Award sticker

If you hate them , I am assuming you will hate the reasons most will be giving out on their lists too

Give them out for academic reasons or other actions that happen in a vacuum (attendance, hustle grade, etc).

WIN = EVERYONE who played gets a sticker
Win the TO Battle = EVERYONE who played gets a sticker

100 yard rusher... everyone who played offense gets a sticker
100 yard receiver... everyone who played offense gets a sticker
hold opponent to less rushing yards than you had... everyone who played defense gets a sticker
hold opponent to less passing yards than you had... everyone who played defense gets a sticker
special teams touchdown = everyone on that unit gets a sticker


Games you win, you'll give everyone like 4 stickers... games you lose, you probably give 0 because the list above is not going to go in your favor when you lose.

If this is the path chosen, aren’t the stickers nothing more than just standard helmet decorations?

We are a small team about 28 right now so all the coaches are around all the kids all the time.  Like the idea of position coaches handing them out though.  I hate these things cause someone has to track all the BS and stats etc that go with them.  Gonna try and keep it as simple as possible with very easy goals.

OP is saying the AD demanded they use them... just make it easy and if they do what you wanted them to do anyway, they get a sticker

Huge sticker fan. Kids will murder someone for helmet stickers. It’s fun for the kids and that’s what it’s about. Try and find a way to give out stickers to everyone on the team though

If we won everyone got a sticker for it. We would give out stickers for standing out at practice also. Hand that sh!t out for everything

I'm with the OP, dislike stickers. Most teams I've been with that use them, you have kids just give them away without caring or find them on the ground.

That being written, just give them out for stats based and things you already track (ie every 3 tackles gets a guy a sticker, every 25 yards rushing for the team gets the whole OL a sticker, snap-hold-kick on a pat, etc).

I'd say make it as easy as possible for yourself with easily notable things.

TD
INT
Forced Fumble
Fumble Recovery
Sack
GPA (can give them out at every grade check)
Game Win

Others to consider...
Most Improved (if a kid works hard at practice)
Effort plays (watch game film, kid tracks down the ball carrier and saves a TD, OL runs down to lead block for the ball carrier way downfield, etc)

Our LB Coach a while ago had one that was a Skull and Cross Bones, he would give them out anytime anyone made a big hit.

OL Coach can do them for pancakes
DL Coach for pressures/sacks
DB Coach for pass breakups
WR Coach no dropped passes
etc

BITD when helmet stickers became popular they were to reward-motivate kids for big plays.

Also for "Players of the Week" (Offense, Defense, Kicking, Scout for example). And everybody got one for a victory.

Of course nothing in football happens in a vacuum. If you give BC a sticker for a TD or long run, what about OL whose blocking allowed him to do so?

Our kids love getting stickers. We do them both for JV and Varsity.

We have 2 different kinds. One style is for me getting positive emails about behavior or helping out a teacher around campus. Also for getting an A on a test or quiz during the week.

Our on field stickers are pretty standard as posted above. When we score a TD the person that scored gets one as well as the oline. The first olineman to get to the endzone to celebrate with the kid that scored gets an extra one too! (This encourages the kids to hustle down the field and not be spectators)

I agree, it's just a sticker, but they love getting them so I keep ordering them every year.

Some of the categories that have been suggested for awards require some work. That's fine for those who like awards but the OP doesn't. That's why I suggested simple, team-oriented awards. Some that I can think of include:

1. Win
2. Win the turnover battle.
3. Have fewer penalty yards than the opponent.
4. Have a better average starting field position (Takes about five minutes to figure out).
5. Have more explosive plays (Including on STs) depending on how you define that.

Team oriented awards emphasize the idea that EVERYBODY, including scout-teamers, contributes to a win. It also keeps coaches from working too hard on something that they don't want to do anyway.

Think this is what we are going with:

TEAM (everyone gets sticker)
win, shut out, 28 or more scored, no penalties, no turnovers, 100 yard rusher-receiver-passer

INDIVIDUAL
character award of the week, hit of the week, take away (int, fumble, blocked kick...) sack, TD

and anything deemed worth by coaching staff.

Should be easy to figure those out each week and being a small team won't be that hard to hand out. Also being a small and young team might not need to hand out that many any ways....

God help you.

I can understand those, but just from personal experience, a young team can often struggle with the individual awards as selfishness creeps in.   "You got that sack because I flushed him out the pocket to you"   " You scored that TD because I opened the hole, or because I extended the drive with my play" etc. etc. 

I saw this become particularly troublesome with a younger team struggling to find success.  The lack of success on the field drives up the "importance" of items such as stickers in the eyes of some players.   The young team I am referring to lost track of the actual objective.