Game night routine

Our kids get out of school at 2:20, report to two classrooms for quick film at 2:30 split off and def. our field house is down away from the school with an elementary school between, so they leave the film at 3:15 to the field house and do a quick equipment check, if they need anything replaced and be sure their pants, socks, warmup shirts are in their locker. at 3:45 load up buses and go to nearby church that feeds them each week. The youth minister mentors the players and gives a non demnominational talk about leadership, fellowship etc each meal. Then back at field house by 5:15 Specialists get taped first, with specialty meetings that are basically just a quick review of depth chart for each special team and any tweaks for that week. Specialists start warming up around 6:00-6:15, everyone out at 6:30 , kickoff at 7:30.

away games we usually leave right after school

kids dont have time to leave and come back so they just go to the locker room during our last class period of the day and start getting their stuff together.

We get on bus with our bottoms on, and go to the game and to our taping and everything else there

Home games we give them a time they have to be back by.

Usually they need to be back at the start of the JV game (4:30)
and at halftime of the JV game we all go up to locker room and start getting ready... if for some reason that game is going slow we make them start getting ready at about 5:30.
A lot of kids are getting taped during that JV first half

We dont have a set feeding deal... i go to Winco the night before and buy a ton of big sandwiches pre made and cut them up
i buy some pedialyte

i leave them in the locker room after school or in my office, they can eat it if they want or not... whichever works for them

we dont do any film or walk thru pre game
BUT i am super intrigued by the idea of watching highlghts together pre game to boost confidence knowing theyve done this before

We've varied the routine a bit over the years.  I guess the time between school being out and the time we started doing things has changed.  Over the years, we've ranged from saying Hey, do what you want after school, but be here at 4:45 and we've also done like Meet in the locker room at 3:45, we'll feed you, then we'll do a walk through/watch film, and so on.  

It just depends on the team.  How focused are they on their own without coaches forcing it on them?  Do they benefit from watching tons of film, or do they just have instincts and watching too much film makes them think too much?  Do they need the confidence boost of reviewing in a walk through so they are sure what they need to do?  Etc. 


The way I describe our decision on what we do is kinda like our decision of how much full contact hitting to do during a week in practice.  There are periods where we do very little hitting and periods where we do a bunch of it.  About then years ago, there was a few years where 99% of guys on the team just genuinely loved violent collisions.  Guys who were best friends would hit each other head on a hundred miles an hour if we allowed it.  We tended to have practice that involved much less contact because we didn't want anyone killed and we wanted them to be yearning for that type of violence on Friday night.  Recently, we had a couple years where kids weren't that type, so we put a lot more contact into practices and risked it because we had to teach these guys that the types of collisions you get into in a game aren't THAT bad.    Even being lit up ain't as bad as it looks after about four seconds.  


Beyond these types of decisions, we have done the same stuff for many years and always want to allow us to go into the locker room, talk for a second as coaches, let coordinators give last guidance to kids, someone do a fire-up speech, and head outside, that sort of stuff.  

Pregame, we like to hit the field with QB's (and enough receivers to warm them up) a little over an hour before the game and then ten minutes or so later specialists come out.  Kickers, snappers, punters, returners, etc.   
Then linemen come out.  When these happens, we come together as a team and do a full calisthenics routine.  Then we do position drills real quick for O and then D (just a few minutes to remember what it's like to move in that position, haha).  Then team Offense playtiming and Defense against a scout team to remind guys of favorite plays and so on.  We may discuss with our team, "remember when we see this formation we'll do this adjustment", but we won't do it in pregame to give it away.   Then we go back to the locker room.   

Awesome stuff! Thanks