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Post by groundchuck on Jan 25, 2023 7:15:57 GMT -6
MY first year as a HC we had a player who because of grades and state league violations never got to play. But I kept him on the team. He loved football. I told him if was passing his classes and staying out of trouble he would be allowed to practice and be on the scout teams. He was our biggest, strongest, best OL/DL. He stuck it out and graduated.
A year or two later I got a letter from him that he was at a juco playing football and invited me to come to a home game. I came, and brought a bunch of the team, younger guys who would have been on the team when he was a senior. I know he learned a trade while he was there. Kind of lost touch with him now but that was a young man who was not headed to good places but HS football helped him out.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 19, 2023 8:48:16 GMT -6
Larrymoe has that piece right. When we had a good year or at least finished the season well I felt better about a lot of things.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 18, 2023 4:45:18 GMT -6
IMO, the value of a successful football team isn't able to be quantified. As Coachcb just said, the cascade effect of impacting all boys sports is incalculable. I've been a part of 3 successful football schools, the amount of confidence those kids had allowed them to attempt more things in life in general(academics, athletics, etc.). I'm currently at a football tradition poor school, and our kids have 0 confidence. THis applies in all aspects of life, sports, academics, weight training, etc. Just a total fear of failure. So my question is how do you measure the value of confidence? Is that one of those things you can't measure, but you know it when you see it?
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 17, 2023 13:31:46 GMT -6
Poster of themselves and the team is good. I also like mini helmets. Those have been a hit. They can keep the decal off their helmet. Not truly a "gift" per se but also a big deal. I played my last HS game in 1994 and still have the decal from my helmet. (I have my helmet too shhhh!)
I have never given the coin, but I think that is a wonderful idea, and I think I would go so far as to have it in writing that it gets them in for any regular season game whether I was still coaching there or not.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 17, 2023 10:25:17 GMT -6
The benefits are innumerable. Football is the bell cow. I see a lot more school pride in perennial winning programs. In my observations there are a lot more faculty, staff, and students who wear school apparel to school....because they have pride in the school and community. In the community it is lot easier to raise money because everyone likes to support a winner and wants that sign in their shop window saying the donated.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 13, 2023 15:29:47 GMT -6
I had a kid that was a wrestler years ago that knocked out over 500 in a row, he was steadily pressing for almost 20 minutes. Wrestlers are just built different.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 13, 2023 8:26:28 GMT -6
I would be interested to know what the military standards for pushups in an hour are? I would suspect it is under 400, but I could be wrong.
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hours
Dec 29, 2022 6:43:48 GMT -6
Post by groundchuck on Dec 29, 2022 6:43:48 GMT -6
I remember getting up at 3:30am to watch film and work on scripts and there would be an email from my DC time stamped 2:30am. Talk about ships passing in the night.
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Post by groundchuck on Dec 29, 2022 6:34:43 GMT -6
I don’t think that there are that many HOFers looking to get into coaching. Most HOFers who do work after retiring from football go to work in broadcasting or take a public relations job with their former team or with the NFL. There’s just not that many guys like Sanders or Reed who need to go into coaching. Dilfer was not a superstar but neither was Jim Harbaugh, who had a comparable NFL career. I can see Dilfer turning out like Harbaugh. If Dilfer isn’t successful, he won’t be around long. Harbaugh has coached for a long time because he’s a good coach, not because he played in the NFL. Jim Harbaugh's dad was a pretty good coach too. He grew up around coaches.
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Post by groundchuck on Dec 21, 2022 5:33:36 GMT -6
Legacy Hard Hat The Twin Thieves Slight Edge Our kids listened to Hard Hat last Spring and then we incorporated a “Hard Hat” award to the best team mate each week. Kids who were recognized kept it in their locker for the week and signed it. At the end of the season the Hard Hat was voted on by the team and that kid got to take it home. A great chance to recognize the kids that make a difference that doesn’t show up on a stats sheet. Hard Hat (Jon Gordon) is an easy read with easily applied lessons. Well Done > well said for example, and the concept of "stealing five". Stealing 5 min a day, every day to work on some skill adds up pretty quickly over the course of a week/season.
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Post by groundchuck on Dec 20, 2022 7:16:53 GMT -6
Legacy Hard Hat The Twin Thieves Slight Edge
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Post by groundchuck on Oct 18, 2022 15:58:58 GMT -6
I don't think it is the best way to communicate my displeasure on the field.
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Post by groundchuck on Oct 18, 2022 15:47:04 GMT -6
I have never heard this term in my life. Must be a Southern thing. Seconded. It is not a southern thing. I live in the Midwest and heard it for the first time in college, and use it myself.
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Post by groundchuck on Oct 12, 2022 6:17:49 GMT -6
Smaller schools around here often do a parent night when all parents and players are honored. When I was a HC we did that, but I held the seniors until the end and made it as special as I could for them.
In terms of what we did when I was at a larger school (we had 25 seniors last year) the PA announcer called their name and they walked onto the field with parent(s).
As a program we did a poster of the seniors in the pre-season so it could be displayed at all home games.
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Post by groundchuck on Jun 9, 2022 14:42:48 GMT -6
Filming practice is definitely at the top of my list. I know some coaches will say they see everything they need to see in practice. Some coaches even think they see all 22 in detail. Trust me. You do not. I can point out things to players and they don't make that same mistake again because they saw themselves make it on video. You can see things
Using Hudl. I can't believe how many coaches don't use Hudl other than as a tool to stream & exchange "film".
Being prepared for practice with a plan, a script etc.
Practicing special teams as opposed to rounding up 11 guys and putting them on a KO unit and telling them to go tackle the returner. There are skills and drills for this, and you can develop players to fit the roles you need them for on KO, KOR, Punt etc.
I feel like I ranted?
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Post by groundchuck on Jun 7, 2022 14:15:32 GMT -6
My other son who is bigger and stronger than his older brother doesn't like football. It took me a season to come to grips with that but it is OK. He excells at a different sport and loves it. That's OK.
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Post by groundchuck on Jun 1, 2022 12:54:37 GMT -6
Have any of you coached your on kid on the varsity level? I am looking for advice from folks that have been through it. I am his position coach. I just got done with that phase of my coaching career. I was my son's position coach the last three years on varsity. I would not trade the experience for the world. My son was a role player/backup on a state championship team. He probably/possibly could have started for teams we played against but he was behind a D1 track athlete and a 6'6" D2 basketball player who had some FCS football looks and he knew it. He was an integral player on special teams and made some major plays there. It wasn't like he never played. I am lucky he is truely a coach's kid and never complained. He was my ball boy for years growing up at a different school when I was a head coach. We won a title together in our last game on the field. How do I top that? I treated him like everyone else. I dogged him like everyone else, and todl him I was proud of him just like everyone else. He got a concussion in practice as a freshman over on the other field. The freshman coach came over to tell me. I asked if he was conscious and what they were doing. When I was sure he was "OK" I went back to coaching the varsity and took care of him after practice. I am really lucky because outside of me, my son understood what we were doing coverage wise more than other other coaches on staff. He is very smart and he has been around me and football for a long time. When he was a kid I had him tagging ODK on Hudl. He is also a great communicator. He was like having another DB coach sometimes and he could talk to his teammates in a way to calm them down, refocus them, or explain adjustments. He knew that was how he was bringing value to the team and I guess he was OK with that. I don't know what it would be like if my son's head was filled with other thoughts. It was hard on my wife to see our son not playing as much as other boys who maybe didn't understand the game or put in the time but because of who they were genetically got to play. My son and wife also knew I was not the kind of coach who was going to play his son ahead of others just to play his kid. I have seen this take place in other sports where I have coached and it hurts the team and makes that coach and kid look bad. But man, when he got a pick in the semi-final game.....I thought he might house it my coaching hat came off and my dad hat went on. I was super proud of him as a dad. At the banquet the head coach was talking about each of the seniors and he said there was no better example of how to manage coaching your son than me and him. He's been around a while and I know there have been a few before us. So I guess I did OK. I am not sure I can give a lot of advice. Find a way to keep your son #1 in your life while also keeping the team #1. I can't tell you how to do that. Maybe that is one of the few things that came naturally in my life.
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Post by groundchuck on May 12, 2022 8:55:52 GMT -6
The size of your staff questions reminds me of a story... ....A 2nd grade teacher was teaching about measurement using the generic word "units." She was trying to explain why it's important to have a standard unit like feet or inches because my actual foot is a different size than your foot etc etc.
She would ask how big is your desk and so on. There was a male para in class. A student asked how many "Mr. Smith long is the room?" I kid you not her reply was "That depends on how big Mr. Smith's unit is."
The kiddos didn't get it. But man the adults did.
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Post by groundchuck on May 12, 2022 8:50:34 GMT -6
Last two schools I was at: Enrollment +/-350 HC, 3 paid assistants, 2-3 volunteers a year (usually the same guys)
Enrollment +/-1000 HC, OL, DL, DB, LB/DC, Off ast, ast OL coach 2 JV 2 9th grade
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Post by groundchuck on Apr 7, 2022 13:29:20 GMT -6
The Noel Mazzone stat is something I used and tracked over several seasons and it was a good indicator. I took that a step farther. I would chart it for every practice. Believe it or not weeks when we had {censored} practices on the offensive side of the ball we also F'd up on Friday night. (Often, not always). I did this to show the players there is a direct correlation to how you practice becomes how you play.
I think I said this earlier, big plays (20+ yards) was a big indicator. Combine that with starting field position. Not many high school teams can drive the ball 80 yards. They need a couple of chunk plays in there to make that happen. So if you can make your opponent start on their side of of the field behind the 30 yard line and then limit getting chunked by the offense you are probably going to have at the very least, a shot.
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Post by groundchuck on Apr 7, 2022 6:18:12 GMT -6
Turnover differential is the first thing that comes to mind. After that explosive plays. Obviously points. There was a span when our team's winning percentage was something like .800 if we held our opponent under 20 points. I remember looking back at the losses over that span and every single one we allowed 20 or more points. Twenty points is certainly not elite defense, but it showed if we could hold a team to three scores or less our chances of winning were very high.
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Post by groundchuck on Apr 4, 2022 10:44:24 GMT -6
I didn't do a contract. We did do in-season study table, I also checked grades weekly. In the off-season I delivered rewards (Smartees Candy) and a post card to each player who made the honor roll. I also posted the names of the players who made the honor rolls in the wt room and outside my classroom which was a high traffic area in the school. For each quarter you made the honor roll the previous year I handed out stickers for their helmet.
For those struggling I mailed home a letter and the gist of it was hey how can I help you? If you need me to me or another coach is happy to help you set up time with a teacher or help you get the resources you might need. I wanted parents to know this was a year-round thing for me. Only once did I have a parent get mad. A mom said I was bullying her son into getting good grades. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.
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Post by groundchuck on Feb 15, 2022 11:45:42 GMT -6
We used Adrenaline which was an off shoot of Varsity Gold. Sold cards. Was a good fundraiser.
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Post by groundchuck on Feb 10, 2022 10:16:35 GMT -6
When I was a header we just had a camp we needed to be at. I wanted as many coaches as I could at our youth camp but really that was more for organizing it. I let the players coach the youth kids. Weight room, I ran it, our assistants were interested in it but also coached other sports. But they would show up. For 7on7 it was usually just me and the DC.
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Post by groundchuck on Feb 9, 2022 13:58:20 GMT -6
Each class has eight sections. Everyone makes it in. You could be 0-8 but you will get a 9th game. In some sections there are eight teams. In some there are four. The one we were placed in the last few years had six teams. So the top 2 got byes.
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Post by groundchuck on Feb 8, 2022 10:16:53 GMT -6
Buy a 2Tb portable hard drive and download everything. One of the tell tale signs a guy is leaving is the drive sitting on his desk LOL.
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Post by groundchuck on Feb 7, 2022 11:58:49 GMT -6
Personally I am tired of social media as a whole. I check Facebook once a day but hardly ever post anything. Mostly to see what family or close friends are up to if they posted anything sports related or their kid has prom pics whatever. There are way too many videos or other crap on there now.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 28, 2022 9:20:13 GMT -6
I used to check grades all the time, year round too. I would send little rewards to football players who made the honor roll. A post card and a pack of Smarties candy. Yeah it is cheesy but cheap and shows I care. I would send a post card to those failing and telling to seek help if needed, that I could help them and if I could not then I would help facilitate getting help from the teacher. At one point a mom got really pissed off at me in the spring for "bullying" her son into getting good grades. Other than that we did study table in-season which worked really well at first. But later I ran out of coaches in the building (we all taught in the middle school or out of the district later on). That is key to have a coach over there who can start that whom the players will not jack around and actually use the time. We gave out helmet stickers for various in-game and in-practice things but also for making the honor roll each quarter the previous school year.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 27, 2022 8:28:49 GMT -6
I used to have a box on my call sheet called "Plays for ______" and the best player's name was there.
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 25, 2022 9:25:21 GMT -6
Special teams matter. Seconds matter. Kicking the ball into the EZ for a touchback took nothing off the clock. NFL kickers must be good enough to put the ball where they want to (baring terrible conditions). Kick it so the clock runs.
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