SMALL school success

I would think that a private school there would be enough focus on academics and discipline that you wouldn't have to stress it nearly as much as in a public school setting.

Excellent point. 25-30 kids 9-12 in a school
Of 155 is great.

We have alot of schools around with 3-4 times that many kids in the school who have those type of numbers.

Off season. Share athletes. Buy in from players.

Those are the biggest factors in small school ball. If they aren't playing another sport they need to work out. All coaches need to work together and support other programs at all costs. Kids need to buy in an understand they have to be willing to do whatever on a team that small. You may think you're a FB but now you're a guard. And have systems that are adaptable because like a veteran coach told me years ago with teams that size when someone goes down "you don't lose one, you lose five because everyone is moving around to fill in the gaps."

he might want to contact Kevin Swift .  He was a successful coach of a small school in Oregon   Gold Beach Twitter  @kdawgswift

I have been at multiple schools that fit within the described mold, and really its not much different than being at a public school.

Academics do tend to be better than an average public school, but probably by not as much as many here imply. I have ran the gamut at public schools, as I'm sure many of us have, and have been at public schools that are every bit as academically advanced as the stereotypical private school. You will have kids at private schools who struggle with grades, and you'll probably have more teachers at the private schools who are stringent about said grades.

Remember, most private schools don't require credentials to teach, so all those hoops we jumped through in a credentialing program of how to cater to struggling students....private school teachers didn't do that.
Additionally, don't assume behavior and issues of that ilk will be perfect, every private school I've ever been at still had drugs, drinking, etc. There was a LOT less gang issues, but I've been to public school that were like that too.

Budget wise & equipment, tend to be far worse than public schools, unless you have a massive donor. Remember, public schools have a massive amount of funding due to taxes; private schools, especially small ones, are begging for all they get. Check the weight room, check the equipment, check for donations and what boosters can do for you. You will be without the safety net that public schools have.

People have brought up, recruiting, I guess this varies state-to-state. Here in southern California, EVERYBODY is free to recruit. The few huge private schools get all the pub, but just behind them are the big public schools, who recruit just as much and darn near just as well. I don't know what recruiting is like in your state, but if its anything like here, private school offers no advantage.

Culture of the campuses can vary, but thats the same as public schools. You probably need to figure out what the school is all about and how will they support you. I've been at private schools where they wanted every athlete in the state to come in, I've been at those that were more discerning in who they accepted. To me, this is the key- find out what the school wants; that will be a possible ceiling.

Coach
 That is a fair point I havent thought about. In Ohio, we have a voucher system that allows students from "failing schools" to attend private schools. I have talked to the previous HC and current coaches who played the school and I get all types of answers. From what I was told, while they had athletic talent, they did not have the type of discipline you would expect. In fact, even though they are located in a small suburb/almost rural town , only 10% of their student body comes from that town and 70% comes from the city. Thus, bringing in kids who may not have had high academic standards for themselves for one reason or another (and thats a topic for a whole different discussion) could be the reason for a lack of academic success. Their behavior in school? Well when the HC is not in the building, who does that fall on? While the HC can reinforce discipline at practice, and give them consequences for their actions in school, I would think their behavior falls on the classroom teachers? I don't know, sorry if I am rambling, just thinking out loud here.

I don't think that's necessarily true about the HC in the building being indicative of how much the school cares without having more context.

I know of quite a few scenarios where the private school wants the HC in the building, but the HC is far enough down the road on a public school teaching career/retirement vesting that giving up that job to teach at the private school just isn't feasible.

It sounds like the previous coach may have felt so pressured to keep kids on the team by the low numbers, so he let a lot slide and admin didn’t like that. Be ready to start year one off with like 15-20 kids, unless you can really sell yourself in a short, short amount of time. If you build it properly, kids will come out.

What will honestly make or break you at a small school in the long run is simple:

1. Petty small-community politics (just stay out of them!!!)
2. Relationships with the players and their families
3. Weight room culture
4. Numbers
5. Money

In that order. If you can handle those things and have a little bit of flexibility on scheme, because you’ll need to emphasize cross training and one platooning, you are going to be giving yourself the chance to at least be the best team that you can be.

Now, it helps if “relationships with the players” includes being able to recruit athletes to the school to play. One or two kids like that can carry an average group of kids a long way in small school ball.

It also helps if you have at least 1-2 guys you can count on as assistants, but with a truly small roster sometimes you may get stuck coaching with whoever you can coax into helping out.

Share athletes and make nice with all the other coaches and teachers, but you will all need to share athletes if you want to be successful.

FWIW, the school I am at now (ironically, I am not coaching here) is in our state’s smallest class. This year, we went to state in football, basketball, girl’s basketball, and then came a game away from making it to state in baseball. The coaches are good people who all have great relationships with the kids and their families, teams here all share athletes unselfishly, and kids are allowed to lift on their lunch breaks and during PE since they can’t all get in a lifting class. That’s really the foundation of it.

It helps that there is a tradition of success in football and basketball here that’s set a high standard. Kids come through as third generation players and sports mean a lot in this community. It’s nice. For a lot of these kids, it’s all they really have.

I should point out that one thing that really helps our school is that all the coaches respect each other and believe in weights. This school has been consistently good in football for huge chunks of its history, but they’ve made it to state in basketball like 6/10 years. The basketball coach and HFC both teach PE together and encourage ALL athletes to lift in there or on their breaks. That goes a long, long way towards helping the other sports to succeed.

I will also say that we do not have the athletes the elite schools get, especially in football. What we do get are a bunch of big, slow farm/mountain kids who are hard nosed, lift, and take pride in being physical, so the HFC plays to those strengths with a lot of heavy packages to just mash people up front , grind clock, and get our faster kids running downhill. They ran a lot of I and Power I looks, as well as heavy gun packages to run QB Iso and QB Power. He also tries to preserve his stud QB (they like to play the best athlete at QB) for the clutch situations by having his other kids carry the load at RB as long as it’s working,

All this works, but in our state it’s not easy to get moved to a weaker “division.” You *might* get a chance to volunteer to switch to the weaker district next door or maybe play up a classification if that’s a better option than playing some powerhouses in the smaller school district, but you only get opportunities like that every 3 years and they are usually beyond your control. When you can make it happen it can be a better option… so long as you can handle the long road trips for games that a different conference/district may require.