Coaches..please help me with a delima

how many coaches do you have?

What is wrong with having two teams essentially, so you are two-deep or more at every position?
"Blue team" and "White Team" (or whatever)........instead of calling it 1st and 2nd team.

Johnny is "Blue Team" OT and "White Team" DT
Billy is "White Team" OT and "Blue Team" DT.......

that way the kids can play both sides of the ball...........just start "White team" on Defense for the 1st half, then the second half is for "Blue Team"..........

brophy's idea is an excellent one, I think.

The only think I disagree with is looking at the 12-14 year olds as the "big boys." They are still young kids where having fun and instilling the love of the game is more important than winning. The trick is to instill the thrill of "competing like a winner" while still making sure that EVERY kid plays and has fun. Just my two cents.

I agree with Spartan coach - I would use the same platoon system/ "everyone plays" with the 12-14 year oldsas well. Heck on our JV team we make sure everyone gets significant playing time as long as they have put in the work. I don't like losing more than anyone else but its the varsity season they are building to/

I apologize guys. I wasn't specific enough. I play all of my "big boys" and play them alot....but my horses play more. Everyone see's significant time but my flag guys..I have 16 of them and it is 8 man so I can start every single player. However that definitely is not conducive to winning. You see I work for Mental Health and many of the parents of the children I work with think highly of me (smiles). They signed their kids up to be on my team. This provides me with half of my team having ADHD and ADD and OCD and the like. Now you see the dilema? I want to play these guys who have no clue what a football is even after a year of teaching. They look off into space during the game and don't move during the plays rather they chase butterflies and watch the clouds. Problem is I love the guys and want to play them. It may be the best memory some of them have of their childhoods.

Wonderful...thank you. Just wanted to know that I was not alone in my thinking. I know the parents and other coaches are gonna villify me. I'm gonna do it my way.

Well, you are half correct. 1-4 will satisfy me and my boys..it will far from satisfy 95% of my parents. Perhaps our rec league is different that yours. Our parents are savage and on more than one game last year were near riot status. So if I do it MY way I will pat myself pretty well. It will be a long few months in my home with the visits I will get and the verbal abuse that my son will take. Anyway, thanks for the advice and help. The Blue and White team approach is great and hopefully we can pull it off. As for the 10-0 or 0-10 I think I made myself clear that I do not care about that and was willing to sacrifice wins to play all of my boys so I am not sure where that came from. That is where the problem is gonna come from, the parents seem to care about nothing but wins and make it violently clear. Just wanted some confirmation from you guys, (guys who know much more than I) that sacrificing wins for the sake of getting all of my kids in was acceptable to more than just me.

Sure don't have all of the answers but you have to listen to your gut and not anticipate unhappy parents who will be unhappy no matter what you decide to do. If you start listening to them, you are no longer the coach - just a figurehead. Make it VERY clear with them that you are always open to their input regarding treatment of their sons, but the positions and playing time (however you decide on this) is your realm.

With your older kids, if you decide on a development philosophy to start the season, make sure you are still doing this at the end of the season. We do this with our 9th grade program at my high school. Some parents are very upset with this because they think we could go undefeated instead of finishing 4 and 4. I asked them who won the Freshman championship the year before and they can't offer an answer. The majority of our parents are good about letting us do our job and understand a bigger picture but you'll have to educate them a little bit.

As a H.S. coach (or 25 years) I see huge developmental changes with players between 9th and 12th grade. Some get better and some don't and get passed up by those who once backed them up. With young kids, you don't want to discourage any of them with minimal playing time because we just never know how they might pan out. Obviously, playing time must be earned with excellent effort so there should be some kind of a criteria.

Make it fun, keep it simple and teach the hell out of skills, sportsmanship and a team concept. Also, Meet with your youngsters and develop some team rules (you guide them) and have some rules that are specific to parents. Then share your parent policies with the parents that came from the team. I did this when I coached my son's little league baseball team and it was very powerful to tell parents that the kids don't want you screaming at umpires, the kids want you to cheer and bring good snack and to get them to practices and games on time. I once had a group of kids who told parents that only the players could bring up the game in the car ride home, not the parent. Kids hate that drive in some cases.

Of the kids who played on this team, all but 1 is still involved with baseball and this is 8 years later. To me, that is success.

Good luck!

Coach CB Wrote "Bottom line when working with middle school and younger- if the kid practices than he plays. You gotta set ego aside with the youth level and make sure everyone is playing. You have to teach the kids the fundamentals of the game and teach them to love the game. All wins aside, if those two things aren't accomplished than you haven't done your job as a coach at that level."
AMEN Brother

Thank you guys. I appreciate the words of wisdom and they will be utilized.

I hear ya angryman....and thanks. The more advice the better!