dad has had some coaching experience although it does not need to be in football. Train them prior to the season. This will give you a leg up on getting the right players and getting coaches in place early. Most good organizations will allow a coach to stay with someone who is training them.
Your offense and defense (Your plan) should be clearly stated and taught to the coaches as early as possible. If you do not have your plan in writing or do not have a playbook with plays and drills, use these. Arm each coach with a book and have a book club. Take one chapter at a time and study it. Trust me, by the time you get to the season, you will be miles ahead of other teams.
Recruit dads from the hill. Most of them have played football but they do not know what to do or they feel like they are intruding. Arm them with this book and tell them to specialize in certain drills and player responsibilities. The more you can get someone else to do the more chance you have of managing the process.
If you only have 3 coaches, then each of you takes a position group on offense and one on defense;
Offense:
Backs- Should be your offensive coordinator
Linemen- Should be most experienced coach
Head coach swings between two groups.
Each coach should have drills they are proficient at so they can run them correctly in practice. Do not have too many drills. Run a few drills perfectly.
Defense:
D line- Run the box drill until you bleed. This is the core of D line work
Linebackers and ends- We have drills that help contain sweeps and shut down running lanes
D backs-Many levels may not need too much work on pass protection so fold the players into the linebacker/end containment drills. See: “Defending the Sweep”
Get your more trusted coach to learn the rules and call the plays. Head coaches should not be calling plays. It turns them into coaches not managers. As your OC is calling the plays, you have a long checklist you will learn about in chapters about Game Preperation and Game Management.
Building The Team
It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit. Robert Yates
Great teams don’t just happen! Great teams are built, and the building process starts when the clock strikes 0:00 of the previous season.
A “Team” is a combination of the organization, coaches, players and parents. No one is more important than the other. All must exhibit the “Team First” mentality in the execution of the plan in order to have a successful season.
Finding Players
Coach’s Second Commandment
Good players make coaches look smart. Bad players make coaches look dumb
Players come in four categories:
Existing Players: From last year’s team.
Rising Players: Coming up from a lower level.
Other Players: Coming in from other places.
Christmas presents: Unsolicited players that just show up on your door step or develop early as a more significant player.
Existing players: Good coaches always get their returners back. These are the leaders of your team and carry the team traditions with them.
Rising players: Whether it is 110lb coming to 125lb, JV coming to Varsity, high school advancing to college or college players moving to the pros, it is important that during the current season, the coach takes a look at, and meets the rising players. They are the guts of next years team.
It is the responsibility of the Existing and Rising players to help find the others. We can not emphasize how important it is for them to help secure the best players possible for the team. Have an off season cook out so the coaches and key players can meet and set a plan for next year. Have some fun but make sure they know this is their team and it is up to them to get other key players. This also helps secure some key players that may walk away because of a previous uninspired year. Tell them to harvest players from their lacrosse, soccer or baseball teams. Lacrosse players are money.
The others: These are players who may have wandered from the sport for a year or two or are new to the sport. Because football is a team sport and every position has rules, it is easy to take an athlete and get them up to speed on a specific job. You meet them early and talk them into coming out. They are the game changing players.
Christmas presents: These are players that are a surprise. They come out of nowhere and are significant players. Many teams are always “one player away”. Christmas presents help fill out the team.
In 2010, we had 2 Christmas presents
A son of a family friend wanted to play QB, but he was trying to jump from 95 lbs to 125 lbs and skip 110lb (big jump). Second, He was only 12, and would be competing against 14 and 15 year olds. The third obstacle was he was an offensive tackle, yes tackle. Well I love the kid and the family, but not that much. He came out and starting throwing darts at our receivers. He hit short passes, out routes, dump passes, basically everything. It was so fun to watch him throw; it was hard to stop him before he hurt his arm. He was a freak. He made reads, fought off tacklers and had nerves of steel. He threw for 28 touchdown passes and over 1500 yards with 3 interceptions. Merry Christmas.
In this picture, Billy is getting ready to run a goose for a touchdown. Before he does, he is pointing to the left and right to move the linebacker where he wants him. As soon as the backer takes a step, he gooses Sarge and they are in for 6.
