Off Season Attendance Expectations

[NC1974]

Looking for thoughts on the following:
-What are your expectations for kids that play other sports? Are they expected to get lifts in during their other sports seasons?
-Do you have attendance expectations and consequences if kids aren't meeting those expectations? 
-If a kid does not come to off season workouts, how does that affect his status on the team come summer camp?
-Does anyone "remove" kids from the team based on  off season attendance?

[realdawg]

If you dont have them during class to lift during the school day, you cant expect them to lift during their other sports season. If you have a practice or skill development session, you cant expect them to come during their other sports season. There are expectations, however, we reward kids for meeting them, instead of punish those who dont. I dont feel like you can punish a kid for not being at a spring skill development because he was at baseball practice. You could come to 0 off season workouts and still come out for the team on Day 1. The rules are that skill development sessions arent mandatory, so while you may highly encourage them to be there, you cant keep a kid from playing who hasnt been there. Now, could you cut him later on. Sure. But I think you have to let him come out.

[bjohnson]

Zero expectations if a kid is playing another sport. Would you want your football players going to basketball offseason during the football season...?

Now we are blessed that all athletes, boys and girls, have a weight lifting period during the school day so that all athletes lift year round. All coaches involved in our athletic program supports the weight class and lifting year round. Now with that said, we don't ask athletes in season to do the same workout as the kids who are not involved in a sport at that time. We have an in-season program and off-season program.

[groundchuck]

We figured out that there are 100 sessions from when we lost to when practice starts in August. We are calling this off-season "The Race to 100." Nobody will get 100 sessions. Our goal is to have 70% of the players reach 70 sessions. If we do that we will be way better next year. It is not hard to do this. If you are in a sport get in twice a week. If you are in the off-season, see you three times a week. We open the weight room before and after school and during the summer we run a couple sessions.

[coachwoodall]

We have weight classes for most all sports.  We occasionally can't get an athlete into one of those classes.  Our strength coach hammers the basics, but will adjust to meet team/coach specifics so all athletes get stronger if they work.

If a kid can't be in a weight class, then we do have after school lifts but that can interfere with a practice.  However, most of the time from an athletic department standpoint we are pretty cohesive.  

We therefore can and do encourage kids to play other sports.  So from August to May, almost all kids that want to be part of football or any other sport are convered.  

The only distinction we make is for summer workouts.  To play football you have to make so many lifts/workouts.  If you do not make that number, then you must get to that number during preseason practices before you can compete.  You have to 'make up' a work out by running a mile.

His rational is that in order to safely compete in a scrimmage/game/contest is that you have to have proven a certain level of performance (I.E. workouts) before he can safely put you into said contest.  Kids can do all other seasonal practices, but cannot be in a contest/scrimmage/game until you meet that minimum threshold.

Basically if a kid never played and didn't come to summer workouts, and he showed up on the 1st day of practice then he could be part of the team and could start practice.  However he would not get to suit up for any inter-squad competition for about the 1st 4-5 regular season games or about half the season.

Covers lots of arses and makes it hard to contest with any reasonable rationale.

[QBCoachDurham]

I encourage kids to play as many sorts as they can. You only go to high school once. We have a points system that we use during the offseason, and weightlifting and skill development are part of it. Each returning player is required to get at least 70 points. Players that reach 100 points get certain privilege's (t-shirt, locker tag, helmet sticker, lanyard, first in line at pregame meal, etc.) Players that fail to get 70 points are not allowed to scrimmage or play in a game until they make up the missing points. Players that are new to the team must accumulate a prorated number of points based on when they joined the team. We actually award players points for playing other sports. Since we have almost all of our players in a weightlifting class, we usually don't have issues with them not being able to lift. If we can't get them in class and they play another sport, we will work with the head coach and the player to find a time to lift.

[ahall005]

We have two Weight Lifting Classes that they can take during the day. If they can't make it fit there schedule we have lifting before school at 6:15 and after school 3 days a week. Last year we had more guys choose to lift before school than after. We expect our guys to lift regardless of sports they are playing. We have a ton of 3 sport athletes if we only lift during june and july that doesn't leave a ton of time to get stronger. We lift 3 times a week during football season.

[chi5hi]

The weight room is there, but...don't step on another coach's toes over this.

[wolfden12]

No weight room classes.
Multi-sport athletes are to focus on the sport they are in season for. We have some that will come during basketball (coach doesn't care and they don't lift for crap).

The other sports will supplement with the other sport or be completely focus on that winter or spring sport.

We have changed over the years at the current place I'm at and others. In the past, coach didn't care. Football first and we lost a lot of kids. At the current program I'm coaching at, we are focused on our guys and when they are with us. 90% attendance is expected. We go before school M/W/F at 530 am. If you miss 3 or more with a call/excusal your are suspended. Because we go so early, current 9th to be 10th are not required if rides are an issue. We are looking into a staggered start in the am to help with this. The attendance also factors into our accountability teams and other "rewards" within the program i.e. choice of number, equipment, team meal, locker location, etc.

[go42]

In-season lifting expectation is twice per week; out-of season lifting expectation is three times per week. Obviously in-season and out of season lifting are different - sure would be nice if all coaches believed in lifting - if your school has this..... you probably have a great athletic program. Accountability can be reinforced through a rewards/leadership program.