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Post by unc31 on Aug 7, 2016 7:03:23 GMT -6
My entire career as a head coach (31st this season) I have always kept the players at school until game time on Fridays. We will normally go to various churches who feed us or someone will provide a meal at our cafeteria. Even with that, we are usually back to the school by 4:00 and still have 3 1/2 hours to kill.
Here is my current situation: We get out of school at 2:15 and our games are at 7:30. That is over 5 hours that we have to keep them focused, engaged, entertained, monitored.
We watch film, have positional meetings, eat, sometimes watch an inspirational movie, etc., etc. But even with all of that we still have a lot of down time.
It is beginning to feel like to me that the kids are getting mentally drained in that 5 hours. After being at school from 7:00 am I just wonder if they need some personal space to relax and get ready mentally.
We will still have our meetings and we watch film all week. We have tried taking them to a dark quiet gym and letting them nap, listen to music or just chill out.........that never seems to work with 50 kids in the same room.
I fully understand the drawbacks of letting them leave and be back at a certain time. There is all kinds of junk that they could get into. It would all come down to whether we feel they are mature enough to handle the time.
For away games everyone would have to stay because of travel time eating some of that 5 hours, but for home games I am seriously considering letting them leave and be back by around 4:45 for meetings, taping, dressing, etc. We are very strict about what thy eat pre-game...no red meat, no sugar, no fried foods, etc. That would make it impossible to be sure that they are eating what we tell them to. But most of our kids understand nutrition and I think they would adhere to it.
I am curious to hear if anyone lets their kids go home and how it works out for you.
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Post by blb on Aug 7, 2016 7:25:19 GMT -6
In my 30 years as HC did it both ways, although did not try to keep them busy or occupied the entire time.
Meal, chalk talk if necessary, film. Then they listened to music-fiddled with their phones, hung out in training room or lockerroom, whatever before getting taped, dressing.
Never had a kid get in trouble (except for being late) when we let them go after school.
If-when having a Team Pre-Game meal they would have some free time before eating too.
I agree with you it's a lot of time to kill and could be counterproductive.
Although my college coach said "You have to get to the game early so you can worry," if I was HC this year I'd be inclined to let 'em go with guidelines on what to eat and tell them to be back couple hours before Kickoff.
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Post by 60zgo on Aug 7, 2016 7:39:12 GMT -6
We have an athletic period so I'm getting my guys at 2:21 for a 7pm game.
Study Hall, Lift, Pregame Meal takes us about 2 hours. At about 4:30 it's time to gear check and load the buses and arrive at stadium for 6:15.
In the past when I have gotten them earlier or when we didn't travel as much it looked more like this:
Study Hall, Lift, Pregame Meal, "Do what you want".
"Do what you want" was either a movie in a coaches classroom, video games in the locker room, or lights out/nap. Honestly "Do what you want" was the best pre game we have ever done. All of your personality types will break off and not interfere with the game prep of other kids. Same for coaches.
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Post by funkfriss on Aug 7, 2016 9:51:05 GMT -6
My entire career as a head coach (31st this season) I have always kept the players at school until game time on Fridays. We will normally go to various churches who feed us or someone will provide a meal at our cafeteria. Even with that, we are usually back to the school by 4:00 and still have 3 1/2 hours to kill. Here is my current situation: We get out of school at 2:15 and our games are at 7:30. That is over 5 hours that we have to keep them focused, engaged, entertained, monitored. We watch film, have positional meetings, eat, sometimes watch an inspirational movie, etc., etc. But even with all of that we still have a lot of down time. It is beginning to feel like to me that the kids are getting mentally drained in that 5 hours. After being at school from 7:00 am I just wonder if they need some personal space to relax and get ready mentally. We will still have our meetings and we watch film all week. We have tried taking them to a dark quiet gym and letting them nap, listen to music or just chill out.........that never seems to work with 50 kids in the same room. I fully understand the drawbacks of letting them leave and be back at a certain time. There is all kinds of junk that they could get into. It would all come down to whether we feel they are mature enough to handle the time. For away games everyone would have to stay because of travel time eating some of that 5 hours, but for home games I am seriously considering letting them leave and be back by around 4:45 for meetings, taping, dressing, etc. We are very strict about what thy eat pre-game...no red meat, no sugar, no fried foods, etc. That would make it impossible to be sure that they are eating what we tell them to. But most of our kids understand nutrition and I think they would adhere to it. I am curious to hear if anyone lets their kids go home and how it works out for you. We kept them for the first time last year. Couldn't tell you if it made a difference or not. I do know exactly what they ate before a game though which is the only reason we went to it. For us, we play F/S curtain raisers on Friday nights so we eat, watch highlights from last week, and go over our O, D, and ST goals and points of emphasis til around 4:30-5:00. Then we go watch the first half of the F/S game so they can be loud and cheer on the younger guys. Leave at halftime to get dressed, taped, etc. Timing worked out really well. |
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Post by fantom on Aug 7, 2016 10:03:18 GMT -6
My entire career as a head coach (31st this season) I have always kept the players at school until game time on Fridays. We will normally go to various churches who feed us or someone will provide a meal at our cafeteria. Even with that, we are usually back to the school by 4:00 and still have 3 1/2 hours to kill. Here is my current situation: We get out of school at 2:15 and our games are at 7:30. That is over 5 hours that we have to keep them focused, engaged, entertained, monitored. We watch film, have positional meetings, eat, sometimes watch an inspirational movie, etc., etc. But even with all of that we still have a lot of down time. It is beginning to feel like to me that the kids are getting mentally drained in that 5 hours. After being at school from 7:00 am I just wonder if they need some personal space to relax and get ready mentally. We will still have our meetings and we watch film all week. We have tried taking them to a dark quiet gym and letting them nap, listen to music or just chill out.........that never seems to work with 50 kids in the same room. I fully understand the drawbacks of letting them leave and be back at a certain time. There is all kinds of junk that they could get into. It would all come down to whether we feel they are mature enough to handle the time. For away games everyone would have to stay because of travel time eating some of that 5 hours, but for home games I am seriously considering letting them leave and be back by around 4:45 for meetings, taping, dressing, etc. We are very strict about what thy eat pre-game...no red meat, no sugar, no fried foods, etc. That would make it impossible to be sure that they are eating what we tell them to. But most of our kids understand nutrition and I think they would adhere to it. I am curious to hear if anyone lets their kids go home and how it works out for you. As a player or a coach I've never been anywhere where we've felt the need to manage the kids every minute of the day on game day. Everybody preps for a game differently. |
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Post by 44dlcoach on Aug 7, 2016 10:36:16 GMT -6
We let them go home and give them some general guidelines on what to eat (or more what not to eat). I guess you could say it's backfired on us a couple times over the years, like once we had a couple starters get caught shoplifting on game day and we suspended them. But our HC believes that it's beneficial to let them go home and relax and get their mind on something else, and I agree.
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Post by lochness on Aug 7, 2016 10:44:48 GMT -6
We get out at 2:30. We have them clock back in at 4:30 for pre-game meal. Then we tape, chalk talk, position meetings, relax, etc. before we go out at 6:15 for specialist warm-ups. I can't imagine keeping them all day.
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Post by wolverine55 on Aug 7, 2016 10:50:41 GMT -6
I am not a HC, but I can tell you that as a player, an "all-day" gameday schedule would have been miserable for me. I had to have some time to just sort of get away. And, as a coach, I feel the same way. Quite frankly, I don't want to be around the kids all day on gameday...
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Post by bluboy on Aug 7, 2016 10:58:09 GMT -6
School ends at 2:15. Kids can leave but must be back for pregame meal/meeting/taping at 3:00 or 3:25 (depends if we are home or away). The older guys don't have a problem, since they drive. The young guys (sophomores) are the issue since they have to stay. It seems that their immaturity(that never ceases to amaze me) rises to the top during this time.
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Post by coachirish on Aug 7, 2016 11:17:13 GMT -6
6th year as hc. We let them go. Previous hc made them stay and it totally drained the players and coaches. I have them come up as late as I can but most starters begin showing up earlier. Only have had one issue. A few years ago a couple of freshmen thought it would be a good idea to smoke some pot before they checked in.
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Post by 60zgo on Aug 7, 2016 14:05:38 GMT -6
I think it just depends on where you coach and the type of kid you have. My kids need lots of structure, especially on game day. None of them have a car, and very few have any means. If I said, "hey you have two hours on your own so go get yourself something to eat" 90 percent wouldn't move and they would just go hungry.
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Post by fantom on Aug 7, 2016 14:55:16 GMT -6
Human nature.Understand it and you win. Otherwise, you get fired.
People don't give a chit about policies or the company. They care about people that they know, their friends.
Tell somebody that they have to be there on time because of policy and they won't care. Tell them that Janet hes to get off in time to pick up the kids from day care and they'll bust their ass to get there.
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Post by agap on Aug 7, 2016 14:55:57 GMT -6
We let them go home. They're usually back at school around 4:30 for a home game.
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Post by joker31 on Aug 7, 2016 15:52:04 GMT -6
This is our schedule, I've adjusted it to the time that you guys get off school
2:45 - Pregame Lift
3:30 - Pregame Meal
4:30 - Walkthrough/Checklist/Depth Charts
5 PM - Muscle/Mind relaxation techniques
Players head to locker room then can relax, get taped, etc.
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Post by s73 on Aug 7, 2016 16:47:22 GMT -6
I must be different from most.
I have never played for or coached a team that had the kids stay all day on game day and have never had them stay ever myself as a HFC. Also, have never played or coached for a team that had a meal on game day. Always the night before.
We get out at 3:15 and home game schedule is be back for a final 530 film session. Once that concludes (about 6 or so) they have a half hour to get taped up if they didn't do so before hand & we are warming up from 630-640 then touching base about any offensive questions then we process to the field for a 715 game.
Personally I could NEVER keep them b/c I HAVE to get out of there myself for an hour or so or I will kill somebody.
I go home & take a long shower and try to erase my kind (back in my younger days I usually put a HUGE dip in while in the shower as well but I digress).
The point is, FOR ME, I feel like if it's Friday and I haven't covered it already, then covering it an hour or so before the game probably ain't gonna help much anyhow and may even panic or confuse kids who thought they were good to go.
So I go home take a shower, decompress, come back refreshed and watch a quarter or so of the soph game and then we go in, meet and get ready to roll.
Can't say if it has been any better or worse than any other way b/c it's the only way I know.
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Post by unc31 on Aug 7, 2016 17:03:49 GMT -6
Thanks for the responses guys.
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Post by freezeoption on Aug 7, 2016 17:43:07 GMT -6
I was at a school that was a urban school. We kept them all day, we were afraid that if they went home there might be a chance they would not be back. I don't think that would have happened but the hfc was afraid. Also, we made sure they were fed good. There was a good chance that some of those kids would not have food. We kept all players frosh, jv and varsity before there games. The younger kids it was a pain, they were squirrely. I have always let them go. Never had much of a problem. You could add equipment prep as another time waster. Missed the playoffs because one of my rb forgot his cleats. Don't ask me how you forget that. He ended up wearing my cleats which were just a general all purpose cleats, not football. They were too big for him. He broke away for a long touchdown run that would have won the game but ran out of the shoes and got tackled. Still irks me.
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Post by rosey65 on Aug 8, 2016 8:40:14 GMT -6
inner-city school, we definitely keep them in the building til the game starts. Our school day is from 7-1:30. They have until 2:15 to move cars, get snacks from the corner store, etc. After the meal, we do nothing. The locker room is lights out from 3ish-4:30, and 80% of the team takes a nap. The rest (mostly young backups) sit out in the weight room, looking thru their phones.
15-20 minute walk-thru around 4:45, then we are back in to get dressed. They have 1 hour to tape, deal with equipment, use the bathroom, etc. It moves pretty quick on home games, REALLY fast for away games. We dont do meetings or anything that day.
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Post by rosey65 on Aug 8, 2016 8:46:15 GMT -6
I must be different from most. I have never played for or coached a team that had the kids stay all day on game day and have never had them stay ever myself as a HFC. Also, have never played or coached for a team that had a meal on game day. Always the night before. We get out at 3:15 and home game schedule is be back for a final 530 film session. Once that concludes (about 6 or so) they have a half hour to get taped up if they didn't do so before hand & we are warming up from 630-640 then touching base about any offensive questions then we process to the field for a 715 game. Personally I could NEVER keep them b/c I HAVE to get out of there myself for an hour or so or I will kill somebody. I go home & take a long shower and try to erase my kind (back in my younger days I usually put a HUGE dip in while in the shower as well but I digress). The point is, FOR ME, I feel like if it's Friday and I haven't covered it already, then covering it an hour or so before the game probably ain't gonna help much anyhow and may even panic or confuse kids who thought they were good to go. So I go home take a shower, decompress, come back refreshed and watch a quarter or so of the soph game and then we go in, meet and get ready to roll. Can't say if it has been any better or worse than any other way b/c it's the only way I know. This is how things were at my suburban upper-middle WASP high school. We were on our own, we always had food to eat. We were a very "Varsity Blues"-type community. It worked for us. My current school is an inner-city 65% free-lunch school. We have a thursday evening dad/mentor event, where the kids get to eat, as well as a pre-game meal fridays. It's spaghetti, chickens patties, crap like that, but it is the best 2 meals of the week for many of our kids. The thursday night event was slow to start, until some of the wealthier parents got to see the plights of the poorer athletes. Ever since then, we've never had an issue getting parent involvment or monetary donations for thursdays. Do what you gotta do, right? |
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hwkfn1
Junior Member
Posts: 258
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Post by hwkfn1 on Aug 8, 2016 11:26:41 GMT -6
Those of you that do a pregame lift, what are benefits/drawbacks? What do you have them lift and at what percentages? Thanks!
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Post by chi5hi on Aug 8, 2016 14:11:14 GMT -6
Tell them to go home after school because the Cheerleaders are going to use our locker room to dress out at 4:30 and don't show up until 5 o'clock.
See what happens!
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Post by NC1974 on Aug 8, 2016 16:00:48 GMT -6
I'm conflicted on this one. I can see the possible pitfalls of letting them go home, but I also think this can in some cases be another example of football coaches being control freaks. In some cases, I think kids, and maybe even assistant coaches can start to resent all of the extra time that can be piled on.
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Post by dytmook on Aug 8, 2016 16:18:07 GMT -6
Not a head coach but we keep the kids. We get out at 3. They go to chapel until 3:30. Eat until 4:30ish. Then relax, tape, and stuff like that. This year will be interesting because we finally have an on campus facility so we don't have to travel to home games. That saves us 25-30 minutes a game. it'll be interesting for sure.
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Post by cqmiller on Aug 8, 2016 16:50:27 GMT -6
I always gave them an hour or two to go out and relax, eat, watch a movie, etc... Away games we would collect uniforms at 4:00 on the bus by 5:00. Home games, collect at 4:30 and then go from there. 5 hours is a long time to hold focus, even for my 33 year old ass
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Post by tabs52 on Aug 8, 2016 19:37:53 GMT -6
Not just for the kids, but as a coach I would like the time go home and do some things to clear my mind for a little bit. Get to see kids before I leave. I think for as a coach being at school at 630 am and not getting that break before a game would be draining.
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rayole
Probationary Member
Posts: 7
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Post by rayole on Aug 8, 2016 20:04:57 GMT -6
For our 4 regular season home games we have followed this schedule the past 4 seasons.
-School out at 3:20.
-All players meet at the Veterans Home in town. Guys that can drive wait for guys that can't to give them a ride.
-Smaller town so all players arrive at Vets Home by 3:35.
-Players are in groups of 6-8 and they visit with their Vet for 25-30 minutes.
-After that they know they need to be in the gym by 5:30 for walk thru. If they need the trainer, they don't get much time in between but they figure it out.
-1st group out at 6:10, 2nd group out at 6:20, back to locker room 6:45-50ish, kickoff 7:00.
Vets Home idea was previous coaches. He did it on Mondays. I switched it to home game nights. Great experience for kids and hoping the Vets as well.
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Post by CoachMikeJudy on Aug 8, 2016 20:29:44 GMT -6
I let them go. Even for away games they can leave as needed.
You have to have some faith in them- I don't know if I taught in the city again that I would do this, but I give them a time to report for the game.
Most of my kids will go home or to a teammate's house and chill/eat etc. Some of the kids don't leave at all, and the locker room is empty so they can truly relax. Some may be out "hanging out" with their girlfriend.
We start out pregame routine about 1-1:10 mins before KO, and our Friday night games start at 7:30pm. Their pre-game meal is on them- they have to handle that. We eat as a team on Thursday night after practice.
Typical Home Game
2:35 - Dismissed form school
4:00 - Roll call/Position meetings/Dress
5:55 - QBs
6:10 - Skills/LS/K/P
6:30 - Fat guys join us at pregame
7:00 - Off
Honestly, this concept came out of pure selfish reasons on our coaches parts- we were essentially tired of babysitting kids, and wanted some time to relax ourselves instead of having every third kid ask us to help locate a knee pad. We started it 2 years ago and would never want to do it again. We (the staff) have a great relationship and hang out in the office preparing or breaking each others balls. Good times
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Post by coachdawhip on Aug 8, 2016 20:36:23 GMT -6
I couldn't fathom letting them go.
When we got out at 2:15, they had to be in the locker room at 3pm, gave them time to move cars to the fieldhouse, etc..
We had chapel for those who wanted to come.
Team Dinner at 3:30-4:15
Tape, dress, hang Out and then game time.
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Post by coachwoodall on Aug 9, 2016 11:51:09 GMT -6
I haven't coached at a school that let them go home for 20 years.
Here is our rough schedule where I'm at now:
315 school is out
345 buses leave to go to the college that we use for games
400 Team room/pregame run through
415 Special teams check list
430 Circle Meeting*
445 Eat
500 Offense walk through/Def gets taped, Def coach's meeting
530 Switch O/D
600 finish getting ready, players relax
625 First group goes out, staggered release
650 Team warm up
710 Return to locker room
730 Kickoff
Away games, we just start at the high school at 330
Circle Meeting
Each week, 1 or 2 seniors speak to the entire team on something that is important to them. The basic idea is 'what makes them tick'. We also will have coaches speak during this time on the same topic. You would be amazed at some of the things that kids will open up and share to the group. It really has become a great bonding time.
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