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Post by coachsky on Aug 5, 2008 12:57:31 GMT -6
We share a District Stadium with 2 other high schools and practice at a field at our school. To be honest it's not a great situation;
- The Stadium is too big for High School games
- Fans sit on the same sideline
- The stadium has a track (100ft between the field and stadium) and a gentle rake. Fans feel like they are very far away from the field.
- It's eight miles from our school in some pretty tough traffic.
- Most importantly, we never practice there. Just play games. It never feels like home. We are there 4 to 5 times a year.
I have proposed to our HC that we take 2 days (4 practices) the week before our opener and have a Mini-Camp at the Stadium. It will be good to get used to the new turf and I believe that if we practice there, it will give us a mental edge and start to feel like a Home Field.
One of the biggest issues for us is transportation. The school will not transport kids for practices.
Is there anyone else who is in a similar situation? Do you find it helpful to practice in your stadium?
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Post by touchdowng on Aug 5, 2008 15:51:40 GMT -6
We don't get to practice at our home stadium either. It's across the district and we decided a long time ago not to make an issue about this. We could have but said, no.
We decided to always use the VISITOR's side of the stadium for our HOME lockerroom - This way we are always on OUR home side not matter if we are HOME or AWAY. Same as our warm up. On the traditional visitor's side. Now we are always HOME.
We do some things logistically at our two practice fields (we get kicked off our main field for soccer matches sometimes) that create sameness for our players in terms of how we take the field and how we set up our practices, etc.
We tell the kids that we do this to create as much gamenight sameness as there would be if we did have our own stadium.
We've made our bus ride to our home games sort of a ritual and now our players are glad that we have to get on a bus for EVERY game - One senior said that he doesn't start getting psyched until he steps foot on that bus. That became his trigger.
OUR situations are not great but you can use a lot of tricks to motivating your kids that your way is still the best way.
I read an article years ago about when the Tennessee Titans had no practice headquarters when they first moved to Tennessee from Houston (I think). They had to take a 30 minute bus ride everyday to just practice - Imagine that!
What he (Jeff Fisher H.C.) found out was that guys were getting tighter as a group because they were forced to talk to each other during those 30 minutes.
I feel your pain - but put your own spin on it and make your kids believers. If your practice facility lacks field markings - buy paint and paint them on. Find a way. We do it.
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Post by outlawjoseywales on Aug 5, 2008 20:38:55 GMT -6
Coach,
We changed our field this past year from our on campus field to a field that is 10 minutes away. We had a lot of issues with our field that I don't want to get into.
Anyway, I knew that this was going to be an issue. I decided to have a Family Day at the game field before the season started.
We cooked for everybody, had punt pass and kick games for the Moms and Dads, we ran our offense and defenses for the parents.
We also let all the families come on the field and get in the huddle. It was great fun for several hundred families that day.
It created a real good feeling for everyone and went a long way to making this our new home away from home.
We won't be coming back to our on campus field as we have converted it to a practice facility. Just like you said we bus our kids there and it has become part of what we do.
So this can be done guys.
Good luck, OJW
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Post by k on Aug 5, 2008 21:24:23 GMT -6
Both the field of the team I coach at and the field of the team I played for in high school are off campus sites, neither facility saw ANY practice time but both are also less than five minutes away from campus by car.
There is a significant difference between the two however.
When I played it was OUR field. No other team played there and we felt it was ours. I think it also provided an excitement that wouldn't exist if we played at our practice facility. I didn't ever get butterflies at any scrimmage at our practice facility but had them EVERY time I stepped onto our game field.
The kids at the school where I coach like playing at the field we do because it is a pretty major facility compared to the other options but we share it with multiple other schools. *shrugs*
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