Helmet Decal System

Coach...lots of discussions on this. Search for "helmet award coachhuey.com" or "helmet stickers coachhuey.com" on google.
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As I have mentioned before (might be in those threads) I think it is a bad idea. Remember, NOTHING happens to a football player in a vacuum.

Billy scores a touchdown on a run. The run was sprung by Jimmy, Johnny, and Reggie blocking. Jimmy, Johnny, andReggie all were able to block effectively because of the efforts of Chad, Chase, and Frank during practice, but Chad, Chase, and Frank don't see the field on Game nights....Who gets the "sticker"

I am probably the most anti-sticker guy in the world. If you give them to individuals, then you WILL see division on the team. Period, end of story. If you give them for group efforts, then you have to worry about who subbed in, etc. If you give them for team/unit efforts, again you have to worry about your protocol (who was on the field, what if someone was in the game for half of the drive, what if they were just on the field for the play..etc. ) If you give for other reasons, you are just decorating the helmet...

I would say that the only good reasons to give stickers would be ACADEMIC. Get an A get a sticker. That sounds good to me.

The sticker awards don't have to be for individual achievement. My helmet award program was for the TEAM. They would only get helmet stickers IF: We won; IF the offense gained over 400 total yards; scored over 28 points; scored in every quarter; scored on every red zone possession; and had no turnovers; AND, IF the defense posted a shutout; gave up less than 200 total yards; made stops in the red zone; kept the opponent from crossing the 50 yd. line; and had four takeaways; AND, IF special teams blocked a punt; recovered an onside kick; caused a turnover; scored a touchdown; kicked the winning PAT/FG; and committed no turnovers.

You can set up the criteria however you want, so long as it each one is geared toward TEAM accomplishments on the field.

Personally I don't do decal ("helmet stickers") awards.

Tell our kids their greatest reward is to be found in team victory, whatever their role is.

Not a Zero-Sum game where only the stars-starters contribute or profit.

Coach isn't that EXACTLY promoting being an individual and not part of the team?

The work ethic/attendance issues happen in vacuum. That is completely different than on field accomplishments.

I do stickers, but not for individual achievements.
Win= Everyone on the team gets a sticker
INT, FR= Everyone on the field on defense at that time gets a sticker
TD= Everyone on the field on offense at that time gets a sticker
300yds offense= Everyone who played offense in that game gets a sticker
Etc

I've never given out an individual sticker unless it was for a selfless act that went above and beyond what we were asking a kid to do.

We give out stickers for two things only:

Practice Players of the Day: Every coach gives one at the end of every practice, with the emphasis on effort, execution, and/or hustle. By doing this, we are constantly reinforcing what we all want, and hopefully it will have an effect on the game at the end of the week.

Grades: We give out a sticker every week to the kids that have all passing grades. If a kid has straight A's, they get two stickers. We make a big deal out of it, takes us about 5 minutes, at the end of Thursdays' practice.

Sidenote: I've done the sticker for players of the game, special teams, wins....just about everything. I just found the time it took to figure out the "sticker score" was not helping us win games.

Outstanding! Consider this stolen...to be slightly adjusted...and claimed to have been my original idea



That's how I felt about it as well. So I delegated it with a system in place to have them distributed.

From the first week we did it, my assistant's interpretation of the system we had established on paper was completely inflated which meant more players were getting the decals than intended and more decals per player were being awarded than originally intended.

Rather than have one week that was all messed up, I let it go for consistency purposes. Helmets were filling up left and right. The original purpose of them was to identify extraordinary acts of pride on Friday.

I mean the plays that made you go...."wow, how did he do that?"...within our scheme, of course, not just willy nilly stuff. Or the plays that made you say..."wow, what an amazing play?" Again, within our scheme.

Bottom line...this whole thing evolved into something that I never anticipated it would. Not only was it not what I originally wanted it to be, due to it's misinterpretation, it wasn't helping us win games. So the question in my mind all year was...why in the hell are we doing it then.

But, of course, every Sunday when we'd bring the players in to watch film, my assistant was jotting notes down about award decals. The kids debated it always. What a nightmare? Never again with that system on paper.

Our Program Priorities are:

1) Character
2) Family
3) Academics
4) Football

So I'm thinking to reinforce those priorities we will award decals based on them. Every week, a player must have the following in order to be awarded a decal...

1) NO Discipline Referrals for the week (CHARACTER)
2) Perfect Practice Attendance for the week (FAMILY...football family anyway...kind of difficult to assess the home environment)
3) Cannot be on Academic Support which at our school is any grade below a 65%...if they are, according to school not program policy, they have to stay after school for an hour and work with teachers to get their grades up / all A's equals 2 decals (ACADEMICS)

So a player with no discipline referrals, perfect practice attendance, and all grades 65% or higher would earn one team decal.

A player with no discipline referrals, perfect practice attendance, and all A's for the week would earn two team decals. One extra for having all A's.

Everyone would have the opportunity to earn decals after each practice when every coach would award one based on our Pillars of Success...commitment, discipline, effort, toughness, and pride.

Lastly, I still like the idea of extraordinary acts of pride on the field on Friday night. They don't happen in boat loads. I would say on average about three to a half dozen per game. Just WOW moments because of somebody not settling for anything less than their absolute best. Might be a mistake but I want to give it a shot.

These would be subjective and I would be the judge. I know this opens the can of worms of "Coach is only picking his favorites" or whatever but I don't care. There are certain plays that are in a group all their own. I want to recognize the effort of those kids. They deserve it.

I'm right with you about feeling leery as it pertains to rewarding kids for doing what they are supposed to do. What they are supposed to do is a "minimum" or just "mediocre." That's what it feels like...right? I feel the same way.

But I've coached enough kids from horrible home environments to know that they may not have an incentive to do "what they are supposed to do" all of the time like they should. They may only get that at practice.

And I know you understand with all the years that you've been doing this...in loco parentis, for a football coach, takes on a whole new meaning when the player has a $hitty home life.

I believe there should be more kids that respond intrinsically to doing what they're supposed to do. Or better yet, going above and beyond. Some kids do...but some don't. Hey they're kids which explains both situations.

Some need validation for what they've accomplished to reinforce the behavior. And unfortunately or fortunately, however you interpret it, kids respond to award decals as a motivator...they just do.

P.S. I can't stand buckeye leaves.

We have been giving stickers for years. We have both team objectives and individual objectives.

For offense stickers for

rushing over 250
pass over 100
score td every time in red zone
no turnovers
70 percent on 3rd down conversions

individuals
grading out over 80 percent
receivers 1 for every two balls caught without a drop
knockdown blocks
backs averaging over 4yds per carry
qb 1 for every 3 completions without an int
drop your jock award
player of the game

defense has awards for similar situations

team objectives
shutout
3 and outs
turnovers that set up tds
score on defense


individuals
sacks
ints
big hits
create a to

Special Teams
everything is for team goals, punt, ko,koret, ext pt.

We do them in a somewhat unique way that focuses on TEAM on the field and CHARACTER off the field.

First let me say we have the Michigan winged helmets; Kansas blue, white stripes, black cage. That is important to know in just sec.

The white stars are for team goals, the black stars are for character.

OK, we have ten TEAM goals, the first of which is WIN. If we win, everyone who dressed for the game gets all the stickers we earn. No win=no stickers. The other nine available if we win are rush for 350, score 35, no turnovers, allow less than 10 pts, force 3 turnovers, allow less than 100 rushing, no breakdowns in kicking game, block a kick or score, and give up no returns over twenty yds.

In an average win we'd all get 5-6 white stars. But we have had big wins where we only got the win star, LOL. That is called "winning ugly."

On Thursday I email the faculty and ask for recommendations for character stars. They give me stories of good tests, improved behavior, doing something honorable, etc. We give out those black character stars before the team meal on Friday.

The white stars go on the sides of the helmet; the black stars go up the white stripes on he back of the headgear.

If you are interested PM me and I will email you a season chart we hang up with the goals & results to keep track of it.