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Post by shocktroop34 on Jul 28, 2014 7:07:54 GMT -6
It seems as if every season brings about a different problem to navigate through.
Lack of coaches? Team Chemistry? Coaching chemistry? Summer injuries? Lack of weight room participation? Under matched in talent? Poor leadership? Money? Admin?
I can honestly state that I dealt with one (or more) the above issues at one point or another during my career. There are many more that I simply didn't list, but...
I was just curious to what others saw as a concern within their own programs, why it's a problem, and how you might deal with it.
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Post by jasper912 on Jul 28, 2014 9:59:33 GMT -6
My biggest problem right now is a lack of coaches IMO. The coaches we have all get along great, even when we don't see eye to eye.
We have had good weight room participation for our program and I think we have the necessary talent to be successful. My only concern, is not having enough coaches to coach these guys up the way I would like. I'm big on individual and small groups, but that is hard to do when you lack quality coaches.
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Post by 90rocket on Jul 28, 2014 10:28:49 GMT -6
I agree with lack of coaches. I have a total of 4 coaches for JV and Varsity this year. Last year, I only had 3. I was the HC/Varsity OC, we had a Varsity DC, and one JV HC.
Modified, or middle school football is a different story. Our principal JUST posted those two coaching vacancies. Yea, their season starts in less than a month.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2014 10:40:38 GMT -6
Right now it would be a lack of coaches and being way behind on our install schedule because of it.
We have a new DC who'll start our defensive install today after the last guy up and left a week ago We have 3 weeks to get everything in for our first game and still only have a trap and some routes in for offense. Last week, there were only two of us while our third guy was out of town for some training.
Beyond that, our OL looks awfully thin. We have 14 kids there on a 40 player 1 platoon team and 4 of them have shown themselves to be very unreliable, while 7 of the others would be backups and benchwarmers in a perfect world. You do the math.
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Post by holmesbend on Jul 28, 2014 12:44:39 GMT -6
Things snowballing.
Year 1 (2012), we went 6-6...playoff win. Better year than expected.
Last year, we went O'fer. Knew year 2 and 3 were gonna be rough...but, with an unreal amount of injuries to an already youthful team..we tanked.
This year....injuries, and things snowballing from that.
Worrying me to death. Far more than it should in the grand scheme of things/life I know.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jul 28, 2014 18:16:11 GMT -6
Guys, the honesty is appreciated.
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Post by realdawg on Jul 28, 2014 18:26:45 GMT -6
1) New scheme-switching to the 3-4. 2) Lack of coaches. 3) Whole new defensive staff-one of whom just got here today. 4) Lost 9 starters off of D last year. 5) Ability to stop the run.
What am I not worried about is a better question.
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Post by joker31 on Jul 28, 2014 18:52:00 GMT -6
Our team should be much improved from last season with a hard working SR class. We have good skill and are good enough to contend for a championship. However there is a lot of parity among the top teams.
So what worries me? 1) Mental Toughness (This group when they were younger had lost some big games at the end of the regular season, snowballed into "choking" in the first round of playoffs). I feel a lot better because we've worked on it ALOT this off-season, but need to see it applied in games. 2) Position questions, specifically at center, ILB depth, and safety.
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Post by carookie on Jul 28, 2014 19:07:42 GMT -6
1)Injuries! 2)Replacing a couple studs at key spots
I'm at a small school (sub 275 fr-sr) so we can't afford injuries; last year we had a 150 lb Fr start 2 games at center due to injuries. For the most part our starters are our starters (many go both ways) and our back ups are our JV team. Last week, our 6'2" 270lb D1-to-be Jr LT went down for the year. Before this we had 6 OLs who we could count on, now we are down to 5 and our best one is done for, very precarious.
Also, we lost our school's all time leading tackler (MLB) league player of the year (DE/TE) and starting QB. Luckily our class of 2015 group is loaded with talent, and we have a few 2014 guys who will fill these spots, but they are still big shoes to fill.
All told, we have a legit shot to compete for a ring this year so its a good place to be, but to be certain the pressure is out there.
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Post by fantom on Jul 28, 2014 19:29:25 GMT -6
I have no idea who our starting DTs will be. Our OL will be a good veteran group but none are great DTs. We have seven guys who can play corner so if anybody wants to work a dead give me a call.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 28, 2014 19:51:16 GMT -6
1. Depth - we have about 23 kids total right now 9-12. 2. OL -we have 3 guys competing for the guard spots and I don't think any of them have the physical toughness to compete tic-tac-toe. 3. Secondary - Due to injuries, starting a freshman as Safety, and have another rotating some at Corner. 4. OLB - Have 2 junior starters and their backups are both freshmen. 5. QB - this should probably be #1. Have a senior that can throw the ball as beautiful as you have ever seen in practice. Come game time though he has less physical toughness than the guys competing at guard. Backing him up is the freshman that also starts at safety. Knock on him is he can't throw the ball with a lot of whip just yet, likes to float it quite a bit.
On a plus side. I think we have guys that absolutely want to be there and that makes my job a lot more fun even with all the potential problems.
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coachriley
Junior Member
"Tough times don't last; Tough people do."
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Post by coachriley on Jul 28, 2014 20:43:25 GMT -6
Well I'm at a middle school so things are a bit different for me.
1. I'm suppose to be in charge of the defense for our 8th graders. I found out in the spring that our HC wanted me to run it. I didn't know a lot about the 4-2-5 but I've done my homework. The thing that concerns me is that I know my HC and he may decide the first week back in school that he wants to be in charge again or put someone else there. It's just the knowledge that it may change when we get back. 2. Staff cohesion - there is a few coaches that don't know what their own position group is suppose to do. Or expect the rest of staff to go out of their way to help them but won't lift a finger to help them unless they are getting something out of it. 3. I think we have a lack of player leadership from last year's kids coming up, but we do have some kids that have a lot of talent. So I guess that is the one area I'm excited for this year and not worried about.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using proboards
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2014 20:52:14 GMT -6
Number of quality coaches seems to be a common theme on this topic. It is hard to find quality coaches that are willing and sable to devote the time to coach.
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creid
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Post by creid on Jul 28, 2014 21:39:41 GMT -6
We have to replace 13 guys who moved on to college ball from last year's team. Thought O-Line depth was the main issue…felt really good about d-line. Just lost our best D-end (Jr. Capt too)for year with a torn ACL, happened at a one day prospect camp. As good of a player as he is…his leadership may be the biggest thing we miss…he's a special kid.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2014 21:49:03 GMT -6
D. All of the above. I ain't joking either. I hope I'm wrong...
Duece
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Post by coachphillip on Jul 29, 2014 1:16:08 GMT -6
JV: 1) Every halfway decent looking kid gets to be on the varsity. It doesn't even make sense anymore. 2) No QB. 3) We've hit August and 2 Read still hasn't clicked for them. I'm starting to wonder if it ever will.
Var: 1) Lack of camaraderie. 2) Lack of leadership. 3) Kids think punking someone into something is the same as leading. Bullying.
But, I discovered today that one of my good friends might have cancer. He's the strongest guy I know and he's scared. Needless to say, I am too. As worked up as I get over 14 year olds not running 2 Read properly, there are always bigger things in need of attention.
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Post by coachguy83 on Jul 29, 2014 1:18:47 GMT -6
Our big concern right now if trying to figure out exactly where everyone best fits in our system. We are attempting to go mostly 2 platoon this year, with the exception of a handful of special guys. This change combined with our entire varsity d-line graduating has left us scrambling up front. 5 of the 6 guys getting varsity reps on d-line were playing linebacker last week.
The other issue we have is trying to figure out the best way to practice now that we are mostly 2 platoon. This is going to take a little bit of trial and error, but I'm sure we'll figure it our soon. I work with an amazing group of coaches.
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Post by smfreeman on Jul 29, 2014 5:04:20 GMT -6
It seems as if every season brings about a different problem to navigate through. Lack of coaches? Team Chemistry? Coaching chemistry? Summer injuries? Lack of weight room participation? Under matched in talent? Poor leadership? Money? Admin? I can honestly state that I dealt with one (or more) the above issues at one point or another during my career. There are many more that I simply didn't list, but... I was just curious to what others saw as a concern within their own programs, why it's a problem, and how you might deal with it. 1. We are going to be small in numbers which makes the little nagging injuries that have happened in the weight room like big injuries because not being 100% could kill us. The frustrating thing is our school doesn't have a ton of walk around talent but we have a bunch of program kids that if they would commit and work hard they could be good high school players and make us a good high school team. We have 10 kids that are pretty good and have sold out to football. I know we could be a really good team this year if those kids would just commit but instead we will back up our starters with Freshman. 2. We are always strapped for cash. I inherited the program last year with no money at all. I have to recruit my area because kids will go to other schools so I had to fund-raise to buy new uniforms the last two years, But my boosters (I started) is almost broke going into the season and the school doesn't want to buy buses for our games. I don't get worked up about money because all they can do is fire me as a HC and sometimes I think about sleeping well again like I did when I was an assistant.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jul 29, 2014 13:23:45 GMT -6
Summer injuries always worried the hell out of me. A few years ago, I had some very talented (now D-1) RB's. They would run track in the spring and end up pulling hamstrings. It happened two consecutive years, and the injuries would nag them all summer.
The year I "persuaded" them to stay in the weight room, they had great summers and great fall seasons. Of course, I was accused of steering kids away from other sports, yada-yada, but in the long run it benefitted them.
I also had a player (one of the best kids I ever coached) dislocate his knee cap. It was a stomach turner. He did it early in the summer as we were installing some defensive stuff. He vowed to be ready by week one. I said to myself there's no way in hell. It was ugly. To my amazement, he proved me wrong. Played with a brace all year and never said a word about it.
Anyway...I pray health and safety over everyone's program going forward.
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collier
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Post by collier on Jul 29, 2014 15:05:51 GMT -6
Depth and injuries.
I feel great about our coaches, scheme, admins, funds, S&C participation, etc.
As a staff we feel our first 11 are very good, but 1 injury can cause a domino effect.
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Post by coach2013 on Jul 29, 2014 15:12:30 GMT -6
It seems as if every season brings about a different problem to navigate through. Lack of coaches? Team Chemistry? Coaching chemistry? Summer injuries? Lack of weight room participation? Under matched in talent? Poor leadership? Money? Admin? I can honestly state that I dealt with one (or more) the above issues at one point or another during my career. There are many more that I simply didn't list, but... I was just curious to what others saw as a concern within their own programs, why it's a problem, and how you might deal with it. Inexperienced coaching overly "helicopter" Trainers No depth, any injuries are intolerable
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jul 29, 2014 21:22:19 GMT -6
How do you deal with this coach? I think that particular issue is a thread in and of itself. In my experience, it took a lot of energy (more than I thought it would) to coach...coaches.
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Post by adawg2302 on Jul 29, 2014 23:07:00 GMT -6
JV: 1) Every halfway decent looking kid gets to be on the varsity. It doesn't even make sense anymore. 2) No QB. 3) We've hit August and 2 Read still hasn't clicked for them. I'm starting to wonder if it ever will. Var: 1) Lack of camaraderie. 2) Lack of leadership. 3) Kids think punking someone into something is the same as leading. Bullying. But, I discovered today that one of my good friends might have cancer. He's the strongest guy I know and he's scared. Needless to say, I am too. As worked up as I get over 14 year olds not running 2 Read properly, there are always bigger things in need of attention. Could you expand on what you mean by "every halfway decent kid gets to be on varsity?"
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Post by agap on Jul 30, 2014 0:08:57 GMT -6
How do you deal with this coach? I think that particular issue is a thread in and of itself. In my experience, it took a lot of energy (more than I thought it would) to coach...coaches. Have the position coaches explain their position to the rest of the coaching staff, both on the board and on the field. Than you can find out what they know and you can explain the rest to them.
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Post by mariner42 on Jul 30, 2014 0:50:50 GMT -6
F***ing everything?
In all honesty, I'm pretty puckered up about our Week 1 game. There's a whole slew of personal reasons tied up in it, but I'll just leave it them being the toughest team on our schedule and they run the Wing-T really, really well.
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Post by coach2013 on Jul 30, 2014 2:55:16 GMT -6
How do you deal with this coach? I think that particular issue is a thread in and of itself. In my experience, it took a lot of energy (more than I thought it would) to coach...coaches. I have been dealing with off campus coaches most of my career and my principal and I worked to get some young teachers that were interested in coaching football to get on board. One of them has two seasons of frosh ball under his belt and he was very much a bag holder during those two seasons. The other is fresh green- right off the college ball team and eager to go.
Both are extremely smart and this is a change- VERY PROFESSIONAL and can set their egos aside and sit quietly like a sponge and listen!
We chalk and walk through things each day after summer lifts trying to get them comfortable with what I need them to teach. Both are former linemen but have to learn positions other than where they played for the good of the program. (we are pretty much all former linemen on my staff)
I have handouts, lots of visual aids and plenty of game and practice footage to cover with them.
What I decided to do however was combine a lack of freedom with total freedom and heres how:
1) they each have 2 30 minute blocks to own for Individual offense (they are coaching backs/varsity and JV/frosh) and I have charged them with creating "lesson plans" (practice plans) that cover everything a back in our system needs to know and do well. We talked about that. They have to cover it all in two lessons. I told them "your job is to make better players, raise their ability level and Ill handle the schemes" - There are plenty of books, magazine articles and videos out there to learn how to coach backs. I have them watching some videos too.
2) on defense, they will also own a position and its not what they played but they will follow me around and take notes and learn all of the buzz words and catch phrases and again, learn to put together practice plans for their indy period that covers all that our dbacks have to know. They will shadow me for about a week or two depending on their comfort level and mine.
3) we will meet after every practice to discuss how its going and brainstorm how to make it go better. I get them to ask me questions each day, just trouble shoot and work through things. I was very happy that they picked up our blocking concepts and all that very fast with no argument (we are old school wing t shoulder blocking)
4) In the weight room they are responsible for the freshmen and newbies. They learn our program, then teach it. They are relevant. To the newbie kids and freshmen, they are coaches. To my veteran players, they are new coaches and strangers. So I want them working with the younger kids rather than having to prove themselves to my older players before they are ready.
5) I need them to attend rules interpretation meetings, clinics, watch videos and read read read. Coaching terminology ie "4 tech" means nothing to them right now so I have to watch how I speak to them.
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Post by blb on Jul 30, 2014 5:27:33 GMT -6
Number of coaches - right now we have one JV coach.
Facilities - school including gym area and parking lot is being renovated. Don't know if we'll have access to lockerrooms, training and equipment rooms, weight room when practice starts August 11.
Numbers - we have only 22 Varsity kids at camp this week. Now we won District with 22 three years ago but we had at least one all-league player at every position then. We may not have one all-league caliber player anywhere this year.
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Post by smfreeman on Jul 30, 2014 5:32:28 GMT -6
It seems as if every season brings about a different problem to navigate through. Lack of coaches? Team Chemistry? Coaching chemistry? Summer injuries? Lack of weight room participation? Under matched in talent? Poor leadership? Money? Admin? I can honestly state that I dealt with one (or more) the above issues at one point or another during my career. There are many more that I simply didn't list, but... I was just curious to what others saw as a concern within their own programs, why it's a problem, and how you might deal with it. 1. We are going to be small in numbers which makes the little nagging injuries that have happened in the weight room like big injuries because not being 100% could kill us. The frustrating thing is our school doesn't have a ton of walk around talent but we have a bunch of program kids that if they would commit and work hard they could be good high school players and make us a good high school team. We have 10 kids that are pretty good and have sold out to football. I know we could be a really good team this year if those kids would just commit but instead we will back up our starters with Freshman. 2. We are always strapped for cash. I inherited the program last year with no money at all. I have to recruit my area because kids will go to other schools so I had to fund-raise to buy new uniforms the last two years, But my boosters (I started) is almost broke going into the season and the school doesn't want to buy buses for our games. I don't get worked up about money because all they can do is fire me as a HC and sometimes I think about sleeping well again like I did when I was an assistant. I posted the above earlier but I have one to add now because as many of you know there is just never a dull moment... We have an assistant principal who has received a job at another school (no big deal) but the next in line is our current athletic director to become an assistant principal (no big deal because I do most of the AD work anyway) but the terrible part is my current Oline coach and associate HC is inline to take the AD job and in our district that means you cannot coach. The problem is I am low on coached anyway and I am going to lose my best coach probably sometime into week 3 or 4 because our district moves like turtles when it comes to hiring. I can't find a coach to coach RB's I know I am not going to find one to coach OL.
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Post by larrymoe on Jul 30, 2014 8:44:13 GMT -6
Injuries. If we're healthy we should be pretty good again. If we get hurt, we could be in trouble.
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Post by coachphillip on Jul 30, 2014 8:57:14 GMT -6
F***ing everything? In all honesty, I'm pretty puckered up about our Week 1 game. There's a whole slew of personal reasons tied up in it, but I'll just leave it them being the toughest team on our schedule and they run the Wing-T really, really well. Coach, that one is a doozy. I'll drop by with a horseshoe, a four leaf clover, a shiny penny, and a whole family of rabbits' feet.
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