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I recently attended the Iowa Football Coaches Association annual coaches clinic this past weekend. There were many great speakers at this clinic. They talked about position drills, different offenses and defensive schemes. The spread offense was a hot topic.
The sessions that I went to dealt with Ideas to turn a program around. What I got out of the five sessions was that their key to success was building team unity. Each of these programs developed a mentor program for their players.
The most informative session was done by Jerry Shafrath, the head coach at Hampton-Dumont. He runs a program there called the sideline program. Here he had adult males mentoring the football players. They ate Thursday night meals with the team, and mentored the players through out the year. I was most touched when Jerry talked about a former player who was killed in Iraq. The entire town showed up for the wake( In the high school gym). The mentor for the boy who gave his life for his country came back to give the eulogy. He has developed a wonderful program and I plan to create something like this when I become a head coach again.
I was also approached by several of my colleagues asking me when I was going to apply to become a head coach again. I gave the typical answer. My wife is due in three weeks and after this football season I plan to start applying to become a head coach again. One athletic director even asked me if I would consider applying for a position at his school because his head coach will probably not be back after this next season.
I would love to be a head coach again. I am just hoping that I will be given a chance at a school that is close to where I am living now.
When the clinic was about to end, Kirk Ferenz, the head coach at the University of Iowa, spoke to all of the coaches. He is a great speaker and does alot to promote football and coaching in the state of Iowa. He gave a great speech.
As I was preparing to walk out of the clinic, the director of the clinic approached me about talking at the clinic for next year. He would like me to talk about my approach to the wing-t. Now I just need to come up with a jazzy name for my clinic speech. Do I called it the simplified wing-t?
If anyone has any suggestions I would be glad to listen.
Coach D
The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer. - John Madden
I believe that organization is very important for any football coach. Especially if you are the head football coach.
A coach should have a playbook to give to his assistant coaches and players. He needs to coordinate with the lower levels what he would like them to run and how he would like them to run the plays. A coach should be in regular contact with his assistants, especially with his varsity staff.
A coach should make sure that his assistants are always striving for knowledge and to make sure that he and his assistants continue to be students of the game. I feel that this can be done by attending coaching clinics and reading up on coaching magazines.
A coach should also be organized when it comes to his players. He needs to be in regular contact with them. He should send out letters when events will take place and he should also give each player a player handbook. This covers expectations, discipline etc.
I know of a coach who is not very organized and is not a very good communicator. He tells his staff about meeting two or three days in advanced. He drops a bomb on his middle school staff that there will be a middle school clinic for players to help them learn the offense. He bothers to tell his coaches about it five days before it is to take place. He expects all of his coaches to be in attendance. No excuses excepted.
This same coach is unorganized when it comes to the season. He will change up his entire game plan from week to week. He will totally scrap his offense from one week to another. One week he will run everything out of a double tight, ace backfield. The next week he will run everything out of the I formation, The next week he will run things out of a double wing and run rocket sweeps. Talk about confusing for his coaches and players.
This same coach will not listen to any advice from his assistants. They will suggest something and he will dismiss it out of hand. No second thoughts.
Now this coach is the head coach and it is his program and he can run it the way he wants. His assistants are part of the program and should not second guess the head coach and should not talk about him behind his back.
I just hate to see what he is doing to this wonderful school and a once wonderful football program. The kids are confused, the coaches are made scape goats for not having success. Kids are even starting to refuse to play for him. Boosters are frustrated. The school board is even starting to get complaints from alumni, boosters and parents. The AD is real good buddies with this coach and I think that this is why he is still coaching there.
The present head coach has only had one winning season since taking over the helm.
The only reason why I bring this up is because it is my almamature. I hate to see it going in the direction that it is going. I started my coaching career there also under the former head coach who retired ten years ago. The present head coach use to be a friend of mine when we were on the staff together under the old head coach.
Do I over step the bounds of friendship? Do I even get involved?
I hope this rambling could possibly give someone second thoughts and incite on what it takes to try and be a successful head coach. I'm not saying I have all of the answers but I do have several pieces of the puzzle.
what do you do?
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