where the state's athletics association dictates that nothing can be mandatory until a certain date in August. So, WTF am I supposed to do, arbitrarily bench a great kid and a great athlete just because they didn't show up to my non-mandatory workouts? Bull$hit. Our players want to win and have fun with their friends. The phrase "Nobody is owed ANYTHING" cuts both ways. Just because you come all summer doesn't entitle you to a role. The only thing that entitles you to a role is being the best. How you achieve that is interesting but not relevant. I'd love it if you achieve it by working with us all spring and summer. If not, good on you. Our motivation is to prepare to beat other teams, not win roles. That gets plenty of our guys to workouts and mini-camps. That's how we want it. """end quote I am a long time lurker. Dont know how to end the quote. I dont mean to offend. I typed the message after a poor summer practice. I recently took over a super small 1a team in FL. Was the OC at a huge school where summer attendance was phenomenal. I just dont see how you can get to be a really good team with out a really good summer. No way you can be polished schematically is there?
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Post by blb on Jul 1, 2016 15:34:45 GMT -6
I'm sorry that you feel that way. We don't, and it's worked just fine for us. I don't think it's appropriate for you to judge my program's "discipline" just because you don't agree with our summer philosophy, by the way. That's an extremely immature perspective. Every community and every program is different. Solutions vary based on a number of factors. Having a "hard time accepting that" is simply another way of admitting you are closed minded on the subject. Unfortunately, the world's not black-and-white, particularly where the state's athletics association dictates that nothing can be mandatory until a certain date in August. So, WTF am I supposed to do, arbitrarily bench a great kid and a great athlete just because they didn't show up to my non-mandatory workouts? Bull$hit. Our players want to win and have fun with their friends. The phrase "Nobody is owed ANYTHING" cuts both ways. Just because you come all summer doesn't entitle you to a role. The only thing that entitles you to a role is being the best. How you achieve that is interesting but not relevant. I'd love it if you achieve it by working with us all spring and summer. If not, good on you. Our motivation is to prepare to beat other teams, not win roles. That gets plenty of our guys to workouts and mini-camps. That's how we want it. """end quote I am a long time lurker. Dont know how to end the quote. I dont mean to offend. I typed the message after a poor summer practice. I recently took over a super small 1a team in FL. Was the OC at a huge school where summer attendance was phenomenal. I just dont see how you can get to be a really good team with out a really good summer. No way you can be polished schematically is there?
Did you really think that taking over a "super small 1a team" was going to be the same as coaching at a "huge school"?
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Post by bigmoot on Jul 1, 2016 16:20:46 GMT -6
With a large team if a player doesn't come in the summer, you have 5 or so more guys to choose from. At a small school if the player doesn't come in the summer, he still may be all you have.
That has been the biggest adjustment for me.
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Post by blb on Jul 1, 2016 16:27:03 GMT -6
With a large team if a player doesn't come in the summer, you have 5 or so more guys to choose from. At a small school if the player doesn't come in the summer, he still may be all you have. That has been the biggest adjustment for me.
You didn't realize this before taking the job?
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Post by bigmoot on Jul 1, 2016 18:39:59 GMT -6
With a large team if a player doesn't come in the summer, you have 5 or so more guys to choose from. At a small school if the player doesn't come in the summer, he still may be all you have. That has been the biggest adjustment for me.
You didn't realize this before taking the job?
I realized it, but I still had to adjust.
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Post by blb on Jul 2, 2016 6:39:08 GMT -6
Take comfort in that probably all the "super small 1a" teams you'll be playing have similar situations.
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Post by rsmith627 on Jul 2, 2016 7:01:09 GMT -6
You didn't realize this before taking the job?
I realized it, but I still had to adjust. I can't even imagine adjusting. I started my career at a state power that has over 3000 students. It is real easy to be good in a school that size. We fielded 2 9th grade teams that carried 45-50 players each, then some would fall out so JV would be 70-80 kids. Varsity usually carried 65-70. Again, real easy to field a highly competitive team with those numbers. 1. You have a ton of depth. If Johnny {censored} doesn't show up there probably isn't a big drop off talent wise between him and Joey Pubeflosser. You can also 2 platoon so even if your talent might not be the highest, you have 4 practices during a game week to get kids coached up. I was a varsity OC at a school with about 1400 students and even that was a tough adjustment. The team had struggled for decades so participation was low. We couldn't platoon like I was used to being able to do. I can't imagine being at a school far smaller than that and not having your same frustration. Like blb said though, the other schools in your league are probably in the same boat for the most part I would guess. The answer is to get them some wins which will encourage participation in the offseason because kids want to win. They just don't always know what it takes to win. It's our job to show them. My other answer would be to simplify your systems. You're probably not going to be an air raid guy with 20 tags on 4 verts alone. Nope. You need to find a system that you can coach, adjust, and keep simple due to time constraints. You also need a top notch staff to coach up the kids you have. This isn't an attack on you, but on coaches as a collective. We all do this. We all need to stop complaining about what we don't have, or what the school down the road does have. Put that energy into positive energy and enthusiasm and coach up what you do have. Best of luck coach. You're going to be just fine.
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Post by blb on Oct 8, 2017 14:24:00 GMT -6
I am a long time lurker. Dont know how to end the quote. I dont mean to offend. I typed the message after a poor summer practice. I recently took over a super small 1a team in FL. Was the OC at a huge school where summer attendance was phenomenal. I just dont see how you can get to be a really good team with out a really good summer. No way you can be polished schematically is there? gators41
This still your situation?
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Post by gators41 on Oct 8, 2017 17:15:39 GMT -6
I am not sure how to feel on this one. I think you are like a celebrity on here maybe? and I have offended you. Looks like you found my only 2 other posts. One from 7 years ago? (Had a diagnosed somewhat serious medical condition that never led me to think about taking a year off btw) I feel 99% flattered and 1% scared...
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Post by gators41 on Oct 8, 2017 17:22:32 GMT -6
Did you really think that taking over a "super small 1a team" was going to be the same as coaching at a "huge school"?
Whats the difference when it comes to attendance requirements? I see your point, a lot of differences, but attending workouts was not one of them. Now I had to accept during harvest season, the farmer kids were going to miss, so we had them come in the evenings. Still go their work done though. Did you let your kids miss?
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