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Post by 19delta on Feb 23, 2023 9:13:41 GMT -6
That year was soul destroying. The school day was over at 2:35 but we didn’t start practice until 3:30pm because that’s when the HFC was able to get there. I would just stare at the clock in my classroom like a prisoner on death row waiting for the hour of his execution. The big difference was, unlike the permanence of an execution, my torment was repeated each day until football season ended. 😂 Yep. Pretty much. 😂
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Post by 19delta on Feb 23, 2023 6:16:25 GMT -6
He stops his car on the driveway the kids have to cross to go back into the building. He gets out of his car and starts waving his hands in the air and shouting. He’s literally herding the kids back out to the practice field. The kid can’t believe it and me and the OC are just incredulous. But, he succeeds in getting the kids back out on the field and sure enough, he keeps us all there until almost 7pm. And because he just got there, he’s all fired up and enthusiastic. The rest of us…not so much. I'm definitely continuing into the building and going home. That year was soul destroying. The school day was over at 2:35 but we didn’t start practice until 3:30pm because that’s when the HFC was able to get there. I would just stare at the clock in my classroom like a prisoner on death row waiting for the hour of his execution. The big difference was, unlike the permanence of an execution, my torment was repeated each day until football season ended. 😂
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Post by 19delta on Feb 22, 2023 14:15:49 GMT -6
Best (worst?) coaching story about missing practice…
I was a volunteer assistant coach at a small school program about 15 years ago. It was probably Week 4 or 5 and the Cubs were playing an early afternoon game up at Wrigley North (Miller Park at the time). Our HFC’s family were big Cubs fans and he was taking them to the game. I think it was a 1pm start and a midweek game so he wasn’t going to to be at practice that evening.
Most of our coaches were volunteer guys who came and went as they pleased. We never knew who was going to be there. That evening after school, there was going to be 2 of us at practice, me and the OC.
The two of us discussed it and decided that we were going to get stuff done and have the kids out of there ASAP. We usually had these marathon practices. 3+ hours was normal. So, our thinking was that if it wasn’t important enough for the head coach to be there, then we weren’t going to keep the kids there for the usual long practice.
We started practice at 3:30pm and we were pretty much done and wrapping things up by about 5pm. So, the kids are walking off the field on the way up to the locker room when we see the head coach’s car come tear-assing into the parking lot. I kid you not, I’m pretty sure that he went on two wheels when he made the turn into the parking lot.
He stops his car on the driveway the kids have to cross to go back into the building. He gets out of his car and starts waving his hands in the air and shouting. He’s literally herding the kids back out to the practice field. The kid can’t believe it and me and the OC are just incredulous.
But, he succeeds in getting the kids back out on the field and sure enough, he keeps us all there until almost 7pm. And because he just got there, he’s all fired up and enthusiastic. The rest of us…not so much.
That was my least favorite year ever in coaching. We took a team with 7-2 talent and ended up 3-6. The last game of the year, we were playing an 0-8 team. Had a chance to finish 4-5, which would have been our best record in about 10 years. Well, our kids were done. They wanted nothing to do with football any more. They mailed it in and we lost 28-0.
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Post by 19delta on Feb 22, 2023 13:44:44 GMT -6
Up until about 10 years ago, the county fair started the same week as two-a-days. We would always have a lot of kids miss practice because they were showing livestock. The fair was a big deal so the coaches didn’t complain about kids being gone.
A more disturbing trend I have noticed is girls on our school basketball team missing practices and even games for club volleyball. I hate club volleyball. So glad we didn’t have daughters for that reason alone. 😂
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Post by 19delta on Feb 22, 2023 13:39:00 GMT -6
The scoring is the reason it’s undefeated. 😂
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Post by 19delta on Feb 22, 2023 13:38:00 GMT -6
The other one that used to drive me nuts was when they would have a blood drive at school and all of our kids would go to it so they could get out of practicing. One year I told them I would set a date for after the season if they really wanted to give back so that way they weren't missing practice. Everyone was at practice, when the date rolled around no one wanted to hop on the bus and head to the Red Cross. I am a big believe in donating blood and giving back, but I am not a big fan of kids using it as a way to not participate. Just another reason I hated being a head coach. When I was in the Army, I donated blood every chance I could. We would get the rest of the day off If we did. 😂
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Post by 19delta on Feb 22, 2023 13:32:02 GMT -6
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Post by 19delta on Feb 17, 2023 11:14:39 GMT -6
That, and stop beating yourself. Don't do stupid things. I'd try to figure out who can snap and who can kick before preseason. Been on some bad teams and that been a common issue. Great quote from Hugh Wyatt: “Stop sucking”. 😂
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Post by 19delta on Feb 13, 2023 14:12:43 GMT -6
Going for it on 4th down!
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Carioca
Feb 2, 2023 20:43:38 GMT -6
Post by 19delta on Feb 2, 2023 20:43:38 GMT -6
I don't have the answer, but I hate when coaches call them karaokes. Along the same lines... Carioci. Pronounced Care-e-okie.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 21, 2023 19:23:55 GMT -6
I like prime and hope he does well truly. However, everything about him has become so over dramatic it’s sickening I don't particularly care for the guy. Although he seems far more tolerable in older age than in his youth. I would like to see him make Colorado good again. One of my earliest memories of Sanders was Carlton Fisk getting all over him for not running out a pop fly.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 13, 2023 16:38:45 GMT -6
The thing is, these kinds of workouts are dumb for lots of reasons. But the biggest is that the accountability is going to fall 100% on the coach’s neck. When I was last coaching high school football (2009), if something like this happened, it would probably result in nothing more than a talking to from the AD or principal. If a kid got sick from the workout, it was partly on the kid because he didn’t drink water, was out of shape, etc, etc.
But in the current climate? It’s going to fall on the adults in charge. So why would someone put themselves in such a bad position? Why expose yourself to lawsuits or getting fired? For the little positive that can come out of an activity like this, it’s assuming an awful lot of risk.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 13, 2023 15:02:11 GMT -6
That’s obsolete. The Army has completely overhauled the fitness assessment. When I was in, it was push-ups, sit-ups, and a 2-mile run, all based on age. It was a long time ago, but I think I had to do like 46 push-ups to “max out” the push-up test. Minimum was like 28. Now, they do “hand release” push-ups. I think soldiers have to do 10? I was commissioned in 96 a month before I turned 30 and my standards for push ups were 39 min and 77 max. I believe that is the same standard today. I don’t know how the new test is scored exactly, but, according to this, the minimum is 10 of the hand release push-ups. usarmybasic.com/hand-release-push-up-hrp
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Post by 19delta on Jan 13, 2023 13:04:32 GMT -6
Now, they do “hand release” push-ups. I think soldiers have to do 10? I mean, the guys that have kids do 400 push-ups because they're soft is one thing, but man this is just soft as hell. The hand release push-ups are actually tougher than the ones I did in the Army 25 years ago. In addition, they also do a med ball throw, a trap bar deadlift, and some kind of drag/carry obstacle course. It’s a much better test of overall soldier fitness than the old Army PFT I did.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 13, 2023 9:35:18 GMT -6
That’s obsolete. The Army has completely overhauled the fitness assessment. When I was in, it was push-ups, sit-ups, and a 2-mile run, all based on age. It was a long time ago, but I think I had to do like 46 push-ups to “max out” the push-up test. Minimum was like 28. Now, they do “hand release” push-ups. I think soldiers have to do 10? When I first got to basic training (fall of 1996), the first thing we had to do was an entry-level PT test. It was just 10 push-ups. If you couldn’t do 10 push-ups, you couldn’t start basic training. You would instead get sent to a Fitness Battalion to give a chance to whip your ass into shape. I thought it was a joke. 10 push-ups? C’mon…this is the United States Army! But, I kid you not…there were guys who couldn’t do 10 push-ups. There were guys who couldn’t do 1. I’m talking about grown-ass men. I always wondered about those guys. Like, what were they doing in the months before they left for basic training? Where exactly did they think they were going? 😂
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Post by 19delta on Jan 12, 2023 17:21:14 GMT -6
I am incredulous about the 300 pushups. I have high school kids in my PE classes who can't do ONE pushup, let alone 300. Herschel Walker could do 2,000 in one day. 😁 Yeah...he's not in any of my classes.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 12, 2023 16:52:52 GMT -6
This is something that I still have a question about...is 400 push ups in an hour enough to cause rhabdo in and of itself? I think it is possible for a couple of reaasons: 1. There was likely a wide range of relative fitness in that room. Probably some skill guys with lean bodies that could do push ups for days. But there were probably other guys who weren't as fit but tried to guy it out 2. I believe that rhabdo becomes more probable when there is a focus put on eccentric stressing of the muscles....so when that kid can't do any more push ups, coach says do negatives...and that might accelerate the problem I'm interested to hear more about the possible abuse of creatine, but I don't think that absolves the coach. I don't understand why more people don't just stick to the tried and true progressive periodization and avoid these kind of sessions entirely. I’m saying it had to be something other than the push-ups. With bodyweight exercises eventually your muscles will just stop letting you do them and that should be well before rhabdo. I am incredulous about the 300 pushups. I have high school kids in my PE classes who can't do ONE pushup, let alone 300.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 12, 2023 8:35:29 GMT -6
I've been following this story from the beginning. Mostly because I feel like there is more to the story behind the scenes than is being reported. I just saw last night that the kids who went to the doctor were all loading creatine which means they have to up their water intake significantly. If they didn't that would be a huge problem with strenuous workouts and out of the coaches control. On the flipside 400 push ups in a workout is just dumb. However, my first reaction to 400 push ups in an hour is that it's tough but shouldn't lead to 10 kids being hospitalized with rhabdo unless they were severely out of shape and in which case their bodies wouldn't have allowed them to complete it anyway. But at the end of the day several of his kids were needing medical attention and that falls on him for whatever reasons it happened. This story also came at the perfect time as there has been a huge debate over a coaches post practically bragging about how hard they work there kids to the point of puking in trash cans. It's turned out to be extremely polarizing in the coaches vs S&C communities Hey Coach…can you post some links? I’m really interested. We have way too many kids loading up creatine, using pre-workout and God knows what else, and downing energy drinks like a college kid on nickel beer night. And none of them know what they are doing.
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Post by 19delta on Jan 12, 2023 8:31:41 GMT -6
Kids today aint tough anymore, he was just trying to toughen them up and hold them accountable/s
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Post by 19delta on Dec 29, 2022 19:31:11 GMT -6
Does Applebee’s still do the Saturday morning pancake breakfast fundraiser?
Guaranteed at least an 80% return for about 2 hours of work.
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Post by 19delta on Dec 29, 2022 19:28:53 GMT -6
Best and easiest fundraiser we did last season was draft a generic letter to local businesses asking if they want to sponsor our Program. Any business that sponsored us received a Team picture with the businesses logo on it and we also thanked them on our Program's social media. We told each kid to hand out a minimum of 3 letters to local businesses. These could be a friend or family member's business, their own place of employment (e.g. fast food restaurants or grocery stores), or just a random business. We were shocked at how much money some business donated. Same here. I printed up a nice full-color certificate on the school’s printer, we put the certificates in some nice-looking (but cheap) frames, and then invited the business owners to come to a home game where we would recognize them and present the certificate. I would also take out a 1/4 page ad in the local newspaper and thank all the businesses that participated. I would get a list of businesses from the Chambers of Commerce of each municipality in our district and send out a letter to each. I usually got about a 30-35% return on the letters and after expenses, would usually clear about $3,000.
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Post by 19delta on Dec 28, 2022 9:35:14 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.
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Post by 19delta on Dec 28, 2022 9:25:00 GMT -6
Is this directed at me? I’m not a coach. I have observed it from watching games on TV. If I was a coach, I would not allow kids to wear a hoodie under their shoulder pads.
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Post by 19delta on Dec 21, 2022 5:59:41 GMT -6
When we wore jock straps. When we wore belted hip pads with a tail bone pad kept in place by a girdle. When we wore thigh pads placed in sewn in pockets of the pants. Honestly most of that was my experience as a player despite being on the younger side, but a girdle with the thigh, hip, and butt pads built in is fantastic. The girdle and the removal liner in the helmets that meant you could clean your helmet without acid sweat running in you eyes were so useful. Honest question is there anything stopping a kid bringing a kid down by the hood? I'm assuming it not protected by the horse collar rule? The hood hanging out of the back of the jersey isn't functional other than to give tacklers something to grab. That's why it is so dumb.
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Post by 19delta on Dec 17, 2022 10:30:10 GMT -6
What is the deal with kids wearing a hoody under their shoulder pads? The hood hangs out the back out of the top of the jersey. It looks so dumb.
😆
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Post by 19delta on Dec 8, 2022 1:09:11 GMT -6
My first and only HC job, I was fired for "gross insubordination". I guess that's better than being fired for being a bad football coach! 😆
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Post by 19delta on Dec 8, 2022 1:02:52 GMT -6
Parents all want the best for their kids. Sometimes that manifests itself in unhealthy ways. When you think your kid deserves more but you think they're great, you need to find a reason that they're not getting what you think they should that validates your beliefs. So those reasons are bound to be external reasons, and "politics" is a vague enough term that accomplishes that pretty well. I saw the small town politics thing first hand with my own kid. He was a 2-time, 2-way, All Conference lineman and 1st Team All State DL as a senior. He had 4 classmates whose families have lived in the district since Christ was a corporal. We are not from the area originally. Anyway, the parents of these other kids had this idea that senior year was going to be all about their 4 boys. The spotlight was going to be on them and everyone else was going to be a prop. Well, my kid was the best player on the team and that took the focus away from them. So, these kids and their families decided it would be better to blow up the season instead. They did what they could to ruin my kid's senior year. And our HC, while a nice enough guy, never stood up to these kids and parents because of what their last names were Needless to say, when we lost a must-win Week 9 game, my son was relieved that the season was over. My son and those 4 kids went on to play D3 football. 2 of them never made it to the first game, 1 of them quit after the first year because the coaches "weren't fair" (in other words, his parents couldn't intimidate and leverage the coaches on his behalf) and the last guy played 3 years but didn't make the roster until this year and only got in for a handful of plays in blowouts. And he is now "retiring" from football due to all his "injuries" 🙄. My kid, on the other hand, has been a rotation player since he stepped on campus and a starter this past season. He also earned All Conference Honorable Mention honors. So, while I still harbor some bitterness towards those families, the way things have turned out the last few years has definitely softened the edges
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Post by 19delta on Nov 20, 2022 13:14:19 GMT -6
A little off-topic, but D3 football has come a long way since I played ('92-'95). I was a 3-year starter at a D3 school that made the playoffs in 1992 but I don't think I would even make the travel team for the D3 school my son plays for now. And it's an average program, at best.
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Post by 19delta on Nov 4, 2022 17:27:35 GMT -6
Setting up the camera system! First off...I'm old. This is my first year back in coaching after a 20 year hiatus in the business world. When I last coached, game film was done on a VHS camcorder. I'm at a small high school in a small Midwestern state. This season I was tasked to set up this video system and things. Dear Lord! Should I have asked to attend a training course at NASA on how to set up this thing? Are these game video clips being beamed off some Elon Musk satellite? I'll admit, Hudl is a pretty useful tool, but I say give me a 42" tube TV strapped onto an A/V cart on wheels and a Cowboy Clicker any day! Ha! When I was last an assistant (I don't coach anymore) about 15 years ago, I was the video exchange guy. I have lots of memories of driving to some woebegone, cornfield-surrounded 4-way at 6am on a Saturday morning to meet my counterpart and switch tapes.
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Post by 19delta on Nov 1, 2022 17:36:18 GMT -6
Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it's an ethos. 1000 points to bulldogsdc for "The Big Lebowski" reference! 👍
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