Thank God! FOOTBALL IS IN THE AIR!

"So, How did you do it DC?"

It was quite a process and that process would vary from person to person. What works for me may not work for someone else and what works for someone else may not work for me. In my case I started with establishing my goals which were, obviously, 1) play safely 2) have fun 3) win - and in that order. The reason I put "win" at #3 was because I took over a team that had no chance of winning. That was out of the question. I basically had to plan around a losing season. Basically, however, that was a good thing because it meant I couldn't place any emphasis on the importance of winning. If you preach the importance of winning to a team that couldn't win even if the other team didn't show, you are being counter productive. So I had to look for other ways to develop a winning attitude. Safety and winning attitudes not being the topic here, we'll go to #2, "have fun". The question I had to ask myself was, if I was a player on my own team, would I have fun playing for me? I was developing players with pride and a tough, winning attitude and that was good. However, I was not fun. Coming to practice was about as much fun as going to work at MacDonald's - except at least at McDonald's you got paid. Like I said, two guys got the ball and the other nine blocked. When the ends would ask, "When do I get the ball, coach?" I'd answer, "We'll see." (Translation, when hell freezes over). Today, when that question is asked, I respond with, "That's right! It's your turn! Let's take care of that RIGHT NOW!"

Now why do I do that? I now picture every player who plays for me as being "me" when I was that age. Therefore, when a player asks me, "When do I get the ball, coach?" that's ME at age 10 asking ME at age 50 that question. I know how I would want my coach to react when I was 10 and asked that question - And so I respond so that "Me" gets the answer he wants to hear. Now I can tell that I'm the only coach they've ever had that does this because of the response I get. Instantly other hands are up in the air waving "Me! Me! Me!". When they see how easy it is to get me to agree, they all want their turn. That's fine. I just take them in turn. This is something they weren't expecting and they get pretty excited and practice tends to get disrupted but it's being disrupted in a positive way. To the kids, they just rubbed the magic lamp and the genie came out. I do not pass over or miss a single player's request. As their coach, I've just been "Mr. Nice Guy."

But I also teach "tough love". Once a player tells me what he wants, he has to earn the right to do it. If the splitend wants to catch a post pattern, I say "Okay. We'll run it right now. Catch it and I'll throw it to you in our next game. Drop it and I won't." The kid now runs out and the QB uncorks. If he drops it, I'm not going to waste my time throwing him that same pass in a game - but I gave him the opportunity to prove himself. He got his fair shot. If he drops it, he can't blame me. It's "tough love". But, if he catches it, why wouldn't I throw it to him in a game? I'd be stupid not to. He gets his wish. I get my 6 points. We're both happy. As for the kid that dropped it, come next week in practice I'm telling him to run that post again and, "Catch it and I'll throw it to you in our next game. Drop it and I won't." He's got his second chance - and the next week a third, and the next week a fourth. I provide my players with opportunity to realize their goals. That's my job as their coach. Notice how I combined "fun" with winning. They have the fun of the competing for the chance to catch that pass. If they do. I win. If they drop it, I don't throw it to them, spare myself an incompletion, and use that down in the game for something else which maybe I can win with.

Of course, as their coach, it's also my job to maximize that child's chance of success in catching that pass. I have to coach him how to catch it. I have to coach the QB on how to throw it. That means you separate the line from the QB and the receivers and the line works something else while the QB and the ends work their passing. If I increase my chances of completing that pass, I increase my chances of winning.

Naturally, there are some kids that will never catch that ball. You could stand three feet away from them, toss the ball to them and watch it bounce off their foreheads. Hopeless case. Still, I'm going to get him the ball. After all, that's "me" whose forehead that ball just bounced off of. I'll hand the ball to him on a reverse. Of course, he could be such a dufus that 1) he fumbles the handoff 2) he misses the hole and loses yardage 3) he fumbles when he gets tackled. This is a boy that is an obstacle to winning but, like I said, I'll still give him the ball. I just do it on an extra point play. If he screws up, as predicted, it doesn't stop the drive. The drive is already over. If he screws up, I lose 1 point off the scoreboard. That's not a problem for me. I don't lose games by one point. So I gave him his moment of fun out on the field and, at the same time, I satisfied his parents.

Satisfying parents is, to me, another goal. Many parents don't show up for practice to watch their little junior screw up. Therefore, on game day, they don't understand why their boy didn't get the ball and they want to corner you after the game and find out why. By running that PAT reverse I shut them up (Sometimes they get to witness just how awfull their kid is). "Junior" ran the extra point play so he's happy, and if he's happy, the parents are happy. The last time a parent cornered me after a game with a complaint about how I played their kid was 8 years ago. I also allow/invite parents to talk with me DURING a game. A lot of dads, watching their kid out on the field every down, will see a play opportunity for their kid coming open. They can come up to me and ask, "Do you have this play? Because #xx isn't covering my kid at all and he's wide open." I thank him and I allow him to show me what he's talking about and, if he's right, I call the play. Touchdown! Dad's happy. Kid's happy. I'm happy. Again, no complaints and, again, I've combined fun with winning. I got 6 points out of what that dad saw.

Of course, we also have the "Grunts" on the line to consider. They're not getting the ball. They're blocking. How do we show them a good time? We start with pride. Both offensive team captains are ALWAYS linemen. They win the job of team captain by winning the "Sumo" drill in practice. Being "team captain" is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to youth players. Don't ask me why. But, evidently, it's fun being team captain - And the kids compete for it. The better a lineman gets at "sumo" the more likely he is to have the fun of being team captain - and the better he gets at "sumo" the more likely I am to win the game. So, again, I combined fun with winning. In the meantime, the camera is rolling in the endzone. We film our lineman from behind. The offensive tackle that makes the fewest mistakes on film gets four plays at QB or FB next practice (his choice). The guard that makes the fewest mistakes gets four plays at HB. The center gets whatever is left over (QB or FB). So for 8 plays in next Monday's practice, the OL is now the backfield. Again, this is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to these players, many of whom want to prove they're good enough to start in the backfield. So they focus on perfect execution on game day in order to run with that ball on Monday night. My average error rate for offensive linemen is from 0-4% and the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins. So, once again, I have combined fun with winning. My offensive line dominates. We can go an entire season without an opposing down lineman tackling our running back or sacking our QB. Again, we can carry this a step further. Since our linemen learn the backfield positions on Monday night, once we're two touchdowns ahead, I let the two team captains run in the extra points (The first two extra points are run in by the team dufuses on reverses). Now the line has the added incentive to score again because they'll be the ones running in the extra point. It's fun for them and it's 6 points for me. Again, I'm combining fun with winning.

There are, of course, other factors involved with winning. These include your practice organization, the offense and defense you select, the drills you run, scouting, how you assign player positions, how you build morale, how you lead by the example you set, and how to get the most out of the players you were dealt. The subject, however, was how I am able to be a "Nice Guy" and still win. Those other factors are for another post.