From the Baltimore Glazier Clinic

Going to Baltimore Glazier Clinic is always a treat, the huge crowds, the warm reception, the great town and just fantastic people. We’ve been there so many times, many of the attendees are now friends rather than acquaintances. Phil, Don Speidel, Tony Holland, Bernie Hayes and the entire Spirit of Faith coaching staff were great to see again, just to name a few and of course the real pros that make up the Baltimore Glazier staff as well as fellow speakers like Jerry Campbell.

We were blessed to have several Pop Warner and AYF National Championship coaching staffs in attendance including the guys from Watkins who won the Junior Midget DI Title in Pop Warner. The Spirit of Faith Warriors from nearby Temple Hills, Maryland were in attendance and were presented with their “Winning Youth Football Organization of the Year” award. They are an amazing group of committed men that are using youth football to change lives. They engineered an amazing turnaround in 2009, going from bottom dweller in nearly every division to League Winners, sending 5 teams to play in the AYF National Championships in Orlando.

They used the Winning Youth Football system this in 2009 for the very first time, all credit belongs to their kids and coaching staff. They kept e-mailing me all year, asking questions and letting me know about their amazing turnaround. On a radio interview in October, I told them that if they made it to Orlando to play for a National Championship, I would be there. In a very unlikely turn, they were able to qualify 5 teams for Title runs, so we packed our bags and headed to Orlando. What a great experience for the kids and the organization, it was a privilege watching them play.

Hope to see you New Englanders in Hartford at the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic this weekend, Bobby Bowden, Ken Niumatalolo and Randy Edsall are on the speaker slate along with yours truly.

Many youth football coaches going into the playoffs consider making s few changes to try and confuse or out-scheme the great teams they will face late in the season. It’s a quandary many of us fall into, should we stick with what got us this far or surprise our opponent with something new that maybe they haven’t prepared for yet.

Most of us that make it to the playoffs or to a championship game are in that game for a reason. We’ve done something right to make it to that game or playoffs. When you are coaching youth football, most of the teams you face this far down the road have scouted you at least one time, maybe twice and often times have film on your team. Many youth football coaches panic a bit when they see the opposing coach on the sidelines watching their games. Many of us fear the other team is going to “figure us out”,  that they will know all of our football plays. Many coaches will respond to this fear by changing or adding significantly to their offenses for this one game.

Most teams fail when they try to significantly change  their offense for that final game. What many of these guys fail to realize is they forgot what got them this far to begin with, great execution. It is very difficult to get great execution with something you’ve just added late in the season. Adding something very different late also robs your team of valuable practice time, most teams that make these late season changes neglect repping and refining their base offense, defense and special teams in favor of trying to get competent with the new stuff.

If you are very concerned about your opponent being well prepared for your team,  why not add a few small nuances that are built on the foundation of your base system? If you scout, the other teams base defensive scheme, tendencies and techniques may lend themselves to adding a few simple adjustment tags or formations. This can give your team some nice advantages without adding in an entirely new offense.

When you dump your base offense (your faithful wife) for another woman the week before your big game, what are you telling your kids? We know our base offense isn’t good enough to beat these guys so we are going to dump it for something totally different. What do you think that does to your players confidence? But does this mean you should never ever change anything?

I always have a few tricks up my sleeve for late in the season for the playoffs or big game. Now mind you,  nearly every single one of my opponents has a copy of my books and DVDs and has current game film on us. One opponent this year had scouted us twice in person as well and had video of four of our games. These guys come daily to this very blog, I know because my web stats tell me where every single visitor comes from every single day. They are very persistent, I appreciate their commitment and effort.

I like to add in a few nuances in late, but never an entirely different offense, with different base concepts, footwork or blocking rules. Many of the “changes” I add are things we have practiced all year and are just now showing. Others are minor changes or adjustments and on a very rare occasion, a “new” series. We will use formations we have not shown that we feel may give us an advantage, but we are still running the base plays out of these “new” formations. The same plays we ran week one, with the same blocking rules. You may want to consider using a blocking adjustment or tag you didn’t need to use in previous weeks, something you have been practicing, but have yet to use. Almost all of our adjustment tags I use are in my book.

I spoke to a youth coach last week who had gone 9-0 in the regular season using my system at age 9-10. They only had the “Sainted Six” plus one in and were second in the league in scoring.  They would be playing for the League Championship for the first time ever. He had been well scouted by his opponent for the championship game, an opponent that had won countless titles, the bully of the league. Our coach added in a completely different offense in for this last game, an offense that put a quarterback under center and required a lot of precision and techniques his kids had not been using the entire season.

Now the system they were attempting to add is a good system, but it isn’t one you are going to perfect in one or even two weeks. They didn’t move the ball at all with their “new” offense. They were behind by 14 Points before they reverted back to their base Single Wing, but by that time his kids had lost their “mojo” and the other team was playing possession football and hogging the clock. Needless to say, our friends lost the big game without really giving themselves a chance to win the game.

In my opinion it would have probably made more sense to add in the Mouse or Spinner series for this game and maybe add in the Nasty Split, Nasty Tunnel and the Wrong/G adjustments. The base blocking rules and techniques wouldn’t have been altered, in fact the linemen would have had to learn very little. The Mouse or Spinner backfield action is something you can easily perfect in a weeks time. This would have given this coaches offense an entirely different look and feel and gave the opposing coach something he had yet to see, and it wouldn’t have “cost” much practice time at all. The kids on our friends team would have seen this was not an abandonment of the base offense that had taken them this far, just a short extension of it. I have successfully used this strategy a number of times by not showing the Jet or Burst Series until very late in the season as well as “saving”  a few formations and adjustments etc

All of our play series are modular, one built very nicely on top of the other. When we add a new series, none of the blocking rules or tags change. In week 1 we learn 16 Power, Power means we block our base rule plus our right guard knows he has to do something different when he hears “power”. So when all the linemen hear 16 Power, Spinner 26 Power, Rocket/Jet 16 Power, Mouse 16 Power it’s all the same to them. They always do the same thing on 16 Power or 26 Power or 23 Power, except for the center, who may be snapping the ball to someone else. The only thing that changed on these plays was the backfield action. As you may imagine once you get a backfield action down, putting in a new series of plays is simple. Once you have the first play in it is like getting 4-6 “free” plays with very little investment of time.

Don’t abandon the partner that brought you to the big dance, just teach her a few extensions of the dance moves that both of you know and love. Maybe ask her to wear a different dress, but don’t change partners and outcoach yourself in these big games. Before many games the great Single Wing coach John Aldrich used to draw the six plays he was going to run on a chalk board in the opponents locker room. Remember those were college football players and coaches he was going against, his teams RARELY lost. The other team still has to stop you. Your base offense should put the defense in conflict such that it is too dangerous to “tee” off on anything you do. Your execution, keys and playcalling/adjusting should allow you to move the ball, without adding in a completely foreign “girlfriend” into the mix at the end. If your Sainted Six look great, add in the plus one and the “No” and Nasty/Tunnel Adjustment.  If your Six Plus one look good, add in the Mouse or Spinner and the “Wrong/G” . Your Mouse and Spinner look great, add in the Burst or Jet Series, but don’t go adding a square peg to a round hole late in the season and expect everything to come up roses.

 Remember my teams have gone 121-17 and the guys I’m coaching against know pretty much everything we are going to do. It hasn’t mattered.

Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, any republishing of this article without this paragraph and link included is copyright infringement. http://winningyouthfootball.com

This Years Winning Youth Football Coach of the Year Awards

Each year selecting a Single Winner for all three award categories gets more difficult. It was very difficult selecting one winner for each category this year, there were so many compelling stories submitted. I sincerely appreciate all the coaches that coached this year and embraced our approach to coaching youth football and making special seasons for the kids in their charge. We appreciate you taking the time to share your seasons with us. My wife and I love reading your stories and can feel the passion, pride and love each of you has for your players through the words you write. The decision we made this year was so gut wrenching, we almost decided to cancel doing an award for next season, it was that difficult, there were so many deserving coaches out there. So thanks again to all of you for what you do.

The 2009 Winning Youth Football, Worst to First Coach of the Year Award goes to:
Jay Exum and the entire Redskin Coaching Staff, Raleigh Redskins age 7-9, Cary North Carolina

The 2009 Winning Youth Football Coach of the Year Award goes to:
Kevin Skibinski, Tri City Gold, Geneva Illinois age 10-11s

The 2009 Winning Youth Football Organization of the Year Award:
Spirit of Faith Warriors, Temple Hills, Maryland, Dion Golatt and Staff

I will be doing more in-depth write ups on these programs in the blog in the coming weeks, including some video of Spirit of Faith at the AYF National Championships in Orlando, where I got to meet their coaches, parents and kids.

Here are their stories:

Coach Dave,

I’m sure you hear a good number of turn around stores but few as compelling as the story of the Raleigh Redskins accomplished this season using the Winning Youth Football system. To say the Redskins were a bad football program would be putting it lightly. In 2008 this team was 1-6 and had scored 3 touchdowns for the entire season, the season before we were 0-7. Going back through the entire history of the Redskins they had never had a winning season and had only picked up an “odd” win here and there.

In fact this story even gets “better”, the league is divided into 6 pods, and each pod drafts players onto 2 teams. The reason this is important is when a player was drafted by the Redskins it was often viewed as a “death sentence”, kids and parents avoided our team like the plague. Parents commonly called the city to ask if their kids could be transferred off of our team. Getting the letter from us saying a player had been selected by the Redskins was as well received as getting an IRS audit letter.

My son had the good fortune to be selected to play for the Redskins and despite suffering through a 1-6 season, loved playing the game. I was asked to help, but had only played 1 year of football so I got on the internet and started doing my research, that is how your name came to my attention. I bought all your materials and found them so compelling I asked the other coaches to consider using your system. In the end they all decided to go whole hog, we used your Single Wing Offense, your defense, special teams, teaching progressions, drills and even your daily minute by minute practice plans.

This year the Redskins finished undefeated at 9-0. Instead of our 3 touchdowns total from last year, we never scored less than 3 touchdowns in any single game. We averaged over 27 points per game (mercy rule kicks in at 24 point differential) and our opponents averaged 6 points per game. We recorded 4 shutouts with your defense and won our championship game 27-0 against a team that has dominated us and the league for years. We were the talk of the league to put it mildly.

The coaches were proud of the season, but more importantly our kids had so much fun not only winning but using all the things you suggest to make practices fast paced and fun. Thank you so much for putting this together, you provided 30 children and 6 coaches an experience of a lifetime that none of us will soon forget.

Jay Exum
Raleigh Redskins
Cary, NC

Dave,

In 2007 I implemented your system and had a great season however, in 2008 as you already know, we went 12-0 with a super bowl title (97lb weight limit with 10 & 11 year olds). Well, 2009 showed to be another great year, going 12-0 again with a second super bowl title. Needless to say your system works. I also think it is funny that I took all kinds of grief, especially the first year when I used your system. Not only was I the first one to bring this offense to our league of over 1,500 kids, but our team is pure proof that with back to back super bowls (24-0) over a two year time frame along with having the best PF (points for) and the lowest PA (points against), your system really does work if followed correctly. Again, I just wanted to personally thank you for your efforts in putting the coaching materials together and sharing it with other coaches such as myself. I have coached youth football for over 9 years and I can say, I have found the right recipe. Winning is very fun by the way!

Best Regards,

Kevin Skibinski,
Geneva IL

Dave,

We are just a second year American Youth Football program based in Temple Hills, Maryland. We are the Spirit of Faith “Warriors”. In 2008 these were our team records: TM 0-9, MM 9-3 (this was my team) Cadet 1-7, PW 1-9, M 0-9, Total 11-37. We were looking on the internet for a system that our entire organization could implement and adopt across all teams that would allow us to compete in a very competitive AYF league in the Washington DC area. After listening to you at the Baltimore Frank Glazier clinic, we bought all your materials and implemented the system with all but one of our teams in 2009. We used your offense, defense, we followed your system to the T directly from the book with no deviations. This is how we fared in our 2009 season: TM 10-2 (League Runner Up), MM 8-4 (League Runner Up), Cadet 11-2 (League Champ, State Champ, National #2), JPW 13-5 (League Champ, National #3) PW 1-8 (Coach didn’t use your system) JV Unlimited 5-4 Midget 4-9 (League Champ, State Champ).

Not only did were we able to compete across the board and do a worst to first turnaround with nearly all the teams using your system, we sent 4 teams to the AYF National Championships in Orlando Florida. Our cadet team played for the National Title and came in 2nd while our Junior Pee Wee team won 2 games and beat the 2 time defending national champions the Staten Island Hurricanes to claim 3rd place.

Our boys, our coaches and our parents had a very special season. As a Faith based program we understand the importance of keeping kids engaged, having a great season like this was a true blessing. All glory to God and thanks to all our coaches and your help and guidance this season. No one expected us to compete in our league, let alone win it and play in Orlando against some of the best teams in the Nation, thanks again.

Dion Golatt,
Spirit of Faith Warriors
Temple Hills, MD

TM Angus Jno-Baptiste
MM Spencer Hawkins
Cadet Donald Grant
Jr. PeeWee Dion Golatt
JV Unlimited Stan Stancil
Midget Daren Hester

Pastor Jeff Wooten Admin

Pop Warner Junior Midget Division II National Title Game

More film and comment from my trip to Orlando to watch the Pop Warner and AYF National Championships. This is Junior Midget level which is age 10-12 from 85-135 lbs and 13 year olds 85-115 lbs. The yellow team is Port St Lucie Florida, the Aqua team is the Detroit Dolphins.

Since Jeff Miret the head coach of Port St Lucie (PSL) is a friend, the video I’m posting is limited as will my commentary. I watched both of PSL’s games and was very impressed with this youth football team, unfortunately I won’t post all the video or comment on the defense either.

On offense PSL as you can see from the video runs some of my stuff, it is their base, but they are a multiple team. They come off the ball well and their backs hit the hole full force, they execute well and are patient. They pull well and not only get nice double teams, but adjust their blocking a bit against Detroit. The PSL linemen do a nice job of getting a piece of those linebackers in the 4-3. Detroit had so much speed and numbers on the edges PSL limited 95% plus of their runs to inside the tackles.

Jeff is a former successful High School football coach, who knows his stuff. As an independent business owner he has the flexibility to put in a ton of time preparing his kids and does a lot of film work. I’m not sure any coach is better prepared or have teams that are better prepared than Jeff’s teams . His kids are quality kids,  I spent some time around them and saw them “in action” at Universal the day before their big game a class act on and off the field. PSL simply has great kids, great coaches and very supportive fans.

They were in the tournament last year at Pee Wee and finished third. I watched the Division I Junior Midget Championship game on Saturday and felt Jeff’s team would have been neck and neck with the winner and would have trounced the loser. Jeff does a great job of play calling, game planning and making adjustments. Tournament experience is important and the PSL kids and coaches have it. I sat in the stands with several coaching friends from Florida and accurately predicted several plays he would call, which I thought were just right for the defense, down and field position. Jeff knows how to play in a tournament, what to show and not show as everyone is well scouted in these games.

As you can see PSL is very good on special teams, they have one of the better on-side kicks I’ve seen and are very crisp on both sides of the punting game. His defense held Detroit to just a handful of first downs, the TD they gave up was a long fluke play.

Detroit had excellent skill position players. They did not block as consistently or stay on their blocks as well as many of the other youth football teams I saw in Orlando. They did not pull, trap or crab block. On offense they were a 4 and sometimes 5 wide spread team. They had very athletic skill players and a very mobile quarterback. While there were times the receivers had a little room, the pressure on the quarterback was relentless. When the quarterback got to the open field on runs, he was limited to a few gains of 10-15 yards. PSL had some athletic DBs and LBs who are well trained “football players”. PSL tackles well, especially in the open field.

Detroit tackled fairly well also, but they stayed in the 4-3 most of the game and got 4-6 yarded to death. PSL threw I think 3 passes, 2 for completions with 1 TD. PSL can throw the ball effectively and efficiently, but with the 4-3 it just didn’t make much sense.

PSL had just 2 off-sides penalties from what I remember, while Detroit had several 10 and 15 yard penalties that took them out of good plays. PSL did a great job of controlling the tempo with their no-huddle offense with wrist bands. We loved seeing them rattle off 3 real quick plays before halftime which helped them meet their mmp requirements.

Detroit on the other hand blew at least 2 complete drives because they subbed in their entire minimum play group in on offense en masse to get their plays in. When they did this they ran out of the Power I rather than the spread and only ran between the tackles. Obviously Jeff had this scouted and these plays went for negative to maybe 1-2 yards per  snap. Detroit did not get any first downs when the mmp kids were in and lost field position on every drive they chose to use this mmp strategy.

All in all this was a fun game to watch because I knew some of the coaches and players. PSL dominated this division and in my opinion this division had the greatest amount of separation from the #1 team to the rest in the division.

Just like all but one of the 15 games I watched, no single player or running back “dominated” the game. PSL was very balanced.

Minimum Play Strategies in the Pop Warner National Championships:

I saw a number of different minimum play strategies with varying degrees of success. The whole minimum play thing requires plenty of planning and execution in order to maximize the effectiveness of your team.

The head coach of the Richmond, FL Giants team that won the DI Midget title (the TV game) in an interview he did with me, said that “One of the main keys is getting your mmp plays out of the way so when the game is on the line, you have your best players on the field.” His team had all their mmp plays in by halftime. His strategy was to sub those players in a play here and there, alternating series with specific players on defense and offense, primarily in the line as well as a few spots on special teams. He talks about it here:

A Junior Midget team used an odd strategy that seemed to work for them, they would sub out 8-9 kids in to start an offensive series for the first 2 plays and then sub enmasse. The first 2 plays turned out to always be conservative running plays from their base offense, the would then come in and throw or if they were in 3rd and say 7, try and get at least half of it on a run, then go for it on 4th down. Seems like a risky strategy, but it worked for them. They made every 4th down attempt I saw them try. They started off a number of series just like that, in 1 early series they had the 8-9 mmp kids in for 2 plays on offense, they got 3-4 yards, the first teamers came in and got a first down and then the 8-9 mmp kids came back in for 2 plays got 2-3 yards, then the first teamers came back in and stayed in etc. It looked like a Chinese fire drill.

A Junior Midget team, subbed in an entire new offensive team for complete series of plays. The Detroit Dolphins were a Power I and Spread Gun team, when their MMP kids came in it was Power I all the way and all the runs were between the tackles. The opponent  must have seen this in previous film, because they were ready for it. I doubt the Power I team made more than 1-2 yards on any of the plays when those mmp kids were in. It was 3 and out every time. So the Power I team wasted several drives and gave up field position in a game that was still in balance. After each time the backups were in the opponent scored on the ensuing drive.

In any case, in order to insure your kids get into the game while at the same time maximizing your competitive position, you must have a strategy and a plan. For my teams we practice our plan just like anything else, making for a much smoother game day while maximizing our teams potential.

I attended both the Pop Warner and American Youth Football National Championships Orlando Florida December 7-13th. For the next month I will be posting some video and comments on each tournament and the 15 games I watched. While not everyone is in Pop Warner or AYF, there are many independent youth football leagues out there, plenty of data and insights on these games can help youth football coaches improve your teams.

In addition to watching and taping games, I also interviewed several of the head coaches from a number of the winning teams. It was also very rewarding to see four teams running my Single Wing system on offense and my defense right out of the box at the AYF National Championships and another at the Pop Warner, who ran our offense for a good portion of the time.

Here are my thoughts on one Pop Warner Championship Game:

Lee Summit Missouri vs Far West Jets

The film clips:

This is the 2009 Pop Warner Pee Wee Division II Title Game. Pee Wees are 9-11 years old 75-120 lbs and 12 year olds 75-100 lbs

Keep in mind as you watch this film these are the best of 1000s of youth football teams, so whatever I say here really in the whole scheme of things is nit picking. If you look at the pad level, effort to the whistle, base blocking and tackling ( you rarely see a missed tackle), pursuit angles and being in position, most youth teams aren’t in the same strata.

This was the only game out of the 15 I watched where there was a Significant difference in the size of the kids. Far West was much larger, not only as the kids went through the handshake lines, but just comparing the kids to the size of the head coaches, which were both about 5’10”. I thought the Far West team had a little more talent, but they killed themselves with a few very costly penalties, 1 was a 15 yarder deep in their own territory that gave LS the ball on the 15, 3 other holding penalties all of which wiped out offensive plays of 10-15 yards. They also jumped off-sides on a “no play”, giving LS a key first down. LS had just 1 five yard penalty the entire game. LS also play called better- see below

Another thing that struck me if you real close is Far West’s offensive line “false steps” more than any good youth team Ive ever seen. Im not sure if their 2 point stance is the culprit or not, they come off with good pad level and effort, but they are a ½ step late on most plays because they are stepping back before they step forward.

Lee Summit:
Runs a double tight straight T for all but maybe 4-5 snaps, when they were in the Power I, 2 snaps with a wideout in the T. They threw the ball 1 time, just before the half with 10 tics left. They ran power probably 75% of the time. The kids come off the ball hard, stay on their blocks, good pad level etc. They ran a handful of counters and just 1 trap. The counters where they G block the End Man on Line of Scrimmage  they did real well with, 3-4 times for 7-15 yards every time. When they just base block it 2 other times, still gains of 5 or so. They ran just 1 trap and it was a nice one late in the 4th for about 8 yards. They were content to try and drive the ball 3 yards a time. They did split the end out and crack him down on 2 sweeps which worked well after about 30 powers and saw the DEs pinching. When they ran sweep to the short side with a wideout, they had angles and numbers, that was a good move. Would have liked to see them formation more. LS ran one tight end reverse to the wide side late that looked like it had potential, had they run it to the short side and not into the widened monster back.

On defense they ran a 5-3 nothing fancy, they tackled very well and their LBs played aggressively, great pursuit angles. They had an excellent onside kick and got one back at a key point in the game.

After the half Lee Summit finally figured out FW was running a 5-2 monster with the monster playing wide side of the field, or when they were in the middle of field to the offenses right. They finally started calling power to the short side and eventually a nice counter to that side as well. A simple midline count should have shown them that early. They did a poor job of running the clock out at the end of the game. FW had just 2 time outs, LS should have run plays rather than kneel and used up the entire 25 second clock before they snapped.

FW wanted to come out in a Double Tight  Bone and they moved the ball pretty well early, but they shot themselves in the foot with penalties. When they grew a little frustrated with their progress they went to the Spread to throw. Later they went to the “I” with a WR and Flanker. Out of the bone they only threw 3 times, completing 2. When they went spread they completed just 1 pass, they threw another 4 incompletes and the QB got sacked several times. Out of the I they had some descent success running the ball but mixed in a negative yardage sweep or penalty to take them out of drives. Watch the FW offensive lineman, nearly every play there are multiple kids “false stepping”, they lose a split second on every play. At this level of success Ive never seen a team false step so much. While their pad levels are pretty good for the most part and the kids obviously effort pretty well, maybe their 2 point stances have something to do with the false stepping. They block pretty well for being so awful at this basic skill.

The best play FW had was the QB in an empty gun, running the ball. Unfortunately they only did it 2 times. They had some nice size in the backfield and #1 may have been the fastest kid on the field at QB. I thought they should have run him more out of the gun. Late in the game FW finally runs some split flow stuff and moves the ball. No way were power sweeps going to work against LS, I felt maybe more split flow and misdirection plays inside the tackles made more sense. The timing on their jet Sweep series was poor, it took way too long, very poor mesh and Im not sure why they ran a QB follow to the edge on that series, didn’t make much sense to me. They also didn’t adjust their defense when it was obvious LS was running away from the monster. Not sure why they had a safety at 10 yards or even 7 when inside the 5 yard line as LS passed just 1 time.

We don’t know if LS threw the ball a bunch in an earlier game. There is a ton of gamesmanship in these tourneys, guys not showing stuff until the championship game or guys trying to throw other teams off by doing a whole bunch of odd stuff when comfortably ahead in the semi games. I have no way of knowing what the scouting report said.

While both teams did a lot of fundamentally things well, I think if LS had been in a traditional Power T offense and just ran trap/power/keep out and counter, they probably could have won this one by 2-3 TDs. On the other hand I think FW could have won this of course if they cut down on the penalties but also if they would have run inside counters, traps, cross bucks and a well timed PA pass out of the base. They could have scrapped the spread or at least just ran out of it. On defense they should have forced LS to throw, either going to 6-2 Monster or 6-3. If they were going to run Jet, they should have run it with #1 or not at all and run the powers, traps, inside counters off of it.

All in all a good game with lots of contact, but frustrating. Again, my kids went 9-1, 9-1 and 7-2 so I don’t know how I feel critiquing a team that did so much better than mine, but this is what I saw. In My Opinion  FW may have even been able to win the game just by not false stepping so much, that was just awful to watch and very correctable, see my blog post about false stepping.

Youth Football Coach of the Year Awards

Every year we award two coach of the year awards. One is for a coach that has engineered a worst to first or near worst to first turnaround. He has to be using the Winning Youth Football System and must be the head coach.

The other award is for a Coach that has achieved excellence using the Winning Youth Football System, but this team didn’t have to be a cellar or near cellar winner the previous year.

Please e-mail your story to us at: coachdave@winningyouthfootball.com Please include the ages of your team, your record this year and last and the high points of your season.

Even if you don’t think you would qualify for the award please let us know how you did as well as what did and didn’t work. All “applications” need to be in no later than December 20th  , 2009. We will announce a winner on January 1st, 2010 and will present the award at a clinic near you or by mail.

Banquet Ideas for Your Youth Football Teams

Team banquets or award ceremonies can be a great way to wrap up seasons. There are many ways to do this, here is what worked well for us this season: Two weeks after the season ended we rented the YMCA out for an all-nighter on a Friday night. You get the YMCA from 7:00 pm until 6:30 the following morning. Our closest YMCA is just a year old and has an indoor pool, several gyms, game room including Wii, rock climbing wall and more. For $850 the YMCA provides life guards from 8:00-10:00 and rock climbing guides and a monitor for the night. We paid for this out of our concession money and banquet fund.

The parents and siblings were required to leave at 11:00. Several moms and a dad ended up chaperoning, they had hotdogs, snacks and drinks available for the kids all night and donuts and juice for the morning. The younger kids finally hit the sack and slipped into their sleeping bags at about 3:00 a.m. while the 7th-8th graders stayed up through the night. I’m still not sure how anyone can play dodge ball for 7 hours straight without your arm falling off.

The following Sunday we did our banquet at the local Community Center. We had cake and drinks and had all 3 teams along with parents and siblings in attendance. Each player got a 12” trophy and an awards certificate with their team picture on it. All 3 of our teams finished as runners up in their respective divisions, but combined at 24-4, we had the best record in our league. So each player’s trophy had his name, team record and “Presidents Cup Champion” engraved on it. For certificates, each player was designated as: Most Valuable Defensive Player, Most Improved Player, Most Valuable Offensive Linemen, etc. A number of players were designated one of our Weekly Character Theme winners: Perseverance, Compassion, Teamwork and Selflessness etc. All players aging out of the program were given a team ring and a Fat Head picture of themselves or the team. Our academic award winners typically get a Fat Head of themselves as well. Each player also received a season DVD that had highlights from the season, pictures and of course full game video of each game they played. The video is set to music and the DVD case has the team picture and record on it.

Every player is announced and comes up on stage to get their awards. As they trot up to the stage we always try and talk a little about what that player accomplished during the season and how they improved. While banquets may seem like a pain, it is a great way to review the season with the kids and parents as well as set expectations for the next season. I promise you this, 20 years from now most of my kids will still have those trophies in some box in the attic, but more importantly they are going to remember the season and maybe even playing dodge ball all night at the YMCA. Isn’t that what we are in this for, to build great memories and help create a love and appreciation of the game in our youth football players?

Clock Management in Youth Football

Many youth football coaches fail to understand the importance of managing the clock in youth football. When you have average or weak teams, you have to use every little advantage you can squeeze out. That was the case with my 7th-8th grade team this year, we were by far the smallest Midget team in our 90 team league, by a considerable amount. We were in fact the smallest Midget team I have seen in my 20 years of youth football. In an unlimited weight league, we had just one lineman over 138 pounds. Several of my starting linemen were under 120 pounds and I had just 1 back over 120 pounds. We often played teams with plenty of 200 plus pound linemen. We ended up 9-1 and at least 2 of the games we won, clock management played a huge role.

When you are undersized or out-athleted, clock management often plays a key role in your youth football teams success or failure. When you run a no-huddle system like us, it allows you to dictate the pace of the game. While we had confidence we could move the ball on anyone with great execution, it is much harder to hide lack of size or athleticism on defense. While our defense surprisingly played very well this season, ranking in the top 15% of our league, we wanted to do everything we could to keep them off the field. Since we only had 21 players on this squad, we started several of our better players both ways and even on special teams. In order to give those kids a chance to play 4 quarters and to keep the other teams offense off the field, in many of the early games we were in max slowdown on offense from the opening gun. I would not call the play in until there were 10 ticks left on the 25 second clock, we would often snap the ball with just 1-2 seconds left on the clock. We also had several very good on-side kick plays, that gave us additional possessions and kept the other teams offense off the field. While we only punted one time all season, we also had 2 very good fake punt plays, which we used twice, both for first downs deep in our own territory. Again, this allowed us to keep the other teams offense off the field.

In Nebraska the wind can blow pretty strong on some days and during 2 games we faced at least 25-30 mph winds. During those games we made sure we had the wind in the 4th quarter and we went max slowdown when we were going into the wind. In one pivotal game, we used up the entire 12 minute quarter with a max slowdown drive, onside kick and max slowdown drive. The kids did a great job of staying in bounds, getting up slowly and being patient waiting for the play call at the line of scrimmage. When we had the wind we changed the pace to max speed. The other team not only got frustrated, they panicked a bit as well. During both windy games we went max slowdown into the wind and max speed when we had the wind. Both games were real tight and without question the tempo we dictated was a huge factor in the final outcome. In several other games we were hit very hard by the flu bug, in one game we were missing 4 kids, 3 were starters. We had no choice but go max slowdown since we were down to bare bones talent and numbers wise. Sometimes that is the only thing you can do, try and hang in there for as long as you can by milking as much time off the clock as you can to keep all your 2-way players on the field.

So many youth coaches do not know how to milk the clock. Once a play has been run the referees will usually take about 20 seconds to spot the ball, once they whistle the play in, you have 25 seconds to get a play off. Most referees will start their hand counting when there are 5 seconds left. So if a timeout is not called, the ball doesn’t go out of bounds or goes incomplete, most running plays should take from 40-45 seconds off the clock. The referee is under no compulsion to speed up the spot just because time is running out, in fact they are discouraged from doing so.

Tempo had to be practiced like anything else. Practicing max speed tempo not only helps you prepare for the final 2 minutes of the half or the game, it also helps you keep a team on the run. During some games it may seem like your team is “clicking” on all cylinders or has some momentum. When I see that I often kick up the pace to max speed, you can often put the other team on its heals and get them to panic early if you kick up the pace. When we go max speed, the kids are hustling to the line and I’m calling the play before the 25 second clock is even whistled in. We try and snap the ball within 5 seconds of when the ball is whistled in.

When you are coaching a squad in youth football that isn’t the biggest or the best, be prepared to be a great clock manager. It will often be the difference in close games. The last thing you want to do is get out coached in this area and giving your parents ammo to nip at your heels with.

Your Last Football Practice of the Season

All of us want to make that last practice special for the kids, so they can have a good memory to look back on during the off-season. That goes double for the kids that are aging out of your program and will not be able to return for another season.

While you always want to end your season on a high note, you need to make that last practice special as well. This late in the season, we are only practicing 90 minutes, so the first 60 minutes is devoted to the usual last practice of the week segments. Special teams, defensive fundamentals, team defensive walkthrough and scheme adjustments, team offense walkthrough and scheme adjustments, substitution patterns and sharing the game plan with the kids.

But once we have that out of the way, we try and have some fun those last 30 minutes. We split the teams up with each coach having 5-6 kids on “his” team. We then do competitions, including the coaches. We do things like firemans-carry relay races, wheelbarrow races, obstacle course races, pass catching relays etc. Each game has a winner and multiple losers and the losers always have to do something like 5 pushups or a short lap. We wrap up with a short talk that focuses on the kids who are aging out, what they have meant to the program, how they have progressed, how much we will miss them and their responsibility to help others like the program has helped them.

At the end of practice we wrap up like in the movie “Rudy”. All 3 age groups of mine practice together as a group, so we line up all the 3-7 graders facing each other in a long tunnel. At the end of the tunnel is me holding a tall bag. We let all the outgoing 8th graders come through the tunnel of players and give me one last hit. All the players and parents scream, cheer and yell as I call out each of the “seniors” names. After they scream through the tunnel and deliver their final “hit” to me, the moms have cupcakes and treats ready for those kids off to the side. The same moms go out the night before our final game and put signs in the yards of the outgoing seniors. These signs just have the kids names, number and team name on them. We try and make it a special event, because we want them to remember us and the life lessons they learned while they were a member of our team.

I also write each of them a personal letter the month after the season ends letting them know how much I appreciate them and care about them. I try and convey what great potential each of them have beyond the football field. This doesn’t take a lot of time or effort and really means a lot to the kids. How do you want to be remembered? What lessons do you hope your kids learned while being a part of your program? Why not reinforce it and drive it home at the end.