How do you avoid meltdowns when you are coaching youth football?

First of all, you have to prepare for possible meltdown situations, they can and do happen, not only in youth football, but at all levels of the game. Last year in the Capital One Bowl we saw a prime example of a classic meltdown in the Nebraska- South Carolina game. The Cornhuskers scored first to take a 6-0 lead to then have their PAT run back to make it a 6-2 game instead of 7-0, a 4 point swing. Nebraska totally dominated the first half in yards, time of possession and most importantly physicality. They held South Carolinas offense to a single score. NU was leading 13-9 with just 1 second remaining in the half, with the Gamecocks on their own 49 yard line. South Carolina scored a touchdown on the last play of the half on a Hail Mary bomb. You could see the look of defeat in those Nebraska kids eyes as they had their heads bowed down and slowly trotted to the locker room for halftime. Nebraska never recovered from that, getting shut out in the second half in a 30-13 loss. I saw 2 games this year at the Pop Warner National Championships in Orlando where a team that scored right before the half and was still trailing, won the game.

A nearly identical thing happened to one of my youth football teams a few years ago. We were riding a 30 plus game winning streak into a game against another undefeated team. We led 12-0 and had another touchdown called back. We also had a long run to the opponent’s 10 yard line called back on a penalty. On defense we had limited the other team to just 2 first downs. But just before the half they broke a long run to our 30 yard line and with just 2 seconds left in the half, they threw a Hail Mary pass that by some odd miracle dropped right in-between 2 of our defenders who had great coverage. So instead of leading 20-0 or 27-0 at the half, the score was now 12-8. As our kids came off the field, for the halftime break they looked like they had just lost the game.

As coaches we were disappointed we had missed our window to salt the game away, While the coaching staff was still upbeat, our kids were acting like we were losing the game. What did we do wrong and how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again?

The mistake we had made was in the week prior to the game we had built up to the kids how well we were going to play. Everyone in the league was uptight about playing this opponent. They had shut everyone out they had played to that point and were putting up some great numbers on offense. They were very athletic across the boar and well coached. I felt we matched up reasonably well and if we executed to near potential, we would win by 2-3 scores. Many times I’ve seen us play good teams like that, get up a couple of touchdowns early and have the game develop into a rout. In an attempt to bolster our teams confidence to get them to believe they were on par with this behemoth team, I let our kids know that I thought they would win and win big if we practiced and executed well that week. We went on to lose that game 20-12 after giving up a quick score and onside kick in the second half.

What I SHOULD have been telling our kids in the week leading up to the game was while I thought we would match up well, that the game was probably going to come down to the fourth quarter and that we should expect an up and down game. I should have told them, we were playing a very good team and that while I thought we were better, they should expect a wild play to go against them at some point in the game. How we picked ourselves up and responded would determine the game.

You could see “that look” and bad body language from our kids as they slowly trotted to our assigned area during halftime. The coaching staff agreed to be very upbeat at halftime. We smiled and talked about how we had dominated the first half with the exception of the last 90 seconds and went into detail about all the things we were doing well. As usual we talked about a handful of adjustments we would use in the second half and then we made a critical error. We talked about the 2 missed scoring opportunities we had and what “could have been” had we avoided those penalties. By looking back and ending halftime by looking over our “spilled milk” we didn’t put the past behind us to quickly move on- we dwelt on it. That was a huge mistake.

If you want to cause a meltdown at halftime, dwell on those 1-2 plays that put your team into a funk. Want to set your team up for a meltdown- set their expectations in such a way they can never be met. Be realistic, set reasonable expectations, be positive and don’t dwell on a few mistakes that are water under the bridge. Nothing you can do is going to bring that play back or take points off the board, all you can do once a mistake is made is to calmly point out how not to make that mistake again and move on.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Letting the Other Team Score- Not Just for NFL Coaches

Yes, you heard that correctly, letting the other team score on purpose to try and win a game. It not only happens in the Super Bowl, it happens when you are coaching youth football too. If you watched the Super Bowl this year between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, you saw a situation where letting the other team score on purpose, made complete sense, we aren’t talking about some kind of “mercy” score, we are talking about letting someone score to win the game. New York had the ball with a first down and goal from the 8 yard line and with just 59 seconds left in the game and the score 17-15 in favor of the Patriots. The game wasn’t in doubt, the Pats had just one timeout. So all’s the Giants needed to do was to run 3 plays, run the clock down to 1 second, call timeout, kick the field goal on the last play of the game and go home with the Lombardi Trophy. The Giants field-goal kicker had been perfect for the season on extra point kicks and field goals inside the 30.

But if you watched the game, that isn’t how it played out, Patriots coach Bill Belichick had other ideas. He told his defense to let the Giants score on purpose, so his offense could get the ball back with about 56 seconds left to play and with a timeout in their back pocket. Belichick isn’t someone that likes to put the destiny of a game into the hands of his opponent. While the Patriots would have to score a touchdown to win the game, with Tom Brady at Quarterback, Welker at receiver and one of the top offenses in the NFL, they certainly have a very real chance to score a touchdown and win the game. It was a brilliant move that gave the Pats a punchers chance to pull out the game, instead of helplessly letting the game unfold to a last second field goal for the Giants. Even with 3 dropped passes and a sack on that Patriots final drive, the game came down to a final play, that just missed connecting in the end zone, what a finish. The Giants would have been better off just taking a knee 3 times and kicking the field goal on the last play of the game. That would have been much safer than giving Tom Brady 56 seconds and timeout to score a touchdown and win the game.

How does this apply to youth football?
I’ve seen a very similar circumstance with a friends team in Florida. They were losing 21-20 with just over 1 minute to play. The opposing team had the ball on my friends 10 yard line and they had a first down. My friends team had 1 timeout left. The opponent had a very strong team, but they weren’t very good at PAT kicks, which were worth 2 points. In fact, they were so bad at kicking, they didn’t even bother attempting a kick the entire game. My friends team had been hitting almost 60% of their kicks and were pretty confident in their kicker.
So these were his options:
Try for a strip and hope to cover it and go 90 yards with the ball. Or go for the strip and hope to cover 90 yards in less than 1 minute on offense.
Try and hold the other team out of the endzone on 4 attempts, with the slight possibility of getting the ball back inside their own 10 with just a few seconds left. My friends offense would have to cover about 95 yards in less than 10 seconds- 1 play more or less.
Let the other team score on purpose. Expect that they will go for the 1 point PAT, get it and be up by 28-20. Receive the kickoff and get field position on their own 40 or better. Now only needing to go 60 yards in the final 60 seconds, score a touchdown and make the PAT kick to tie the game up and send it into overtime.

Well as you may have guessed, my friend let the other team score on first down. As he expected, they ran the ball in for the 1 point PAT to take a 28-20 lead. Fearing a long kick return the opponent kicked short and my friends team got the ball to start off at their own 45 yard line. They went on to score a touchdown to make it 28-26 with just 6 seconds left to play. They then made the PAT kick to bring the score to 28-28 and taking the game into overtime. Momentum was on my friends side as the opponent fumbled the ball on the first play of overtime and my friends team went on to score on their second offensive snap.

Thinking outside the box isn’t just for the NFL guys. When coaching youth football, especially with some of the special rules many of us have, it makes sense as well. Keep this scenario in the back of your mind, you never know when you might need it.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

2011 Coach of the Year
Dan Schlager- Jupiter Mustangs, Jupiter Florida
Midgets- age 12-14
Treasure Coast Pop Warner League Champions
Southeast Pop Warner Region Champions
Pop Warner National Champions

2011 Worst to First Coach of the Year
Cleveland Spruill- Redskins, Woodridge, Virginia
Age 11-12
League Champions Dale City Youth Football
From 0-8 to League Champions in One Season

2011 Gold Standard Coach of the Year Award Winners- First Cut-More Being Posted Soon

Tony Holland, Hampstead Ravens Youth Football, Hampstead, Maryland
Rich Lawrence, Lions Youth Football, Tacoma Washington
Richard Staklinski, Manalapan, Braves, Manalapan, New Jersey- AYF National Champions
Jeff Wagner, Laurel Lions, Laurel, Montana
Larry Cain, Redskins, Dale City, Virginia
Michael Wright, Elmore Packers, Elmore, TN
Ted Danecki, Kadena Tigers, Okinawa, Japan
Adan Echeverria, Melrose Park Gaels, Chicago, Illinois
Jeff Mauk, Loveland Titans, Loveland, Colorado
Jeff Miret, Port St Lucie Pirates, Port St Lucie, Florida- Pop Warner National Champions
Chris Szekeres, Cranford Cougars, Cranford, New Jersey
Brandon Greenwodd, Syracuse Storm, Syracuse, New York
Jackie Hale, South Point C, Southpoint. Ohio
Lawrence Smith, Chilliwack Giants, Chilliwack B.C. Canada
Eric Butterfield, Cowboys, Lake, Ohio
Jim Sansone, Bulldogs, New Haven, Connecticut
Mark Rice, Glencoe Trevians, Glencoe, Illinois

All Award winners names will be posted on the Coaching Awards Page of the web site.

Interview With Dan Schlager, Winning Youth Football’s Coach of the Year and 2011 Pop Warner Midget National Championship Winner

Dan Schlager from Jupiter, Florida was named by Winning Youth Football to be our 2011 Youth Football Coach of the Year award winner. Dan’s Pop Warner Midget team finished 16-0, winning a Treasure Coast League Championship, Southeastern Region Championship and Pop Warner National Championship in the Midget division of 12-14 year olds.

I first met Dan back in 2005, doing a private clinic for his program in Jupiter. Dan shared the trials and tribulations of running what was then a bit of a non-traditional offense and defense for his area of the country. Dan suffered quite of bit of funny looks and naysayers in those early days, but he was able to stay the course and develop a reputation for playing very sound, physical and competitive football, no matter the talent he drew.

That reputation grew as Dan’s teams piled up blowout win after blowout win every season, the skeptics became a little less vocal, not that it bothered him much. Dan isn’t short on confidence in his kids and his approach to coaching the game, but always gives credit for the teams success to his assistant coaches and players. He spends a tremendous amount of time getting better as a coach, doing research, planning and developing relationships with other coaches to sharpen the edge of his coaching skills axe. His massive research library has many or more books on how to develop the minds of players than books on X’s and O’s.

Dan isn’t a pure theorist or copycat, he has a unique coaching style to say the least. While his practices are very fast paced and they are very disciplined, he seems to be very bonded to his team, more bonded than about any team I’ve personally worked with. His teams, especially this team had great chemistry and a never say die attitude. These kids played for each other and for their coach, they were true believing “Kool-Aid” drinkers. This was evident in their thrilling come from behind win in their quarterfinal game at Disney where they scored on the last play of the half and won the game on the last play of the game. That was also the case in their win over a very talented Landsdown Ravens team, where Jupiter had to overcome 3 turnovers and some untimely penalties. The pinnacle of course was their National Title game win over two-time defending National Champion on a 39 game winning streak, the seemingly invincible and heavily favored Far West Jets.

I know you’ve coached for a long time and had a lot of success, what made this team different than the others that you’ve coached? It was obvious from watching your team practice and play that your team had a lot of great “Chemistry”, how did that happen? What did you do to bring this team together?

This year was a little bit different a lot of us have known each other and been together for quite some time now. At the beginning of the year I just had a feeling that there was just something special about this year. From the first parent/coaches meeting I said that I felt we had a chance to do something special this year and I truly believed that we had a shot at it and we just had to go and get it.

I was able to connect with the kids at their level, using popular music, sharing personal experiences aa well as popular movies to bring home some of the lessons I knew they would need to be taught and buy into to be a championship level team. At some point we would be tested and have to come from behind even though we won all of our league games in blowout fashion. I prepared them for that situation from the very beginning of the season. We were prepared to be knocked down and prepared to be able to get back on our feet when that inevitably happened. I also think my personality and approach may be suited best for this specific age group, it was a great fit.

Our kids bought into the idea that we were brothers and a family and that if someone was going to try and harm that family or take something like a win from us, the kids were going to fight to protect their family members from that. We keep it real, I’m genuine and honest with the kids, we have a very deep trust and respect bond that has been earned over time. The kids know they can trust me and that I’m willing to do anything from them as well as work my tail off to make sure they are the team I know they can be.

In several playoff games, your team was in a bad spot. You scored on the last play of the half, last play of game and seemed to be in a tough patch in the finals. In every case they rallied to win. What did you do to instill that “never say die” attitude in your players?

It was my first year at this age level and my personal belief in my life I believe it’s a reflection of my thoughts and beliefs on life so being a younger coach I communicated with my team through music, team building events like we all went bowling at the beginning of the year, had cookouts at the beach etc… Using the music they/we listen to as a way to communicate with the players. To instill the values of being a team and never giving up kind of attitude. Our team motto for the year was “go ‘n’ get it” And I really felt we were gonna go make it happen and our time had come. I sold the kids on the idea it was our time and our destiny to win it all this year.

You played Far West Jets who came into the tournament with a 39 game win streak and won back to back National Championships. You had plenty of film on them and everyone in Orlando knew they were the team to beat. How did you convince your kids that they could play with and beat a team almost everyone thought was unbeatable?

I never thought they were unbeatable. They were just another team in the way of our goal. I thought we were the team to beat. It kind of blew my mind watching the ESPN version of the game with the commentary and speaking with others after the game how they thought it was an upset. I never go into anything in life feeling like I am going to lose, I prepare to win and don’t prepare to fail. I use visualization techniques to reinforce where I want the end result to be. I believe in my kids, my staff, and myself. I knew they had had a lot of success in previous years but things change. I always believed that we would win and because ,I believe, I believe my players felt it, my staff felt it, and our parents felt it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Far West Jets. Their head coach, coaching staff and players all showed great heart and sportsmanship. They were definitely the best coached team that I had ever faced.

In the finals against Far West late in the game with a small lead you had a 4th and 15 from the 50 and instead of kicking deep, you faked the punt and got the first down. What made you decide to do that?

In my five years as a head coach I have only punted one time. I feared a block punt and I also knew that they were most likely thinking that there’s no way you’re going for it on 4th and 15 in the 4th quarter in a National Championship game so they would be playing punt all the way. If we can throw and catch it’s a first down and we run the clock out. I felt the reward was greater than the risk.

How is your coaching staff broken down?

I feel that my guys are the best there is. I surround myself with great people. I don’t break it down with different coordinators (offensive/defensive). We just get together and I let things fall into place.

Your kids give great effort on every play, they play to the whistle. How do you get your kids to consistently do that?

I care about them a lot and they know it. They feel it. There’s no faking it. I have a lot of respect for them and they know it. Because of the respect I have for them they want to go out there and give their best every play. I tell them all to play every play as if it were their last play, and that’s what they do.

We also use the “Fist” acronym, which to us means several things. First of all it’s Finish It Strong Together, secondly we also use it to wipe out the memory of any mistakes. In any game a player is going to make mistakes. While we want the player to learn from that mistake, we also want him to play his best. He can’t do that if the coaching staff and the player are dwelling on the mistake. We let him know what he needs to do better, raise fists, tell him to flush that play memory from his mind and finish strong for his teammates. I’m a believer in nueuro-linguistic programming and this approach has worked well in getting our kids to focus on the present, go to a happy place and get them thinking in a positive way.

There are a lot of people out there in Pop Warner, AYF, UYF and other leagues who say you can’t win without illegally stacking your teams. How do the Jupiter Mustangs put your teams together?

We do it through a draft. Then once you have a kid on your team he stays with your team throughout. Jupiter Mustangs are actually one of if not the largest organizations in the Treasure Coast, so our kids and talent is actually more spread out than any other team in our league. We do a legitimate 1 for 1 draft, absolutely no stacking, in fact a number of kids I recruited to play in our program who I really wanted to get on our team were drafted by the other Midget team in our organization.

I noticed your minimum play counter usually had all of your minimum play kids their snaps prior to halftime. How were you able to do that?

I believe that every kid provides value to the team. I call it “bringing something to the table”. As a coach your job is to find out where he best provides value to the team. That allows him to feel good about himself, gives him a job to do. Then just let him go do his job.

You are a no-huddle team, why?

I like to see what the defense is giving me and to be able to run more plays. Helps me with my minimum play kids too.

What in your coaching approach is maybe different than what you see other youth football coaches doing?

I don’t have a kid on the team but even if I did this wouldn’t change. I don’t care who scores, who makes the tackle etc… I say this at the beginning of every season. I call whatever play I feel gives us the best chance to score with the kid I feel gives us the best chance to do just that. I want to win. When you go in with that philosophy all the other good things fall into place. You win big and then the kids can play other positions and have some fun. One year I had 21 out of 23 kids get into the end zone. When someone scores a TD or makes a tackle, We all score! We all make the tackle! The team wins. It’s a team effort. We know football is the ultimate team sport. You just put each kid on the team in a position to be able to provide as much for the team as they are capable of.

What top 5 pointers would you give that coach who wants to win a National Title?

1. Care. Really genuinely care about your kids.
2. Educate yourself and study the game. Know your enemy.
3. Don’t be out worked- you have to be the hardest working coach out there. Don’t get outhustled.
4. I feel that most people have kids out of positions. Spend a lot of time figuring out each kids position on the team. Even if it takes all year. Find the best spot for every kid.
5. Surround yourself with people who are smarter and better than you. Make sure they all care about the kids and the team as much as you. They have to have that caring mindset.

I went to see the Championships in Orlando back in 2006, when I felt my team was 1 play away from making it to Disney. I checked out the venue, what teams were doing and what I needed to do to be able to have a team that could compete at that level. I visioned our team on the field, winning the title and made that our goal, not to win our league or the region, but to win a National Championship.

Who are your main coaching influences?

If you want a list of “famous”football coaches that inspire me I can give you that. But for me…. it’s life….
Lefty Helms
Mark Layer
Dave Cisar
Kevin Justice
My Lil Bro Kevin
My Mom and Dad
My Friends and family

What are your future coaching plans?

I’m not 100% sure right now but I definitely will continue to coach because I love the sport and I believe it is the best tool out there to teach young men life lessons. I wouldn’t pursue anything higher than the High School level because I believe the fun and all that is taken out of it. I’ve coached some at the High School level and I know I could do well at there and I would love to be apart of that experience. Bringing a whole community together in a positive way is something that really motivates me, Jupiter and our parents went nuts for our team this year. From my experience coaching at both levels, High School and youth, Pop Warner coaching especially at the Regional and National Tournament level is just as challenging or even more so than some High School experiences I’ve had. We played some great teams that were really well coached in Miami in Regionals before we even got to Orlando, where we got the chance to play three very well coached and talented teams.

Dan is a very successful coach who goes to his own drum beat. He’s a great example of a coach who not only spends time perfecting his X’s and O’s but prepares his team mentally and emotionally and brings them together as a team with a common purpose and vision. Dan is someone who is first in and last out at any clinic and he’s definitely the guy you want to be sitting next to when the story telling starts at the local watering hole once the clinic is over. Congrats on a great season and congratulations on your well deserved Coach of the Year Award.

What can a youth football coach take away from the National Championship game? When you are coaching youth football you have to be careful about what you learn from watching College Football. We don’t have the practice time or talent that the College teams have, if we did then my advice would be make sure and get a solid field goal kicker. But our game is a bit different, I’ve easily watched over 600 youth football games and I’ve never seen any team score more than a single field goal.

What we can take away is something that was very apparent and applicable to the youth game, Alabama was tipping off the pass on nearly every pass play. Alabama was very successful running play-action passes on first down, they threw 16 and completed 12 of them to move the ball against a very stout LSU defense. While the Alabama Quarterback was deemed by many to be very average, a “game manager”, he was finding open receivers on short and intermediate routes off of play-action as LSU concentrated on stopping the Bama run game. Had LSU keyed in on several “tells”, they wouldn’t have been out of position on those pass plays.

The tipoff was on nearly every pass play the Left Offensive Tackle for Bama stayed in his two-point stance while the other offensive linemen got into three-point stances. That stance allowed the Left Tackle to better execute his kick step to neutralize the outside rush of the LSU Defensive End. There were secondary “tells’ as well. If you looked closely at the Bama offensive linemen, they got very “light” in their stances on pass plays and very “heavy” in their stances on run plays. When a player is light in their stance, it means they have little weight on their down hand, this was Bama on pass plays. On some pass plays the Bama linemen were so back in their stances their butts were deeper than their knees. You saw much flatter backs and weight on the down hands on running plays.

As you might expect, this “tell” is even more prevalent in youth football. This is something you can train yourself to look for from the sidelines or even for your Linebackers to look for during the course of the game. Flat backs and weight on the hands equal run, two-point stances- no weight on the hands and lowered butts equal pass. No telling how LSU’s defense would have fared if they would have employed this “tell”, it may have been another 9-6 game than the one we all saw. In any event go back to your game film from last year and see how “telling” some of the teams you played were. This might be something you can use next season as you look for little advantages to make your team better.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Offensive Pace as a Weapon in Youth Football

In today’s topsy-turvey world of college football, we see teams like Oregon and Oklahoma State running plays at breakneck speed to effectively wear down a defense, but can it work in youth football? With less practice time and less mature players is the risk reward equation leaning towards a yes or no? Is it a “bridge too far”? My experience definitely sways to the yes you should run it side of the balance beam.

Gus Malzahn said in an interview last week that the only way to effectively attack and defeat the vaunted Alabama defense is with a rapid pace. Rapid pace often times puts Bama in a situation where they aren’t aligned correctly. Bama also uses fewer stunts and blitzes when they are playing against rapid pace teams. So if a Nick Saban coached team struggles against rapid pace teams, how do you think the average youth football team is going to respond? The only question is can you pull it off without a bunch of penalties and bad snaps?

The answer to that question is a resounding yes you can IF you use your practice time wisely and use some tips and tricks in implementing the no-huddle and rapid pace tempo. In the Pop Warner National Championships this year in Orlando, I saw a Junior Pee Wee team age 9-11 from Port St Lucie, Florida go rapid pace to break open several games. While it wasn’t anything fancy, 4-8 yards a pop all of a sudden you look up and it’s 26-0 in the second quarter.  Head Coach Jeff Miret is pictured here in the blue and gold.  As soon as a play was whistled dead, they were lining up and running another play. They were running a play every 12 seconds on average. Head coach and friend Jeff Miret uses our approach along with some of our offense. Even the well coached top teams in the country really struggled to defend against such a breakneck pace, and these teams had scouted PSL and had been working on defending rapid pace.

This season my age 10-11 team went rapid pace in a few games. We have been no-huddle for the last 15 seasons and the pace is determined by the opponent and how we match up along with the momentum of the game. In the opening drive of one game against an evenly matched team we ran 11 plays in 2:05 to score in the opening drive in another game against a 7-1 team we scored on the opening drive in 9 plays and 1:55. Rapid pace helps you get more snaps, which really helps you if your league has minimum play requirements. If you do a lot of formationing, rapid pace can be a huge benefit to your offense. Invariably rapid pace also forces your opponent to burn up most if not all of their timeouts on defense. Fast pace will help you to keep your kids on the sidelines engaged and alert. There is little bench sitting and shenanigans going on when your team is running a play every 11-12 seconds. More information on how to implement no-huddle and rapid pace in the book “Winning Youth Football a Step-by-Step Plan.”

Rapid pace no-huddle also can be a life saver when you are tight on time. If you are always no-huddle and are rapid pace most of the time, making the transition into a “two minute” style offense is very easy. Many youth football teams simply rely on “Hail Mary” type desperation or trick plays when trying to score with little time left in a game or the half. No-huddle rapd pace teams can drive the field and they don’t panic. Port St Lucie went 85 yards in the final 2 minutes of their National Championship game this year to snatch yet another National Title. They did it in 9 plays and without throwing a single pass. My 5-6 grade team won an out state tournament in 2010 by going 80 yards in 9 plays in Championship Game in the last 2:10 with no timeouts. Could we have done it had we not been a no-huddle rapid pace team? Doubtful.

No-huddle rapid pace, think about adding it this off-season for your youth football team.
Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

A heart felt congratulations are in order for the 2011 Pop Warner Midget National Champions, the Jupiter Mustangs from Jupiter, Florida. Good friend and Winning Youth Football system user Dan Schlager head coached this team. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Dan for the last 6 years and have cliniced their coaches a number of times. Their team is pictured above in their hard fought semi-final win over the Landsdowne Ravens from Baltimore.

How did they do it? Did they have a stacked team full of older lighters and world class athletes? Not in the least, the Mustangs only had 5 older lighters and they drafted their team in a legit 1-1 draft. The Jupiter Mustangs simply have their act together under the leadership of Kevin Justice and Dan along with a bevy of committed, hard working and knowledgeable coaches. Dan, his coaching staff, players and parents deserve all the credit for their National Championship season.

Dan has always been a coach who values coaching and he invests a great deal of time and effort into becoming a better coach, he sees it as a challenge. We will be interviewing Dan in the next several weeks here on the blog. He will share some of the tips he used to get his team to Orlando and then winning the tournament. If you followed his teams progress, they scored on the last play of the half and on the dramatic last play of their first round game to advance to the semi-final game. They beat the Far West Jets in the finals, who were riding a 39 game unbeaten streak and were 2-time defending National Champions.

Winning a National Championship is special and we thank Dan for letting us ride on his coattails a bit. We were able to view some of Dan’s games and his opposition via Hudl prior to getting to Orlando for the tournament. We also had the opportunity to attend one of Dan’s practices, work a little bit with the team and do some film study with the coaching staff. While spending some time with the team and coaching staff it was very apparent early on that his was a special team on a mission, very focused. They were a team that was bonded not only to each other, but to their head coach. They had to overcome a lot of adversity to win their National Title and there wasn’t a soul in the tournament that gave them any chance of making it to the title game, let alone winning it. They believed in each other, they believed in their coaches and they were about the only ones who believed they could not only make it to the tournament, which no Jupiter team had ever done, but that they could win it. And win it they did beating what most experts thought was the unbeatable team, more on that later.

Little things separate youth football teams that finish 12-0 and those that finish 10-2, that also applies to football at other levels of play. Often times these little blunders are on special teams and are very preventable if you know what to look for.

Last weekend one of these preventable mistakes happened during the Denver Broncos- New England Patriots game. The Patriots were on their own 40 with about 8 seconds left to go in the half. It was fourth down and about 8 yards to go, so the Pats decide to punt. The Denver punt returner was set up for the return on his own 10 yard line. The Broncos returner was nothing special, he hadn’t returned a punt for over 50 yards for the entire season.

It was a high booming punt and the Denver return man tried to field the ball on his 15, he fumbled it and the Pats recovered with just 3 seconds remaining. New England went on to kick the field goal on the last play of the half and got a cheap 3 point momentum boost going into the half in a tightly contested game. Later in the game the Patriots broke the game open, but these 3 “free” points could have been the difference in the game. Why would you bother to even bother fielding a punt with a very average return man with only 3 seconds left to play in the half? Wouldn’t the chance that he fumble and the Pats scoring from close in be far greater than the return man returning the kick for a touchdown as the gun sounds?

These mistakes aren’t limited to NFL coaches, something similar happened to my 5-6 grade youth football team this season. In game 2, the other team had the ball on our 45 and they were punting on fourth down. Our return man was a third year player, but this was his first season returning kicks. He has good hands, but had just 1 game as a return man under his belt. The kick was excellent, our return man had to back up to the 12 yard line to catch the ball. He dropped it and the other team recovered and subsequently scored on fourth down on a 20 yard pass just before halftime in a game we lost by 6 points.

While my teams have lost just 20 of our last 159 games, this is probably one we could have won. Our offense had consistently cranked out first downs, the opponents only had 1 timeout left, our return man was average and the other team had a very good kicker. Up to that point the other team hadn’t even cranked out a single first down. What we should have done was play for the fake, let the ball go untouched and look to score in the second half.  With all those factors combined, our offense moving the ball, our defense playing lights out, our return man being average, little time left in the half, poor field position and the other team with just 1 timeout, we simply made a bad coaching choice.

You can’t make those types of mistakes and expect to win out in youth football. Little things mean a lot when your goals are large league titles, National Tournament championships and undefeated seasons. Not only do you have to have the mind to recognize it’s time to call it a half and win the game in the second half, it’s something you MUST practice as well. Yes, telling your kids NOT to field a punt, NOT to go for a punt block and safety punt defense is something you should invest 3-4 minutes practicing during every special teams block.

This season that loss kept us from being Division Champions, instead we had to settle for Division Co-Champions. I feel bad for making that decision, but maybe I can find solace in the fact that I don’t get paid anything to coach youth football, but I made the very same mistake as someone that is paid millions to coach in the NFL. That doesn’t make me feel any better, but will be a mistake I won’t make again.

Pop Warner and AYF National Championships

For the last 3 years I’ve attended the Pop Warner and AYF National Championships in Orlando, Florida to see some of the best youth football teams on the country compete for National Championships. It’s fun and informative to watch these diverse teams from all over the US practice and play. By nature, I’m a person that loves to study process, so this week provides me with a wealth of information I can put to use both for my own teams and to share with you. It’s also great to see old friends and to watch and help teams running the Winning Youth Football system.

This year was similar to last year at Pop Warner. In the finals on Friday, in the 4 Championship games there were 3 teams running our system. They were playing for the National Title at Midgets, Pee Wees and Junior Pee Wees (the Junior Pee Wee coach runs our system along with others). We had 2 National Titles on Friday along with an AYF National Championship win at Junior Midget on Saturday. All the credit for these teams success belongs to the coaching staff, players and parents, not us, but we are certainly proud of their accomplishments. I do know all of these coaches and had a chance to work with several of these teams on and off the field, we even cliniced one of them.

The picture is of the Hawaii Kapolei Titan Pee Wee team who ended up as runner-ups, just getting nudged out by Jensen Beach, Florida for a National Title. Coach Matavi and his team were great to finally meet and spend time with, very friendly and humble people. Coach “Matt” has been using our system with this team since they were tiny mites. Coach “Matt” is standing to my left, I’m the only guy not wearing blue, I packed light for the trip. More on the tournaments in this blog in the next day and weeks to come.

This post isn’t meant to downplay the UYF or other national independent tournaments in any way. These are large well done tournaments that are easy to get to and allow me to watch the largest number of games from a funnel of thousands of teams.

Every year we like to recognize a group of coaches who have excelled on and off the field of play. This year we will be awarding our annual “Winning Youth Football Coach of the Year Award”, “Winning Youth Football Worst to First Coach of the Year Award” and hopefully hundreds of “Winning Youth Football Gold Standard Coaching Awards.”

As a youth football coach, none of us are paid or will end up in anyone’s Hall of Fame, but we can be recognized by our peers for our efforts and end results. When your teams have success and you are recognized by your peers, it often times helps to internally validate your approach and philosophy. As youth coaches we all know that our approaches, philosophy and coaching ability are more heavily scrutinized by backseat drivers and wannabe “experts” who seem long on coaching knowledge but short on interest in actually showing up to practice and investing the time in doing the job. In many places you aren’t going to get any accolades from covetous and jealous opposing coaches, but you can get it here from a group of unbiased and knowledgeable, very successful youth coaches from around the country.

Our goal is to recognize you, so that you may inspire others to excel in the same way you have, through love for your players, hard work, patience and a true love and appreciation of the game. There is nothing wrong or self centered about sharing your experience with others, by doing so, others may learn from it and help them to enrich the football experience of the boys they coach.

The Awards:

Winning Youth Football Coach of the Year Award:
It is awarded to the coach who using the “Winning Youth Football” system has best exemplified the tenants of the approach the books and DVDs teach. Your team will have had to won a Championship while retaining 90% or above of your players.

Winning Youth Football Worst to First Coach of the Year Award:
It is awarded to the coach who using the “Winning Youth Football” system, who took a downtrodden team and turned them into a winner. Your team would have had to improve from near the bottom of the standings to near the top after switching to the “Winning Youth Football” approach to coaching your team.

Winning Youth Football Gold Standard Coaching Award:
For ANY coach, using any system. We are awarding as many awards out as we have those that meet the criteria.

The Criteria For Gold Standard Award:
•Won at least 70% of all your games.
•Retained 90% or higher of your players from the first day of practice or conditioning to the end of the season.
•Have a good reputation for sportsmanship and fair play.

The Award:
•A Certificate from Winning Youth Football with your name and Organization name, mailed to you.
•Your name and team name on the Gold Standard Coaching Award Winners page on the Winning Youth Football Web Site.
•A logo you can display on your Web Site certifying that you and your team are “Winning Youth Football Gold Standard Coaching” winners.

All nominations and the simple application need to be in by December 31, 2011. For more information and to apply or nominate a coach, please go here:
http://winningyouthfootball.com/youth-football-awards.php