Developing Young Players

In which state do you coach? 

Our school is one of the top five largest schools in Kentucky. A lot of the teams we face have 10-12 coaches, with about four coaches that take care of freshmen and JV duties. We're definitely inefficient and short-sighted right now. 

Combine your players and then spend most of your time in Individual time (Indy). I cannot stress it enough, INDY!

In any situation, but especially yours where you have so few coaches to work with younger players, you develop skills by having players repeat keys, reactions, and movements; this is most efficiently done in individual time. Get the coaches to cut out the chit chat, and get the players moving and repeating the actions they do in the game. Be efficient with it, if you can have two players go at onces then do it (if you can have five do that). If there is an error correct it on the fly, then make them do it right but don't allow for players to just be standing around listening; we are what we repeatedly do, get them doing. Cut back on team, cut back on small group, cut back on chalk talk and film sessions, and spend more time in INDY.

In addition, develop them athletically; time is never wasted when you are making better athletes. Run sprints, run conditioning, lift weights, plyometrics and agilities, core workouts, etc. 9 times out of 10 the better athlete wins anyways, and young kids can do all this stuff the same as older kids, so you benefit everyone.

That seems ideal, coach, but that is just not the way we have things set up. Offensively, we have a QB coach, RB coach, two OL coaches, and two WR coaches. Our HC does not coach a position. Defensively, we have a DL coach, DE coach, LB coach, and two DB coaches. Our QB coach only coaches QB's. 

That sounds very similar. The issue I see happening is that this year's varsity team will be the best over the next three years, judging by the talent/personnel in grades 9-11. And we are 1-4 so far this year. We're really missing the big picture. 

Does the HC want to build a Program?  It would seem that he would notice that players are not being developed at the lower levels and he would make a change.  We have enough enough coaches to coach one side but our HC still coaches a position.
I can't not even imagine mixing freshmen and varsity together for Indy.  During this next offseason you might suggest re-visting how the staff is structured.  It seems like an overkill to have 2 OL coaches and 2 WR coaches.  
IMO, those freshmen need to be separate and have coaches devoted to them full time.  It is the only way that their skill level will increase with practice and game reps.  
Here, our varsity coaches even work with the JH program 3 days a week before varsity practice.  Every varsity coach is also a JV coach.  

Seems like the other coaches on your staff need to buy in, including the HC.

Isn't that the point of your post?  Aren't you acknowledging that what you are currently doing is not working?

An understaffed program and the header won't coach a position?  Really?  WTF??

We've gone to platooning coaches and I love it.  It is more efficient and less stressful on your coaches.  We've only been doing it for 2 years, so we're not seeing the full benefits of it yet, but we can tell that the next couple years our guys are going to be WAY more prepared for Varsity than they have been in the past.

With platooning, you give each coach only one position and he coaches all kids that play that position 9-12.  That coach can now be a master at that position and theoretically coach the same kids for 4 years using the same drills, lingo, etc.  Depending on your O and D schemes you should be able to get this done with 7 coaches.  We're 21/11 on Offense and 4-2-5 on defense.  We have 6 coaches most days, sometimes 7.  We split our coaches as follows

Offense
QB/RB - Mostly takes both working meshes, reads, etc.
RB/WR/TE - Mostly WR/TE, takes the RB sometimes when QBs are just working footwork and throwing mechanics
OL/TE - Mostly OL, takes the TE sometimes when working run blocking

Defense
DL - Only works DL
LB/Guns - Mostly ILBs, but will take Guns too when working run fits/reads
DB/Guns - Mostly DBs, but will take Guns when working pass technique (we're heavy Man)

So, during practices we'll have 9-10 working Offense while 11-12 work Defense for Indy and Group periods.  Then we'll switch.  Afterwards, the Varsity and F/S will separate and do their own team periods.  We have 2 coaches coach the F/S (RB/WR and DB coaches) and 4 with the Varsity.  With 3 groups and 7 coaches you could split this 2/2/3 or whatever makes more sense to you.  One coach for both O and D sounds impossible though.  I think it would be well worth the investment to take a coach away from Varsity to help coach up the younger kids.

Now that we're about half way into the season we're focused mostly on Team stuff so we don't do much of the combined Indy anymore, however, you can tell during the F/S games that our kids are better coached fundamentally than our opponents and that's a cool thing to see.  Plus, all coaches are on the sideline for at least the first half of the F/S curtain raisers so they are there coaching their F/S position kids during the games too. 

If you can't platoon your coaches, then 1/2 platoon them. On our staff, we had 5 coaches for 40-50 kids. Each coach had a specialty position and an auxillary one. So, I was the secondary coach (and DC) and also helped with RB. So, I coached RB during indy time, but any team/ Skelly situations, I coached the defense. Our LB coach also worked with QB's, so he helped LB's on indy and QB's every other time. Made sure we got good looks in indy but our young/ scout teams were always getting coached up. Really helped us develop some depth the past couple years. Not always the best depth, but any depth is better than none.

What division? 3 or smaller?

When I got my start at Macomb Dakota we had 5 frosh guys, 4 JV, and 8-10 varsity depending on the year. Our staff at Clarkston is similar and so are the other D1 schools we see.

I'm guessing you're talking D3 and smaller?

The schools I have worked at, when I asked because we had more coaches than salaries, would not approve pay from Boosters or fund raising.

I was allowed to split a stipend at the Division 2 school I was HC, but they had been doing that previously.

I am not the HC but I have started this conversation with him. As I see it, this is not something we need to fix this year, but something we need to correct as a program.

We are a Class 6 school, the largest classification in the state.