Taking over a "Down" Program

1. Hiring the best staff possible.

2. Building enthusiasm and confidence in players.

Define down. Like, used to be good, hit a rough patch or has never won a playoff game? I think the answers differ based on those situations.

Swag.....

I know you said excluding weight program, but that is 100% the key ingredient to changing the program.

That, and stop beating yourself. Don't do stupid things.

Take a look at what has been their downfall. Why did the guy before you leave. I'm big into looking at all of the reasons. There could be several reasons why not successful. I'm sure you looked at the schedule. Most cases you can't hire a lot of coaches and what you have is usually what it is. Look seriously into schedule. Getting some wins somewhere builds confidence. Need more info to help.

How old is the program?

If they’ve never been good and have been around for awhile, that’s generally a community issue.

Hard to turn a program around when the ones raising the kids have no standards or accountability. You’ll be the {censored} they try to run off before changing

Meh, don't punt or kick extra points. Problem solved.

Some random things we have done over the years to develop team unity (and other qualities):

1. O-Line BBQ (I always want these guys to feel wanted, needed, important).

2. Workout teams- this is for the summer. We split up captains (more on that in a bit) and have them draft their teams. We do a serpentine draft so it can be as even as possible (so 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 etc.). They get points for summer attendance, weight room progress, film study after team camp, attendance at our camp and community service work.

They get to name their own teams… I can veto the name and they get one more chance otherwise I will name their team. I need to use Urban Dictionary just to check… (They are usually pretty good about laying off the euphemisms).

This is always a big deal to them because the winning team gets shirts with everyone’s name on it- plus they will have less maintenance responsibilities (locker room clean up, taking stuff to the field, etc.) The last place team has an extra week of that… so they do a pretty good job of policing themselves.

All of our team responsibilities are handled by workout teams except two weeks when it is done by the senior class. The seniors do the first week to show how things should be done and they do the week of the state championship game if we are fortunate enough to make it.

3. Mentoring program- we have an upper class player paired up with a freshman (by position) to kind of teach them the ropes a bit. This is pretty informal and I don’t have any rules regarding it other than “help them be better”. Often times I see the older guys spending time with the young ones, eating lunch with them, etc.

4. Captains- We had 9 captains this past year. The most we’ve had is 18. Any junior or senior in good standing (not ineligible due to grades or training violations) may apply. They fill out an application and write a letter. From time to time I’ll get asked why we have so many captains and not just 4. I say the same thing every time- if you have 18 leaders, why would you not want them all to lead?

I do caution them that it is a lot of responsibility and there are expectations- and if I ever have to demote them from their rank as captain, they will not get that position back that year.


RE: Taking over down programs-

I have taken over two programs that were “down”. One was a train wreck (4th coach in 4 years) and the other was just a stagnant, middle of the road program.

The most important thing aside from the weight room (which didn’t exist at either place) was discipline. Nothing major… just being on time, taking care of equipment… little things (that really are big things).

Just as a counter point- if it works for you, that's great. I did this for two years and it was a disaster. Maybe it was because I was never super into it and the kids caught that, maybe I just didn't have the personality to make it work, but both I and the kids ended up hating it.

Saw it at a clinic and thought I'd give it a shot as we had just had a real tough year (went 3-6, lost 3 games by a combined 4 points). Also had several leadership and character issues on the team. Actually went pretty OK the first year, but the second year it was a train wreck. I will never do it again.

Like I said, if it works, I'm not here to discourage anyone from it. Just my experiences. The mere mention of it gives me heartburn.

Excellent post Coach!!  Everything that you say makes so much sense...genuine commitment from both the Administration and a core group of parents is vital.

Your last sentence may be the one of the most imortant factors in rebuilding projects.

Lot of things on here are fantastic! One big thing I’d say is find a key non X’s and O’s deficiency and attempt to fix that. That may take a year or two. Sometimes you adjust in different ways. For me when I took over a down program I was a power run game guy. Discovered 2 years in that wasn’t going to help us compete against stronger, more physical teams. So we had to play a bit differently. We weren’t as strong as our opponents but we got stronger. Where we really targeted was our overall team competitiveness. We’d compete compete compete in the off-season in all sorts of ways and kids got more confident in competing and being in uncomfortable situations and our staff was able to find our real leaders through it

Not that easy sometimes...my last job, we sucked. Why? We could line 11 guys up in c gap and still could not stop off tackle runs.

Stop doing/eliminate the stuff that loses games first, then start working on winning games.

More games are lost than won.