rooster
Sophomore Member
Posts: 246
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Post by rooster on Apr 19, 2017 10:19:54 GMT -6
I recently read an article for new coaches taking over a program to have 3-4 selling points to "sell" their program to the players. Any more than that, the players wont remember them. I thought this would be a great topic to get some perspectives from coaches. Anyone care to share? Thanks!
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Post by vanden48 on Apr 19, 2017 10:56:26 GMT -6
I would be interested in this. I am taking over a program that is having their most successful coach of all time at the school leave for another school. The kids, program, school, and town loved the old coach. I have all of his old assistants left over on my staff and I have no option of getting rid of any of them until after the season. The players and parents are worried that when I come in their culture of winning that they have had will be changed. This program never has seen the success it has seen over the last 6 years. First trips to the play-offs, first play-off victory. averaging 8 wins a season.
I will never talk bad about previous staffs, even if they sucked. The HC I'm taking over for was a great guy and an excellent HC that did everything right. But even with playoff trips in 4 of his 6 years, they only had 1 playoff victory. I am hoping I can get them over that hump. But they don't know me there, I'm not even from the same state. I am a complete foreigner coming into a school that has only had alumni coaching there.So what do I sell them on?
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Post by mholst40 on Apr 19, 2017 11:45:05 GMT -6
Especially if you come into a program that has had success and had a coach who was revered by the kids and community, you have to play up the success they've already had and give credit to the old coach and coaching staff.
Don't mention what you're going to do better right away, but do set the tone for how things will be done. Talk about the things you want to accomplish off the field as well... improving academics, making them better students, etc.
But, none of the words you give to parents or players will matter if you're not living it every day. Work your butt off and the kids will be sold by how you do things, not by what you tell them.
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Post by huddlehut on Apr 19, 2017 18:53:43 GMT -6
Vanden48...
Man, that's going to be a tough gig. I've followed some decent coaches at a few places (but not legendary ones). I admire your attitude and wish you the best but just know that it is very, very frustrating to hear "well, Coach ___ used to do it like this" a couple dozen times a day. Virtually everything that you do becomes a comparison. When you start feeling like you want to scream, just know that you aren't the Lone Ranger!
Gets real old, real fast.
Good luck to you!
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Post by blastdouble on Apr 27, 2017 15:00:29 GMT -6
I would be interested in this. I am taking over a program that is having their most successful coach of all time at the school leave for another school. The kids, program, school, and town loved the old coach. I have all of his old assistants left over on my staff and I have no option of getting rid of any of them until after the season. The players and parents are worried that when I come in their culture of winning that they have had will be changed. This program never has seen the success it has seen over the last 6 years. First trips to the play-offs, first play-off victory. averaging 8 wins a season. I will never talk bad about previous staffs, even if they sucked. The HC I'm taking over for was a great guy and an excellent HC that did everything right. But even with playoff trips in 4 of his 6 years, they only had 1 playoff victory. I am hoping I can get them over that hump. But they don't know me there, I'm not even from the same state. I am a complete foreigner coming into a school that has only had alumni coaching there.So what do I sell them on? I have been in this situation for the last 2 years as a wrestling coach and its about as fun as getting kicked in the junk. Came into a program where the old coach walked on water and left after the best class in school history. I went in talking about how he had put right pieces together for success and talked alot about how i planned to retain those pieces etc... My thought process was to let everyone know I was he to sustain the tradition... Looking back I never really sold the athletes, parents, and staff on my thoughts and plans and invested WAY TO MUCH time trying to be somebody else, and trying to run the program his way. Luckily I realized my mistake and spent the 2nd year getting kids bought in to the my system and its been alot better. I probably would have split if I hadn't wised up. |
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Post by centercoach on Apr 27, 2017 16:23:25 GMT -6
I would be interested in this. I am taking over a program that is having their most successful coach of all time at the school leave for another school. The kids, program, school, and town loved the old coach. I have all of his old assistants left over on my staff and I have no option of getting rid of any of them until after the season. The players and parents are worried that when I come in their culture of winning that they have had will be changed. This program never has seen the success it has seen over the last 6 years. First trips to the play-offs, first play-off victory. averaging 8 wins a season. I will never talk bad about previous staffs, even if they sucked. The HC I'm taking over for was a great guy and an excellent HC that did everything right. But even with playoff trips in 4 of his 6 years, they only had 1 playoff victory. I am hoping I can get them over that hump. But they don't know me there, I'm not even from the same state. I am a complete foreigner coming into a school that has only had alumni coaching there.So what do I sell them on? The best advice i can give you is take a look at what really worked and what connected with the players and the fans. I was on staff when a coach retired and i stopped coaching when he did( The coach was the most successful coach in school history). I came back the next season as a fan and i saw how the coach tried changing the culture and how it alienated the players. Don't try to change the culture but try improve it. Make sure that you are approachable and that the players know that you have their back. |
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Post by vanden48 on Apr 28, 2017 10:50:37 GMT -6
To make matters worse, the other finalist that didn't get the job was a local coach who graduated from the high school and has had success as a HC at another school. Some of the town folk think he was cheated out of his birth right. It will be a challenge, but I'm pretty sure I have the staff bought in, they are running the program until I get there. I haven't been able to make any hire as all of the assistants were told their jobs were safe and have been retained. But they have all been great and I think they really only truly care about the program and the kids.
I think there are some unique things I do like our Victory Rocks, character education, leadership training, and some other things that the last coach didn't do, which will add to the culture. But the weight training culture is already there, the kids already have expectations for summer workouts and camps, the film work and group meetings has already been established. So there is a ton of work in culture change that has already been done. This is almost a more difficult situation to be in than taking over a program that is no good.
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Post by joker31 on Apr 29, 2017 14:49:07 GMT -6
I would be interested in this. I am taking over a program that is having their most successful coach of all time at the school leave for another school. The kids, program, school, and town loved the old coach. I have all of his old assistants left over on my staff and I have no option of getting rid of any of them until after the season. The players and parents are worried that when I come in their culture of winning that they have had will be changed. This program never has seen the success it has seen over the last 6 years. First trips to the play-offs, first play-off victory. averaging 8 wins a season. I will never talk bad about previous staffs, even if they sucked. The HC I'm taking over for was a great guy and an excellent HC that did everything right. But even with playoff trips in 4 of his 6 years, they only had 1 playoff victory. I am hoping I can get them over that hump. But they don't know me there, I'm not even from the same state. I am a complete foreigner coming into a school that has only had alumni coaching there.So what do I sell them on? Tough scenario, especially since they had success and you can't make staff changes. If this were me... I would explain that every program has a certain way of doing things... A certain way of lifting weights, dealing with academics, certain way of player development, practices, schemes, routine, etc. They obviously did things their way and it worked for them, but the reason was not because of a single coach. It was because of "buy in" from the players into the way they did everything. Now your style and your way will be different. Maybe a little, maybe a lot because you have no idea how they did things. But that this is a great lesson for them as student-athletes because in school you'll have different teachers every year, when they get jobs down the road they'll have different bosses and managers, if they ever played in college or the NFL they'll likely get a different coach at some point in their career. But the most successful in life are the ones who are able to adapt, adjust and do their best. Tell them you can't wait to hear from the existing coaching staff and see if there is anything they did that you like and that you would like to implement that compliments your culture (and I mean this sincerely, if you're asking the players to adapt a lot, you should be willing to adapt a little if it fits) Ultimately, the success of the team will not be because of you. It will be because of them |
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Post by BrendanQB on Apr 29, 2017 14:58:15 GMT -6
I would be interested in this. I am taking over a program that is having their most successful coach of all time at the school leave for another school. The kids, program, school, and town loved the old coach. I have all of his old assistants left over on my staff and I have no option of getting rid of any of them until after the season. The players and parents are worried that when I come in their culture of winning that they have had will be changed. This program never has seen the success it has seen over the last 6 years. First trips to the play-offs, first play-off victory. averaging 8 wins a season. I will never talk bad about previous staffs, even if they sucked. The HC I'm taking over for was a great guy and an excellent HC that did everything right. But even with playoff trips in 4 of his 6 years, they only had 1 playoff victory. I am hoping I can get them over that hump. But they don't know me there, I'm not even from the same state. I am a complete foreigner coming into a school that has only had alumni coaching there.So what do I sell them on? Tough scenario, especially since they had success and you can't make staff changes. If this were me... I would explain that every program has a certain way of doing things... A certain way of lifting weights, dealing with academics, certain way of player development, practices, schemes, routine, etc. They obviously did things their way and it worked for them, but the reason was not because of a single coach. It was because of "buy in" from the players into the way they did everything. Now your style and your way will be different. Maybe a little, maybe a lot because you have no idea how they did things. But that this is a great lesson for them as student-athletes because in school you'll have different teachers every year, when they get jobs down the road they'll have different bosses and managers, if they ever played in college or the NFL they'll likely get a different coach at some point in their career. But the most successful in life are the ones who are able to adapt, adjust and do their best. Tell them you can't wait to hear from the existing coaching staff and see if there is anything they did that you like and that you would like to implement that compliments your culture (and I mean this sincerely, if you're asking the players to adapt a lot, you should be willing to adapt a little if it fits) Ultimately, the success of the team will not be because of you. It will be because of them Love this. It's a life lesson for the kids. It's why football is so great. Situations change all the time and their success in life is going to be a product of their reaction to the change, not the change itself |
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