Should we use the H.S. coach's O and D??

W;

You are out of your mind. Either that, or you are just plain ignorant.

And I DO mean to be confrontational, because you just slapped every decent youth coach in this forum right in the face. I don't mean to be OFFENSIVE, but I DO want you to try to find some justification for that wildly inaccurate statement.

Is it selfish to think that YOUR team is more important than someone ELSE'S team? Ever lose a football game 45-0 because you were running a system that some other coach demanded that wasn't suited to your players?

HOW DID YOU LOOK THOSE KIDS IN THE EYES?

Or did you even bother?

It's simpler to just stand on the sidelines and yell, "You gotta hit somebody!" or "Give me 110%!". Those are WORDS, and they cost nothing.

Adequately preparing your kids to use a successful system for their level takes EFFORT. It takes research and study. It also means you can't blame the kids when you lose every game. If you run what the high school runs, you can say, "Hey, the high school does this and it works. You guys just suck/didn't want it enough/don't work hard enough/didn't execute/don't have the heart." I heard all that before, when I was a player on teams that were a combined 1-37.

Call me selfish, but my junior high years we ran the high school's system, and got our asses beat for three straight seasons. We did not have the personnel, nor did our coaches have the knowledge to correctly implement the system selected for us. FACT.

Another FACT: we learned how to lose. We never learned how to win, because the poorly thought out system we had chosen against our coaches' will never gave us a chance. We scored precisely ONE touchdown in three full seasons. FACT.

I did learn something from those years of humiliation. I learned that losing doesn't matter, it's not even being COMPETITIVE that hurts.

And I promised myself something in 1989, while I was looking at a scoreboard that read 40-0 and thinking, "God I wish my mom wasn't here." I swore right then that if I ever coached, that I'd bust my ass to make sure my players never had to feel what I was feeling then. We might not win every game, but we're damn sure going to try, and if you beat us, it'll be by the skin of your teeth, because we will run a system that's tailored to OUR players, not the high school's.

Oh, I'm sure you'll point out that I'm just trying to relive my lost youth through my players. That's fine if you want to beleive it.

FACT: I coach high school football. I've also coached youth football. I want the feeder programs below me running a system that's going to make them win at the level they're playing at. I want them to love winning, and to learn correct fundamentals along the way. I can teach them my system in ten practices, we do it every year. Teaching a kid to be a winner takes a lot longer, especially if he's never done it before.

Another FACT: When my high school coach was fired, after back to back to back 1-9 seasons, the first thing the new coach did was insist that the junior high teach correct fundamentals. That's it. He gave the coaches at that level freedom to select their own systems.

And made the playoffs seven of the next ten years. FACT.

Repeat after me, "No coach has the right to dictate what any program other than his own runs. PERIOD. FACT!"

You obviously aren't a coach if you honestly believe in what you said. Even if you are a high school coach trying to get in a few digs at the youth coaches, if your money was where your mouth was, you'd be running what the local junior college football team runs. Or are you just "thinking of your own winning percentage"?

My team, means my program. Run whatever you want on yours.

~D.