Advice - Who to play?

who do you TRUST?

Play him.

you can't start, if you ain't there.

Been there before. Play the kids who want to play football! If your boy really wants to be your QB, then he'll find a way to be there. If Baseball is his thing, no problem, but someone else should be taking the snaps. Trust is a great point. So is Sacrifice, Dedication, and Loyalty.

I would try to get another QB ready to play, but once the BB player is there I would not hesitate to play him if he is better. I deal with multi-sport athletes on a daily basis. I tell all kids and parents that football is #1 with me, but I realize that baseball or basketball or wrestling might be #1 to them. If another sport is #1 give me a piece of your self. In June we have summer baseball, basketball, wrestling, and football. I ask all players what is number 1? If basketball is number 1 go to basketball if there is no basketball he better be at football. Now when June ends I get your full attention.

Sharing is hard for me and for the other coaches, but I believe we are doing a decent job making it a little easier on the kids.

I guess I cant see how a commitment to football( in football season no less ) from the qb has anything to do with ego and the head coach??? my statement was meant to show that i want my leader on the field to be a guy whos thinking about td passes and first downs, not his batting avg. My kids would look to the qb for leadership but they cant realistically follow a guy whos not invested in the current football season enough to lead...thats my point. In addition i think all coaches would agree that its tough enough to get kids to perform at qb with a full camp under their belt let alone just two days a week. what kind of message does it send to the rest of the squad if your qb can "get away with" doing that...and thats exactly how the kids will view it. I happen to be experiencing this very issue but at the middle school level. I have open gyms and 3 qbs compete for the spot, one, the best one, misses most frequently due to other sports. I cant penalize him for that, but hes certainly fallign behind the others. i think the coach has to take that into consideration.

anyhow, bottom line for me, im going to reward the kids that are at practices, camps, open gyms, wt training, competitions, 7 on 7s...not the ones hitting home runs. Im not sure if thats an ego problem or selfishness??? or just wanting to make my team and program better in the long run. To be clear, coach said this kid was missing CAMP. Camp, as far as I am aware is typically MANDATORY and not voluntary. Each to his own I guess.

I agree with not making your decision yet. Work with who is there. And decide in August who your guy is. I'm not saying give special treatment to either. Coach up whoever is there and when august rolls around who ever produces will play. Sure you want to reward the kids that worked hard during the summer and such but at sometime the best kid has to play.

coachh-- to clarify, is he missing "camp" meaning the traditional 2 a day practices? Or is he just missing summer workouts. Why is he missing these workouts? baseball game conflict? practice conflict? Is he splitting football/baseball equally? If it is summer workouts, How many days a week are the other guys there?

Calande-- I interpreted the post (since it was written in present tense) that he was currently only making 2 summer workouts a week because of American legion or Summer baseball.

You say you don't understand how I mention ego..and then in your next sentence..."MY TEAM...MY PROGRAM...My leader" Its the kid's team first...then yours.

Coach to answer your question: He is playing summer baseball which is strictly games. Second our camp is treated like practice. We get 25 days in the summer. We condition / lift / but most importantly we get our offense and defense concepts in during the summer. The SUMMER IS CRUCIAL FOR US.


thanks again, awesome thoughts

We get 25 days in summer. We go 3 hours at a time. 45 min of conditioning work (speed, plyos etc) 1:30 min of skill work (off, def, spec.) then 45 min of lifing.

Yes we will have about 10 days once the official season starts in aug before our 1st game, but only 3 two a days this year.

Thanks again

CoachH- If I am the head coach, I am laying it out bluntly to my kids - "Gentlemen, for us to compete for a state championship I expect to have 90% or more of our offense and defense installed before the first practice in August." I think the best teams dont wait until the middle of August to start installation and the kids have to know that up front.

You surely dont want to limit a kids involvement in other sports and in fact should find ways to reward multi sport participation for the school specifically (ie PRIDE POINTS) while also rewarding those that are at voluntary workouts with PRIDE POINTS or whatever system you use to program build/motivate the kids. Sounds like this baseball involvement was not for a school team? I would guess thats no different than a boy missing camp to attend show choir or guitar lessons or a karate tournament or whatever. You have a PROGRAM to run and ultimately have to step up and make the decisions that are best for the program.

I think your options have been well covered here and different coaches have different philosophies. For me personally I can tell you that catering to any athlete, star or sub, is a mistake of massive proportion. No one is above the law so to speak. If your expectations were that the boys attend these workouts then stick to your guns. In the long run it will benefit the entire program. No player bigger than the team, no team bigger than the program. Just my 3 cents.

heres something I always remind the boys of :

there are FOOTBALL PLAYERS and there are those that PLAY FOOTBALL. the difference is in what happens in the off season.

I should of added this in my earlier post, we work out in the evening because of a bunch of lay coaches and summer school. To help our multi-sport guys we have make up sessions 2 days a week in the morning. These guys do not get muck skill work, but they get the lift andtheir run in.

I don't see how you can in good conscience tell a high school athlete they won't start or play a particular position because of what they do or don't do in the summer.

It may impact where they start off pre-season practice at, but you can't ethically, in my opinion, threaten players to get them to workouts in June or July.

Besides, you may be cutting off your nose to spite your face. If you have a bunch of silly rules in the off-season you're going to run off some players and be mad at others before practice even begins.

If you do that you are just as bad as the AAU basketball people and others who leech onto kids these days and try to dominate their time for their own personal gain.

I know we're all football coaches and want commitment from our kids so we can have a chance to win - but c'mon guys - this is HIGH SCHOOL athletics! Let's keep some perspective.

I think it is odd how many coaches say that they want kids to play multiple sports, but then how that changes when you run into a situation like this. In my opinion summer (June especially) has always been baseball season. Even though we can have contact in June, I would never make them anything but optional, and would certainly not plan on getting anything installed there.

Likewise, August-November in my mind is football season and I would expect that if any of the boys play fall baseball they don't miss football practice to do it. If you really believe in the benefits of playing multiple sports, you need your schedule and expectations to allow for it.

This is why I have always liked "off season commitment" point systems. The FB coach lays out a schedule for the summer that works around all other sports. Each workout is worth a certain number of points, with some (like work outs with position specific drills) are worth more. The kids have to meet a certain number of points, say 80% (give them some leeway for vacations) or they don't start.

This a fair and equitable methods that forces the kids to be accountable for their actions. This is the way I look at it- its not fair to ask the kids to lift all summer long and then start kids that just blow it off. If they have the time to be in there, then they'd better bed there. Plus this shows the kids that their hard work in the wt room will pay off for them. I had kids last summer that would come in and lift first thing in the morning and then go buck hay bails all day.

There really aren't a lot of legal issues in MT, mainly because no problems have a risen yet. (I emphasize yet)

One of the coaches around here that uses this type of system actually refuses to play kids if they won't lift. He had a situation a couple years ago where his sophmore all conference FB refused to lift the summer before his junior year- the kid sat on the bench. The kid that stepped into the FB spot had been after it in the gym and had a great season. The team ended up going deep into the play offs that year. There are two teams that are monsters year in and year out in our conference and they both have the point system set up. They don't sit kids. but they won't start them. I imagine they had a rough time with it initially, but after a season or two it took off and they fill the weight room now.

Bear in mind that I would never as far to not play a kid for not working out, but not starting him is always feasible. I don't really know your situation, but if I had a kid that was capable underneath him, I'd start the second stringer and give him some of the playing time.

If a kids folks have shared custody and he's gotta go, then he's gotta go. I'd write him up the summer workout schedule and hope he followed it. I'd also look to see what football camps were going in the area and point them out to him. Just one of those issues.