Kids Quitting

Yes we are. But we have 3 kids in the soph class right now that will all get Div 1 football scholarships. No doubt at all.

We have also had several Div 1 bball players from our school and one NBA player from our school. (Before I got here a year ago).

One of those sophmores is the basketball player that I was talking about. Just depends on how tall he gets. He is 6'4" right now.

By the way, he would have been the best player (transferred to us this year) at a 6A school in town that has won 2 of the last 5 6A state championships in basketball.

I guess the reason I said he had a "chance" to be a div 1 basketball player instead of "is" a div 1 basketball player is because I have never coached a div 1 BASKETBALL scholarship player. And can't really say with absolute confidence that he would be one at a big div 1 school. I have coached against div 1 bball players and a NBA draft pick out of high school (our player is not on that level right now).

Have coached 5 div 1 football players, against 5 current NFL players, against 3 of this year's starting LB's on Bama's national championship team, and this year's Div 2 player of the year. So I know what those types of football players look like. He is every bit one of these.

Football still does mirror society. It's just that society now looks a lot more like the quitters than it does the blue-collar ethic that many here romanticize about. The show-up-when-I-feel-like-it culture is now living at your doorstep. The general infatuation with instant gratification, entitlement, and entertainment media has now changed the traditional role of youth sports participation. There's really no point in disputing that.

But what to do?

Have a vision of what you (you are the leader right?) want to create. That vision needs to become consistent with that of your players, as well as your entire staff and even your potential future players.

But not only do you have to create that picture of what you are trying to accomplish...you have to SELL it.

I think that's what's getting passed over as I read the thread. Because selling is a real PITA and not much fun to discuss.

I'm sorry, but some of the suggestions I saw here are nothing short of pure give-up.

Of course you can only coach the ones who show up, but maybe the package you are offering really DOES pale in comparison to the available options. Maybe that is the problem.

So just sit back and say "Oh well, the world's changed?" No, I think we can all do a lot better than that. We can always work more effectively to increase (and sell) the benefit of participating on our team.

Seems to me the real job, the focus of youth football, is helping to prepare young men to face adulthood. Maybe "play" is something to be used to our advantage as we move forward on that goal.

coachd5085




I have no idea what made me think of this thread today. I guess Coronavirus craziness.

I am actually surprised that I could find this old thread.

Anyways, the school now has 18 state basketball championships. All three of the guys I said would go d1, went d1.

The photo of the guy above is the kid I beat in bball. He started at DE at Penn State.

I just know the "small school" comment rubbed me the wrong way 8 years ago and for some reason, it popped in my head this morning.

Ha

Seems like football has always been more like work than the other games; the fun, if you're any good, is on Friday night or Saturday afternoon.

What's changed is the year-round aspect of travel basketball, travel baseball, travel lacrosse, where guys are making money by telling Johnny how great he is, Johnny's parents are chasing a scholarship, and the kids learn it doesn't matter if the team wins or loses as long as they show their stuff and "get theirs."

Hard to see that changing anytime soon. All you can do is coach 'em to be the best they can be, teach them about accountability, responsibility, and being part of something bigger than themselves, and let 'em know you care about them, and hope there are still a few kids and parents who find value in that.

All the BETTER players we had over many years (who had good College & NFL careers) were "Multi-Sport" athletes.  We had each one come back & talk to our young players about the value of playing more than one sport.  The players LOOKED UP to guys like James Farrior, Darren Perry, etc.), & what they had to say made an impact:

Some points to stress:


BEYOND THE GAME: WHY YOUNG PEOPLE STILL NEED FOOTBALL

There is now and will be for the foreseeable future a place in American culture for football because football directly translates to many facets of life. Football prepares young people for many of the trials they will experience in adulthood unlike very few other activities they will experience, and it provides social lessons that cannot be replicated in the same way off the field. Most importantly, football leaves a lasting impact on those that participate. Often when talking to former football players they don’t immediately share stories of wins and losses. Instead, those stories are superseded by nostalgic memories of team dinners when they couldn’t wait to be seniors so they could be in the front of the line to get one of the mom’s famous mostaccioli, or that time when a coach gave them a ride home after practice and they talked about the shared experience of losing a loved one or the time that the practice drill they always hated made the difference in the game against their biggest rival. Although football provides many lessons that aren’t shared in this article, the following are a few observations taken from the last 25 years playing and coaching this great game.

FOOTBALL TRANSLATES TO CAREERS IN BUSINESS

The game of football is often referred to by coaches as “the greatest team game ever created.” Unlike so many other sports where a dominant individual performance can decide the outcome, football is based almost entirely on working together. The best teams are often those that can unify for a common cause. Because of this mentality, football is a microcosm for 21st-century American business culture. Football creates a naturally collaborative environment that is not only compartmentalized in terms of individual skill and technique but also group oriented in terms of outcome. This is essentially what human resource departments look for when hiring candidates in each department of a company. They simply ask, “Can the people we hire do their jobs while helping the company reach its larger goals?” This question is essentially the same as a coach diagramming plays for his/her offense. One of the greatest representations of this is when an offensive lineman, who has been battling play after play against his defensive competitor, runs to the end zone to lift his running back over his head as they both celebrate their shared success.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Game Of Football Matters

Building a team around the idea that everyone’s individual success is secondary to the team’s success is similar to a company that has a great salesperson. The only way that salesperson is truly successful is if the packing, shipping, receiving, and other departments of the company can keep up with his/her sales. If the company can’t keep up with the inventory and sales numbers, customers become frustrated and the entire group suffers, but when the logistical team is at the top of their game, the whole group succeeds.

This commitment to the greater good is what makes football great. A perfect example of this is when a defensive lineman pressures the quarterback resulting in an interception; each of those defenders’ efforts contributes to a favorable outcome for the team. Regardless of one’s position, the key ingredient for collective achievement is that each member does the job he/she is asked to do with maximum effort. In this way, football teaches that individual glory is secondary to team success.

FOOTBALL PROMOTES DIVERSITY

Football provides a foundation for working in diverse communities. The football huddle is like an incubator for diversity training. Within a huddle, all eleven people are competing together to reach a common goal regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic level, or any other demographic identifier. There is not a specific color or creed that represents speed, tenacity, or courage. This is exceptionally important because individual differences are celebrated in football in order to create teams that unite those singular talents into competitive units. Young people that play football learn quickly that the whole of any successful team is directly related to the sum of its parts, and the best teams are not dominated by one particular shining star player but a conglomerate of all shapes and sizes working as one.


RELATED ARTICLE: Power Of Influence: Tony DeMatteo And His Decades Of Perspective

The previous year’s NFL playoffs provided another example of the inclusive nature of football and how it equates with team success. As anyone that follows football knows, the quarterback position is often referred to as the most important position on any team, but during the 2017-18 NFL season the four quarterbacks who started in the conference championship games averaged 34th in their against the cap salary hit to their teams (Tom Brady being the highest at 19 and Nick Foles being lowest at 47). Additionally, of the top ten quarterback salaries against their team’s salary cap, there were only three out of the ten that even made the playoffs. These statistics represent an unmistakable truth that coaches teach their players about football and life: an individual’s value to his/her team/organization is measured by the total output of the group, and its many diverse individuals/components, rather than by the individual’s output alone. The acceptance of those individual differences promotes an environment where all people have value instead of a few stalwarts that carry the rest.

FOOTBALL IS A MERITOCRACY

The game of football obviously teaches many life lessons, but possibly none are more important than the realization that not everyone is a first stringer or a starter. Opportunities are earned in football just as they are in life, and like life sometimes it may not seem fair, but young people learn quickly in football that virtually nothing is given. Football players and coaches live by a pretty strict code that the best players play. Life mirrors that philosophy. This is a harsh reality for many, and it leads to the attrition of some, but this is a lesson worth learning. In life, there are not going to be participation trophies, and everyone will not receive a ribbon just for showing up. Football teaches young people that they need to possess the grit to reach the goals that they’ve set for themselves, and each time they reach the goals they’ve set, they need to create new ones because there will likely be others nipping at their heels trying to take the positions to which they’ve ascended. This reality makes football a great metaphor for life because it teaches young people to never give up and to seize their opportunity when their time comes.


FOOTBALL BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS

Those that have participated in the game of football are a part of an exceptionally large fraternity. In football, coaches and players “invest” in each other. Players are often measured by how much they’ve “bought in.” Almost any former football player will say their coaches and teammates were their family. As many a football coach knows, a player’s football “family” teaches that young person how to count on others while holding himself/herself accountable. These “family” connections allow coaches to push players past limits they never thought they could reach. The bonds that are built through shared adversity and common experience hold stronger than many that are created outside the realm of football. For many, the relationships developed in football provide the bedrock for the types of relationships players will have throughout their lives.

RELATED ARTICLE: Bob Burt: Service As Influence, Part 1

I’d like to thank the AFCA for granting me the opportunity to share these insights about the greatest team game there is. Also, thank you to Craig Knoche of Wabash College as well as our staff at Niles West for building relationships with our young people and providing them with positive mentorship.


Coach Pierce is the former head football coach at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois. He has coached at the high school level and college levels since 2000, including stops in Illinois, Indiana, and Texas.

For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out AFCAInsider.com and subscribe to our weekly email.

If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Request Form.

Coach, 8 years ago, bring them on. Right now at 2 months shy of 50, not so much. Ha

Definitely talking about open gym environment where the kids are on their own instead of under the leadership of a professional coach.

But, give me the same coaches I was playing with and I will take my chances.

I have been very fortunate to have really athletically talented coaches who coached with me. Like a guy who played DE in the NFL, guy who was named Mr. Baseball for Alabama and was point guard on a 6A state championship bball team, 6'8 300 pound dude, our head bball coach 6'3", and me, the ultimate overachiever who could actually play a little with a little athleticism.

I don't want to oversell myself as some kind of for-real athlete, but I was good enough to play summer league bball on a team with a former d3 player, a former d3 all-american, a former Auburn player, and a former all-sec player from Vandy. There were only 6 of us, so I'm not terrible. We beat the local d1 college team who was playing in the same summer league by 10 for the championship.



Link to game with those guys winning state championship: www.oanow.com/gallery/sports/boy-s-basketball-glenwood-vs-tuscaloosa-academy/collection_b0e6e8b2-9903-11e3-ae55-0017a43b2370.html#1

The team we beat had three guys 6'8" and over. A 6'5" guard who was player of the year the year before. And a 6'5" guy off the bench who scored 13 against Florida, 11 against LSU, 17 against Miss State, and 8 against Michigan State his freshman year at college.

Our grown men beat that State Champ team all summer. Ha
coachd5085

This thread is super phucking old

This is something that I have been rolling around in my head for a while now your post just made me really think it through. 

1) Football is hard, really really hard for a whole bunch of reasons 
-physically this game is tough to play it hurts and it is not comfortable 
-if you play at the top end population wise you have to workout or your kids get hurt I am not even talking about winning or losing here I am talking about safety 
-it is complex compared to most other games out there: terminology, set plays, reading and reacting. Don't get me wrong when it is done right it is poetry in motion but it takes a lot of time, practice and energy to make it poetry 

Now all of the above VS: 
-year round basketball, baseball, etc 
-many of these other sports: don't hurt, don't require the physical sacrifice and preparation that football does
-football is 80/20 practice/game these other sports are probably 30/70 practice/game: this hurts us when on a roster of 40 you have kids just playing special teams. That same kid can play "D" league soccer, hockey, basketball and get equal playing time. Plus play 2 games a week and not watch film or have meetings  

-in basketball a kid can work his craft hitting free throws, lay ups and shooting 3's and equal amount of time as the kid who's hitting squats and bench press. The basketball makes the connection regarding his gym time to his sport the football kid can be told all the time but at 7:00am it is tough to convince a kid that the set of squats he is going to do in January is going to make a hill of beans difference come October the following year. 

-there are so many more opportunities for kids these days. The reality is if you are running your football program with a 3 hour practice, plus weights, and film. You are catering that program to the kid who might play football after HS. If you got honest unbiased answers from the boys they would say "I just want to play and have fun". 

I don't know the answer to be honest. I just know it is a harder sell to a kid to practice for 2.5-3hrs and get limited game time when he could be practicing for 1.25-1.5hrs and play 2 games a week. 

Or back in 2012    

I have come to realize I cannot waste kid’s time. 3 hour and 1/2 my roster doesnt fully participate for 1/2 the practice so we can prep for a game is a waste of time for those kids. And its to much for the others. And we have coaches in the same boat. They just stand around and listening to 2 people give instruction for 2.5 hrs. And to be clear, they are not allowed to participate. At some point the old school approach is old when I consider there to be better ways to get kids and coaches involved. I do not pretend to have all the answers not even a little bit. One of the ideas is to get practice down to 90 minutes. That is spring ball and season. Get them in and out. That requires somethings to be reallocated your offseason. The other idea is to get kids on the field. A, b,c,d teams if necessary. But I have to get kids on the field playing meaningful snaps.

It has been mentioned previously...but look at what kids have to go through to play 10 games.
1. Weights/Conditioning
2. Spring Practice
3. Summer weights/Conditioning
4. Summer 7v7
5. Summer Padded Camps (in GA)
6. Preseason Practice...Scrimmage
7. 10 games

One change I did notice is that kids are not patient enough/hard working to see the long game. We always had sophs that if they weren't starting varsity by soph year would quit because they wanted it RIGHT NOW. They didn't understand waiting/working for it.

I have found the same in my new job. We have 23 year olds, 3 months out of the academy that think they should be Sargents and Lieutenants. It's usually a 3-10 year wait for those. They're not even fully certified Officers and they think they should run the place, while not even really knowing how to do their job.

And you can't really blame em. Thoer parents, schools, coaches, etc have pretty much let them run everything their whole lives.