Opening a new High School - New Program

Was part of a stint at a brand new high school. Way more bad than good. You can learn from our mistakes.

1. Make absolutely certain that your administration has your back and understands that this isn't a one year deal.

2. Schedule wins early on. You're not going to be very good. It's okay to schedule light until you've established something. You have the worst tradition there is to have, no tradition.

3. Install your base schemes and stick with them. Your first varsity team won't have years in your system. Heck, your first varsity might not even have seniors. Master the basics.

4. Make sure to get teachers of the game and stick them with your freshmen/JV. Odds are good that those are the classes that your job and tradition will rest on.

5. Highlight and talk up all your victories, big and small, on and off the field.

6. Establish a good rapport with the teachers on staff and let them know you're all about the kids. This is going to come in handy when you need help with a student or a study hall.

7. Get them in the weight room! Establish a weight lifting program and make sure to incentivize it immediately. You're not going to have great attendance at first, depending on the school. The more fun you make weights, the more incentives there are, the cooler it is to be on the team, etc. then the more kids will show up. As more and more kids devote more and more time to the weight room, you will start to get buy in.

Lastly, see number one! If you don't have buy in from the guys who hired you, you're toast.

Be patient- IT TAKES TIME. My staff and I just finished year 4 of our program, year 2 playing varsity football. We played our first varsity season in survival mode- meaning we played more sophomores and freshmen than you could ever imagine playing. This is because we didn't have a senior class until this past season. I agree with coachphillip in that you have to start your own tradition and build upon every success your program has on and off the field. Establish your weight program early, establish high expectations for the program right off the bat. We tried to get our kids ready the first two years when we weren't playing varsity by scheduling some varsity scrimmages. One thing we did different than coachphillip stated was we went in to our first varsity season with an anyone, anytime, anyplace mentality. We got killed year one; but it showed us as coaches and players the type of program we wanted to run by playing some of the most successful programs in the state. By doing this, year two everyone was talking about how much better we were than year one. It is going to take time- be patient. One coach who had done this before told me I was going to be jealous of the basketball coach by year two or three. I called him the other day and we laughed about this. He said he went through the same thing- the basketball coach wins with having two good players and some athletes (all of which are football players) where we need a lot more than that to be successful.

Be patient- IT TAKES TIME and establish high expectations for everyone involved with the program.

Can be a different set of challenges in public or private first year schools, we played a first year private school this year. Two weeks before the first game (us) all their facilities agreements fell through so they had to build a field behind the school in order to play. They even got a smallish press box up in time. Was pretty crazy to see.

As far as any first year program I have seen that have gone on to have success in the future I think two things, at least football wise stick out: don't stress winning just getting better each week and stick to your system and rep the heck out of it in practice and games. Your building a foundation. Make sure it's a strong one.

Just before I hit reply I though as a public school opening you are probably getting kids from a couple different schools coming together for the first time so team building, character ed, leadership training should be a big part right off the bat.

The hardest part for me was getting coaches..take your time..I always made sure to communicate with parents..their will be hard times...we had 2 wins year 1 and 4 wins year 2..it wasn't enough for the ad..the next guy comes in and wins 7

Coach, no disrespect but in many states new schools don't have a choice in this matter b/c they have to abide by a conference guideline to get admission. In other words, I'm a new school and I want to join your conference, I have to join when you accept me (unfortunately been in a tough situation similar to this). 

One thing I would suggest is "brand your self". In other words, find themes that you can build on, develop gear, sayings, traditions, etc and sell kids on it. The truth of the matter is, it's difficult to win in this situation but you can build pride in your kids by selling them on being pioneers. Hence, why you develop your own traditions, gear , sayings etc. Tell them they are building the foundation of a program and becoming immortals by not just passing through a program but creating it. 

I would also suggest you treat any of your successes with historical significance b/c quite frankly it is significant. First win, first conference win, first home win, everybody signs the ball and store it in the trophy case. Even the first varsity game regardless of the outcome still has historical significance. How many people can say they played in the 1st game in the HISTORY of a school. Sell it! It's an awesome opportunity that only happens to a few in their lifetimes. 

Good Luck.

PS - MAKE it THEIR school. Have them develop inspirational sayings that you can post in the locker room, weight room, etc. Have them do things that not only will they remember for their lifetimes, but also something they can come back and see and say I STARTED that. That's pretty cool.

A bit of a compromise is to play an independent varsity schedule in year 3 and schedule a bunch of lousy, lousy programs from around the area.  Go 4-6 with all juniors and compete in all your games?  Sounds like a win to me!

Our schedule is set, we will play a varsity schedule.

Thank you for the ideas. s73, some great points, thanks.

That's a good question, because I've seen new schools go 7-3 and 8-2 before playing varsity right out of the gate, because they had experienced juniors and senior immediately.