Need your opinion...

crazy? No... it happens at lots of places.
Crazy to think you will be successful...probably so.
Your overarching goal must be program development...AND yes i agree with blb. I would try your damndest to play a JV type schedule. Nothing will stunt the program development more than having everyone witness the those 19 getting crushed on a weekly basis.

Where you at in Florida bj? I've been there myself and agree with the other posts. Get out and continue to sell the program. Coach the heck out of those 19 and let them know how important this first year is (win or lose!). Establish your "Traditions" whether it's slapping the rock or composing the victory song, you've got a great opportunity to start things off right. Yes we all want to win on the scoreboard, but there are many other ways to "win".

Keep recruiting the school once school starts, try to get new kids to come out. Try to get a large number of freshmen out there.

But must important make it fun for the kids you have. If it is fun for them then more kids will want to join.

Think long term.

I feel for you brother!!!

I was in the same situation a year ago with a small public school. We are a unified district that has been an elementary district for 40+ years and decided to go unified and build their own high school. Because of the excitement, the admin decided to go varsity the 1st year year instead of playing a JV schedule for the first couple of years.

We basically had 19 full-time players, no JV or frosh teams, no seniors and only 5 jr's. 1st 3 games we got destroyed. The rest of the season we held our own and played most of the games very close, but only won 1 (going 1-8). Honestly, and I not trying to blow my own horn, but this is the 1st losing season I was ever affiliated with. I have been part of 2 state championships, 2 runner-ups, and a number of semi-final teams. I can tell you this, I learned more from this season than from all of my other ones combined. You really find out if you have the toughness that you are asking of your players when you give up 60 points in a half.

One of the advantages that I have this season is that I have everyone back from last season, plus we have added a number of players that I was able to connect with during weights/PE class during the year that will be out and help us greatly. Another advantage is that everyone on the team saw significant minutes last season. Because of this, enthusiasm and weight room attendance has been great this year and I have a number of sophmores and juniors played a lot of varsity minutes as frosh/soph's last season. This will play dividends down the road.

Advice:
1. Approach this as building a program, not a season. Emphasize conditioning, weights, speed work, flexibility, etc. to your players. Work to gain their trust and make sure they understand how hard it is and how much they have to put into being a quality player and team.

2. Cut down on the X's and O's and focus on technique. This is a huge mistake I made last season. I went in trying to install my normal playbook, and the kids couldn't handle it. After 3 games of getting pummeled, we cut down to approx. 9-10 offensive plays from 1-2 formations and repped the heck out of it. It was then that we began to move the football. In fact we had over 400 yards of offense 5 times last season after we did this. We failed to correct this problem on defense though and continued to run a number of fronts, coverages and blitzes. I would suggest finding one front, 1-2 coverages and rep the heck out of technique. You can always add to the package as you become comfortable with what you are doing. Rep technique, technique, technique. Learn to block and tackle with the best of them. X's and O's really don't matter if you can't do this.

3. Surround yourself with the best people possible. Make sure they are dedicated to the vision you have and are willing to learn. Make sure that they are dedicated to the program and most importantly the kids. Don't be intimidated if you have a coach that may know more than you about the game or a certain aspect of the game. Remember that "A people surround themselves with A people. C people surround themselves with D and F people so that they look and feel better about themselves." -Bill Gates.

4. Keep an even keel and accentuate the positive. It is hard to take a whipping on the field and try to accentuate the positive things you did. The reality is that you are probably going to be bad for a couple of seasons until you get the program in place. Look at it as steps on the ladder and work as hard as you can to get to the top. Don't be as concered about the present as you would be in an established program.

5. Be as involved in the school as possible. Show every teacher, admin, and student: guy, girl, stud athlete, tuba player, track star, volleyball or softball player, that you truly care about them and their life. This will help to bring them over to your camp, bulding a fan base and hopefully getting those non-football players over into your program. THIS IS CRUCIAL AT A SMALL SCHOOL.

6. Work hard to get your players involved in other programs. Show the other coaches that you support their programs. Better still become an assistant or even head for another sport: wrestlers and track sprinters make great football players. Basketball and baseball are great for hand/eye coordination. Get these coaches on your side and scheduling summer workouts and sharing athletes will be much easier for you. Nothing is worse than working with a coach who only wants his athletes to play his sport, especially when you have a student body under 400 or so.

7. Get some sort of feeder program in place. Whether it is Pop-Warner, a middle school program, or whatever. Make sure to have a couple of dedicated coaches (parents, teachers, etc.) At this point, I don't know how important it is to have them run your system (although eventually you want this), but you must get those youngsters blocking, tackling, learning to love contact, and just getting enthusiastic about the game. The coaches don't have to be great just willing to learn and dedicated to the kids. You will need to be involved at least in the training of the coaches.

There are a thousand other things, but this is what we have focused on. We are entering season #2 and are leaps and bounds beyond what we were last year.

Sorry about the length of the post. Good luck to you, and I hope at least some of my advice has helped.

Coach Maxwell

Thank you to everyone for the advice.

Just to give you some more information...I've got 7 rising seniors who have played football at other schools before, 1 has already committed to a SEC school, so I do have some talent.

So, since we've got Seniors, we've got a Varsity schedule against all similarly sized schools (1A/1B-which in Florida is the smallest you can get). Our scrimage and only 1 game is against schools from a higher division (2A).

I had originally scheduled 6 games. However, once we went public with our announcement about starting football, several more schools called and my "excited" AD schedule all comers.

After the comments, I feel much better heading into fall practice on Monday. When I came on board in January, I started the S & C program, attempted to befriend all the staff and parents, generally most of the advice you guys have given me. My staff is very loyal (all on campus thanks to Admin) and we're in the process of building a new gym. It's just that the numbers scared the hell out of me.

Again, Coaches, thanks for the opinions, I'll let you know how we're doing throughout the season, good luck to all of you in fall.

bj