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Post by coachd5085 on Dec 8, 2018 8:36:24 GMT -6
Counselors today are not the counselors of old. They are too busy with testing and other things, not guidance. Life skills are not a priority to high schools - data and ACT scores are. So I agree it is our job to guide and counsel these kids. We spend more time with them than their families do. I track eligibility all year long, not just during season and not just for my own purpose. Half my kids don't have two parents at home so i tell my staff that we are their family away from home. I bring in guest speakers who will talk about careers and military oppprtunities. We have an ACT. Our job descriptions never end. We are in the business of football and most importantly, relationships. I would disagree with the statement that it is "our job to guide and counsel these kids." It isn't a coach's job per se. I think it would be better stated that we are in an excellent (if not the best) position to give guidance and counsel to these kids, and such counsel and guidance is desperately needed so why not provide it in specific areas.
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Post by coachd5085 on Dec 8, 2018 8:40:45 GMT -6
I'm not missing the point. I don't think you and I coach in the same world. It's cool. You do you and I'll do me. I don’t understand how you took offense to what I posted. How is it that we don’t coach in the same world? Coach, it may have been in reference to the post where you stated you had never worked in a school that didn't already teach the kids those things.
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Post by coachphillip on Dec 8, 2018 8:43:28 GMT -6
I coached at a lower middle class public school and we talked to our kids about stuff like this every other Thursday in the offseason. I felt like we had an opportunity to do it because the kids chose to be at practice, and an obligation to do it because our school has nothing like this in regards to curriculum. There are no “life skills” or “develop for success” classes.
A lot of our kids come from single parent homes, low income housing, or have immigrant parents. Their parents don’t know how to apply for financial aid for college. Their parents don’t know how to write a resume. Their parents are just hard working people doing their best who don’t have time to do these things with their child because they’re probably working two jobs just to pay the bills. We step in for thirty minutes twice a month and help lessen the load.
The use of alumnus is a cool idea because it allows them the ability to network and see that there are people who played at your school who went pro at something besides football.
Have you thought about having the kids fill out an application and turn in a resume for your football team at the end of the offseason? I knew one coach who used to have kids interview for their positions as well. Just to get a good practice run in for the real world.
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Post by 60zgo on Dec 8, 2018 9:01:10 GMT -6
I'm not missing the point. I don't think you and I coach in the same world. It's cool. You do you and I'll do me. I don’t understand how you took offense to what I posted. How is it that we don’t coach in the same world? Not offended. I have coached in a variety of schools. Big, small, small town, inner city, catholic, public, charter... In my current job there is no "just football". It's all in or all out. It's about changing the trajectory of someones life. Football is so secondary to what we are doing at this point, and its obviously not like that everywhere. There is a spectrum of influence or commitment beyond football based on the community and its needs. But no matter what community you are in why would you coach hs sports or teach if you didn't want to empower and influence kids?
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Post by CS on Dec 8, 2018 9:18:01 GMT -6
I don’t understand how you took offense to what I posted. How is it that we don’t coach in the same world? Not offended. I have coached in a variety of schools. Big, small, small town, inner city, catholic, public, charter... In my current job there is no "just football". It's all in or all out. It's about changing the trajectory of someones life. Football is so secondary to what we are doing at this point, and its obviously not like that everywhere. There is a spectrum of influence or commitment beyond football based on the community and its needs. But no matter what community you are in why would you coach hs sports or teach if you didn't want to empower and influence kids? Who said that we don’t? Or that I don’t?
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Post by Thad Wells on Dec 8, 2018 12:01:02 GMT -6
I strongly disagree with any coach who thinks their influence stops with coaching football. We are in one of the most influential positions in our current time. Players come to us because they want to. They respect us and they value what we say. If a coach just wants to coach football then that’s obviously their decision, but you would be waisting an unbelievable opportunity to help thousands of people considering the generational impact. I believe we are in the life coaching business. We’re just fortunate to get to do it following a passion we love. When you are on your death bed what would you regret more? Spending every second of time you have with your players on football, or taking a portion of that time and talking about life. We have 90 minutes with our players everyday in school. We spend half of that time in the weight room and half of that time in the classroom. We discuss nearly every life topic you can think of. Before being at my current school we had no time with the players during the school day so we did this on Mondays after school, in place of practice. There are several programs you can use but I prefer to have real conversations with the team, centered around current issues. I also discuss the books that I am reading. On Fridays, before the game, we put our players through Financial Peace University. You could be the difference in someone having a fulfilled life if you choose to be. Question coach...do you teach at a private school? I have in the past, but I’m at a public school now.
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Post by fballcoachg on Dec 8, 2018 14:52:47 GMT -6
There are several threads around that touch on this, so I wanted to have a dedicated post to discuss these issues/topics. What are the ways in which your program is working with your players to provide them those necessary tools that they need beyond their playing days? This might be in the realm for some of "that isn't in my job description" and I understand. I recently returned to a school and the HC has assigned me the task of creating a curriculum of sorts for the kids in our football/PE class next semester. This is going to include somethings like: -interviewing skills -dressing for success -resume writing -social media presence -manners/etiquette I trying to bring outside speakers to handle these types of topics. What are you doing along these lines and what suggestions do you have? These sessions will be done during class and happen about once a month or so. Someone said something about Ohio State’s real world Wednesday’s. I’d do that or “Money Monday’s” where we talked about these topics. Some you could easily handle...hand shakes, eye contact, social media. Some I’d reach out to guidance or the English department on like college essay or resume writing. Some I’d reach out to local businesses like interview skills. Bring in a college representative or former players to discuss college success skills. Have a financial person come in and talk about credit cards, budgets, etc. There are a ton of opportunities to use resources both inside and outside the school that I’d think they’d be extremely open to helping with. Another idea on interview skills...maybe one time have an outside person come in or use guidance/English department and talk about it then another time have admin come in and put them through a short mock interview. Put the skills to use...would be great if you could line up some local businesses for the mock interviews.
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Post by 60zgo on Dec 8, 2018 17:34:35 GMT -6
Not offended. I have coached in a variety of schools. Big, small, small town, inner city, catholic, public, charter... In my current job there is no "just football". It's all in or all out. It's about changing the trajectory of someones life. Football is so secondary to what we are doing at this point, and its obviously not like that everywhere. There is a spectrum of influence or commitment beyond football based on the community and its needs. But no matter what community you are in why would you coach hs sports or teach if you didn't want to empower and influence kids? Who said that we don’t? Or that I don’t? Nobody. But it's obvious by this thread and lots, and lots of threads on this board over the years that there are a ton of guys who would rather "just coach"... And you can "just be a good coach" at plenty of schools and that's enough. In some places it's not. You have to give a little or a lot more and football is pretty secondary. I think the "just teach" and "just coach" crowd should kick rocks.
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Post by fantom on Dec 8, 2018 17:56:14 GMT -6
The OP asked for suggestions on how to implement a program. Rather than arguing about it how about some ideas? If you don't want to use such a program, don't.
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Post by jlenwood on Dec 9, 2018 8:29:47 GMT -6
The OP asked for suggestions on how to implement a program. Rather than arguing about it how about some ideas? If you don't want to use such a program, don't. Guilty as charged. Here is a suggestion for implementing a program. Study up on the Ohio State real world program (or whatever they cal it). I looked at it several years ago and it is fantastic what they do. Call their director of football operations and ask about it, especially if you are in Ohio. Urban Meyer said years ago at a clinic I saw him at if you were a coach from Ohio and you called, the answer is yes no matter what. Instead of running an off season (during the winter) weight room of 4 days a week, allocate 1 day for something like this or make it an option. Won't happen overnight, but the more kids that go thru it and GAIN something from it, the more PARENTS will get on board and it will grow from there. Most cities have something called SCORE in their town, it is retired executives who mentor business start ups. What better resource for this kind of action could there be than people who are successful in creating and hiring job seekers. So now you don't have to have a football coach talking about business, and as a bonus you have created something that all sports/athletes in your system could use. Sounds like pretty good PR to me.
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