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Post by wolverine55 on Oct 27, 2022 12:51:25 GMT -6
A two-year starter at center in high school. My school didn't get football until my junior year. Played four years at a D3 college and was always the 6-7th offensive lineman, but never started a game. Played in 30 of my 40 career games.
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Post by wolverine55 on Oct 27, 2022 7:09:41 GMT -6
If you don't intimately understand the workings of the other side of the ball, you're really going to be a bad coordinator. Unfortunately, there are many OCs who don't understand a lick of defense and vice versa. I was extremely nervous about the fact that I was primarily an offensive coach for 18 years before my HC decided he needed me to be the DC. I have found that I sometimes outthink myself because I know what my answers would be to some of the things we do on defense, but have also discovered that having knowledge of those possible adjustments is vital.
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Post by wolverine55 on Oct 25, 2022 13:22:31 GMT -6
Week 9 film was depressing. I'm a defensive coordinator, but coach the OL as well and my group was making some fairly routine mistakes on stuff we had installed since June contact days. Obviously, I had noticed some of these mistakes being made before, but never could get them corrected. I need to reexamine how I teach some things, but large scale I also need to reexamine how I communicate with the current generation. Nothing I did this season seemed to "light a spark" or get any response from the players, whether it was my defensive unit or OL group in particular. And, by reexamine, I also mean figuring out if I even want to coach anymore. It was a tough year...
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Post by wolverine55 on Oct 20, 2022 6:43:12 GMT -6
We've had a weird season this year. Tomorrow is our last game of the season and we are 2-6. All of our games have been competitive until a letdown 24-7 loss last Friday. Through the first seven games, we had been outscored by an average of 1.2 points per game. We've been frustratingly close to having a good season. Some off-the-field issues have contributed to it being a weird year, but about midseason, our starting RB/LB missed basically a whole week for the birth of his child.
Well, my wife and I are foster parents and we took in a newborn a couple weeks ago. Due to a lack of a babysitter on our player's part and lack of time to get mine to the babysitter, both our babies were present at last week's team dinner. So, when I say "this was a first" in my career, that's what I'm referring to, lol!
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Post by wolverine55 on Oct 18, 2022 9:42:45 GMT -6
Have not had a football player do this, but I had this thought just this morning: if I get called "bro" by one of my freshmen students one more time, I'll absolutely lose my chit...
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Post by wolverine55 on Oct 18, 2022 6:46:45 GMT -6
Good post! My answer may be the rest of this week...
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Post by wolverine55 on Sept 27, 2022 13:06:07 GMT -6
This goes back 15 or so years, but I had an opportunity to talk to a very successful small-school IL coach at a clinic. By very successful, I mean at that point in his career probably 5 state titles and even more runner up appearances. Anyway, he had an extremely talented group of freshmen in his program at that time. He told me if he didn't win "at least" two state titles in the next three years, the fans were probably going to run him out of town. Fortunately for him, he did win titles when that group was sophomores and then again when they were seniors, lol!
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Post by wolverine55 on Sept 23, 2022 8:17:28 GMT -6
1. By far, the most frustrating thing for me as a middle school and JV coach was the kids getting rides after away games...
2. If this makes you feel any better, your post started out like our VARSITY game went last Friday. Due to turnovers and our time of possession, the other team ran 14 plays the whole first half. We had a 14-0 lead to show for it.
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Post by wolverine55 on Sept 20, 2022 8:42:08 GMT -6
Several years ago, I was coaching middle school basketball and on the bus ride home from a game, two kids got into a fight in the back of the bus. Apparently, while breaking up the fight, I let the F-word slip out. I honestly didn't remember saying it, so I denied it when the MS Asst principal asked me about it. Well, evidently it was picked up by the audio on the bus camera. I was suspended one game for my language and the kids who fought on the bus ended up not being punished at all. That was sort of par for the course on how the administration ran our MS at that time...
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Post by wolverine55 on Jul 29, 2022 10:34:25 GMT -6
20 years as an assistant with five different programs and have never received a free pair of shoes. Been lucky to get a polo some of those years... I felt this in my soul. Sole if you will... I was a DC for a 4A program for 2 years and never got a polo at one place. First two years at my current job, I only had a polo because one of the other assistants lost a ton of weight so his 3X's were just insanely huge on him. So, I got one of his extras.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jul 25, 2022 9:02:53 GMT -6
20 years as an assistant with five different programs and have never received a free pair of shoes. Been lucky to get a polo some of those years...
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SLC
Jul 2, 2022 18:39:18 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by wolverine55 on Jul 2, 2022 18:39:18 GMT -6
We normally have weights and field work from 7:30-9:30 MTWTH, but this week we won't go Monday or Tuesday morning. We have a 7 on 7 scheduled for Tuesday night but I could see it being canceled as it's supposed to be 102 degrees that day.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jun 6, 2022 13:57:21 GMT -6
Just getting started with this part of life. My son will be a sophomore next season. He is a great kid that works hard and does everything that his previous coaches have asked. Lifts/runs/good student. Hates football. Only plays because our rule in our house is that you either get a job or you are in a school related sport/activity. Cross Country NOPE, Tennis NOPE, Soccer Nope so football it is. I don't coach his position and I don't talk to him about football much. I was able to be at most of his games last year and he isn't bad. He is mostly just in the "I hate anything my parents do." Phase It was hard and it hasn't gotten easier since the season ended. He plays basketball and baseball, he is on the upper teams for his grade/age. Freshmen A team for hoops and JV team in baseball. He doesn't think he will get to play much football at the JV level (if the season started today he would be our #4 LB and our #3 FB according to position coaches). Anytime I bring up football related activities he becomes defensive/argumentative. This issue has been the one that has had me think about getting out of coaching more than anything else. Coach, your son honestly sounds a lot like me in high school, only instead of football being the issue it was basketball. As someone who was basically forced by a parent to play basketball my freshman and sophomore year, if he doesn't enjoy football he shouldn't be playing it. Be proud of the fact he's already a two-sport athlete (assuming he does enjoy baseball and basketball) and help him find something else he does enjoy during football season, even if it's just devoting some offseason time to those other two sports.
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Post by wolverine55 on Apr 22, 2022 7:19:42 GMT -6
I would go as far as to say that fire-n-brimstone coaches don't really work on any level, and I can't think of one over the past 50 years that has been a major success as such; or at the very least because of such. Maybe its a matter of semantics, but to me a fire-n-brimstone coach is one who tries to be successful by using anger and fiery bluster to motivate his team to success. For certain there have been many coaches who have been successful who are viewed as gruff and aloof, but most of these men are just seen as being harsh for holding players accountable and not getting too attached to the individuals. And I don't view this as fire-n-brimstone. Who in history was a "fire and brimstone" coach? I think people, and apparently even some coaches here, have watched too many movies. I was literally getting ready to write the same thing. My high school basketball coach may fit the definition as his main motivation tactic was that you didn't want to piss him off. But, even then, he was no where near what you sometimes see in movies or hear about in stories that have, more than likely, been exaggerated over the years. Additionally, he won a state title, over 600 total games, and didn't retire until after the 2020 season.
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Post by wolverine55 on Mar 17, 2022 11:33:06 GMT -6
I wouldn't do that as a coach, let alone have to do it as a player. Do you not get summertime/summer workouts with the team?
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Post by wolverine55 on Feb 10, 2022 9:47:14 GMT -6
Our whole staff is there 4 days a week in the summer 7am-10am. We get paid an additonal $10 an hour in the summer. It's not much, but it wasn't but just a few years ago that we were doing it for free... Everywhere I've coached (5 programs) summer has been "free"...
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Post by wolverine55 on Feb 9, 2022 12:46:00 GMT -6
Do any of you HCs worry about burnout as it pertains to your staff and summer expectations? Our summer demands honestly aren't much compared to some teams I know of. We go Monday-Thursday with about an hour of weights and an hour on the field. We have 3-4 7 on 7s and one full contact team camp worked in as well. The problem is we go from 7:30-9:30. So, I spend most of the summer waking up at the same time I wake up during the school year. I've said for years that if/when I leave coaching, it'll be due to the increased summer demands as opposed to the in-season grind. I'll eventually get to the point where I want to spend my summers jogging early in the morning, reporting to the golf course after that, and quite frankly not doing anything else, lol!
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 31, 2022 14:33:51 GMT -6
I tried finding an article on Mt. Union in this regard, but nothing I found was really written from a coaching perspective or written in any detail. But, I've heard over the years that this is how they started their offseason offensive thinking: who are the players we need to get the ball, what formations put those players in favorable positions, and then what plays out of those formations do they run.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 28, 2022 9:54:25 GMT -6
A question to go along with this topic is how are your grading systems set up? For example, we have a system where 90% of our class grades are assessments, and only 10% is based on daily/practice work. So, if a student does poorly on a test they may not even really have a chance to raise the grade until the next assessment which could be 2, 3, or 4 weeks later. Granted, students may get a chance to retake the assessment they did poorly on but not always.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 19, 2022 10:28:32 GMT -6
I worked for a district that paid us for covering classes during our prep hour. The best part was, they lump-sum paid it at the end of each semester. I never said no and it made a nice Christmas bonus for me every year. I'll add to this that another nice component was I still got to prep. The absent teachers were expecting to have a sub for their classes, so generally speaking you were either pressing play on a VCR (yes that's how long ago this was) or handing out a worksheet and simply monitoring the kids. Obviously, I couldn't run and make copies or anything like that, but I basically got paid for doing what I normally would have been doing during a prep hour, just had to watch some kids at the same time.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 19, 2022 9:31:43 GMT -6
I worked for a district that paid us for covering classes during our prep hour. The best part was, they lump-sum paid it at the end of each semester. I never said no and it made a nice Christmas bonus for me every year.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 7, 2022 13:59:43 GMT -6
My second teaching and coaching job took me to southern IL for the 2005-06 school year. After I was hired, I was meeting with the English department chair to go over a few units I would be teaching. When Night by Elie Weisel was listed, I talked about how I taught it at my first job, which included showing clips of Schindler's List. The department chair said she wouldn't show anything that was rated R if she were me, even with sending permission slips home.
I said something like, "Oh, I'm glad I asked then. It wasn't an issue at all at my last job." I still remember her response word for word even after all these years. She goes, "Mr. Wolverine55, we aren't the bible belt down here, but we're pretty close. Both in location and ideology if you know what I mean."
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 6, 2022 9:14:39 GMT -6
My story isn't as good as that, but we had a chain gang member mouthing our HC during one of our games. The final straw was when the opponent ran an RPO with an OL waaaaaay downfield on the pass. Our HC yelled, "Illegal man downfield!!" and this chain gang member turned around and yelled, "What the hell are you talking about?"
I then yelled at him asking why he was yelling at our sideline. By then, the ref was asking him to be removed. He yelled something at me like, "C'mon, man, you haven't had a chain gang guy harass you before?" I said, "Once...and he got kicked out a hell of a lot faster than you just did." Lol
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 3, 2022 6:28:00 GMT -6
We actually did have a player walk off the field this past season, albeit less dramatically and not a star player. He then showed up to practice the next Tuesday (after obviously missing Monday's practice) like nothing happened. He was quickly told that he was no longer on the team.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 2, 2022 8:22:54 GMT -6
Week 3 of the 2019 season, we had a player commit a blindside block penalty and the opponent stayed down for quite some time. Our players did take a knee, but after the opponent had been on the ground a good ten minutes (he was moving his arms and legs and even sitting up, no one really knew the reason for the delay) our players got restless and started moving around and stretching. We got absolutely BLASTED on all forms of social media for not having our players stay on their knee for the duration of the injury timeout.
So, and I'll admit this isn't the best solution, we've become sarcastic with it. Every time an opponent goes down and the whistle blows, you'll hear 4-5 players and coaches immediately shout "Take a knee!" Heck, sometimes our players are just getting down and settled as the opponent is getting up to leave the field.
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 1, 2022 13:36:42 GMT -6
I have no idea what Sugars is, but I have a pretty good idea what Sugars is... Let's just hope you guys are smart enough to not wear your school polos or AFCA badges there. Also, if you drive, you probably shouldn't park the school vehicle at this type of establishment either. The story goes back to before my time, but we apparently had some coaches make this brilliant decision at a state-level clinic one year...
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Post by wolverine55 on Dec 28, 2021 7:48:29 GMT -6
Our staff will be in St. Louis.
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Post by wolverine55 on Dec 24, 2021 17:43:43 GMT -6
I have been told in Iowa, practicing is allowed through championship week. I don't know of a team that has ever done it, though.
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Post by wolverine55 on Dec 5, 2021 16:34:48 GMT -6
I turned 42 last month and have coached 19 of the 20 years I've been in education. Due to some part-time/subbing jobs (couldn't find anything else for a few years there) I won't retire until I'm 62. But, on the coaching side, it would shock me if I'm coaching for more than five more years. Our head coach has not resigned but I know he was thinking about it during the season and he told me he was going to recommend that I be the guy who replaces him. Thinking about all that would entail led me to the realization I'm closer to being done than I am being a HC.
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Post by wolverine55 on Nov 14, 2021 20:31:33 GMT -6
The team that scored 94 in this game turned around and gave up another 72 in their second round game. Unfortunately for them, they only scored 36 and their season ended last weekend.
Worst season I've had offensively was way back in 2007 and I just had to go to IHSA.org (IL website) to add it up, but it didn't take long. We scored 78, but 34 of those came in one game, our only win. We gave up 485...
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