Turning Around a team and creating a Program

Establish a strength and conditioning program.

The most efficient way to do this is to start with what you have now. So, take inventory of your current weight room...what equipment/facilities/space do you have available? Based on that, how many kids can you efficiently train at once?

For example, your weight room has 4 squat racks with weights, a barbell and an adjustable bench. The maximum number of kids I would put at a squat rack at one time is 4. So 4 squat racks x 4 kids = 16 kids working in the squat racks. Then, you will have to figure out what the other 21 kids can do (based on 37 kids returning).

I've seen too many guys fail in the weight room because they bring in a program they want to do but they don't take into account how many kids they need to train or what equipment they have available. The result is a poor experience for the kids in the weight room. You will have kids standing around waiting on equipment. Horribly inefficient and makes you look disorganized.

Everything starts with what you are going to do in the weight room. That will set the tone for the rest of your program.

I actually lived a very similar situation. Took over a program that in 2011 that was 12-30 in previous 4 seasons. Was 2-18 in prior 2 seasons. Last winning season was 2008. Town has multiple high schools in it and a lot of players were choosing to go to other high schools instead of attending their home school. Program had $300 in the bank but did have good fundraising set up. Prior year the team had 22 players on Varsity and 20 players on JV. Freshman team had 50+. Lots more to the story but I will keep this short.

Things I did after getting the job
1) Thanked God and gave the program to him. Asked him to bring the kids and coaches to me that he wanted me to work with and teach.
2.) Assembled Coaches while meeting players in the program. Coaches were good guys, but not lifetime coaches. Coaching was their hobby, not their passion. Always (and still do) looked for passionate professional coaches.
3.) Built the program around FUN. Making sure the kids had fun while in the program. Trips, events.. just genuine fun
4.) Came into job with more questions than answers. Talked to a lot of people about what was working and wasn't working in the football program. Did not act like I was a football GURU..
5.) Made sure other sports and other student activities knew I was going to share athletes, wanted them to do the same.
6.) Kept all sophomores down on JV the first season. Did not want the older kids who may not be the hardest workers teach the younger kids about poor work ethic. (this did not work, some sophomores we were able to push.. most were already set in their ways.
7.) Trusted and on campus teacher who was a weight room guy to handle the weight room while I worked on agility and speed (this also did not work, weight room guy was not as motivated to change culture as I was. I took over entire weight program my third year and the change worked wonders)

Team has now been the most dominant team in the city in the last 4 seasons with 33 wins. 22 of those wins have been in the last 2 seasons.

Echo what everyone else has said. Weight room. Must get kids stronger. And gives you a chance to change you culture and form relationships with your players, which is very important IMO. Be in the hallways and get to know and form relationships with school staff. They will help you tremendously if you do and help your kids. If you don’t they won’t be as much of a help. There is a whole list of things to do. But these pop off the top of my head.

Change that...get enthusiastic about it. If you don't care, neither will they.

I don't think you have to be game day intense for every lift....I actually think that's a bad idea. To me, it sounded like you might not be making training a priority. Maybe that's not the case. Not everybody has to be a gym rat to make progress BUT everybody needs to make gym time a priority and be consistent.

While there is certainly some truth in this statement, not sure how it helps anyone high school unless you can recruit anyone you want from anywhere.

Heard a good take about this on a podcast regarding quantity/quality of staff. “Better to have a hole than an a**hole...”

No, I go...I am saying my energy is not the same as it is on the practice field, and game day

Weight room.
Staff.
Mine talent.
Develop talent.
Change attitudes along the way.

Never thought about the performance/success of the other male sports playing a huge part...

To me , you definitely need quality loyal staff, you have to get to work in weight room for sure, all the stuff mentioned. But you better find a way to get those kids excited about playing and more importantly, excited about playing for you. If you can do this, all the other stuff will be easier.

Another thing is you can't have coaches on your staff or school administrators cutting your legs out from under you.

Never a more true statement has been spoken

Happened at a school here in Philly , it was so bad that the HFC had to try to raise funds directly through the program because money was coming in wound up going to the basketball team, once he discovered it the school announced he "resigned" to spend more time with his family.

If the admin is not 100% behind the football program you have a snowballs chance in hell usually

Build the Herd, find all the kids who have interest get to know them first and what makes them tick.

Slowly build the weight room, get fundamentals of lifting taught and the importance of the correct weight and rep routine.

Hire a staff of good loyal men who have the ability to teach, you don't need a ton of guys just good people.

Teach your staff simple and sound schemes in all three phases you will be implementing focusing on fundamentals and common language that will be used.

Keep kids playing at the levels they physically should be at even if that means taking some lumps at the varsity level, getting beat up isn't good for anyone.

Be patient!