I am meeting with my coaching staff tonight. It’s our only meeting during the winter and spring. Some of you may feel the need for meeting more often. At one time, I used to meet monthly with my staff from January to June. As a smaller program now, I am able to connect with my assistants year-round. In fact, I have lunch with my O Line coach every 2 weeks. We enjoy a hot dog and talk Offense for 90 minutes. Our QB/DB coach is new to our staff— though he has over 40 years of college and high school experience! We’re talking “installation” and “terminology” once a week. We have a new Defensive Coordinator. He was already on our staff so it’s been a smooth transition with him. So, one meeting before the end of school where everyone (including our Middle School staff) gets together suffices to get everything covered.
I do it at my house. My sweet wife is gracious enough to prepare a meal for us. We eat and talk for about 30 minutes then adjourn to our Florida room (my “cave”) where we will meet for 90 minutes to review and plan.
Some things to have ready: 1- An agenda. Stay on task. 2- A time-keeper. I’ve promised to be done by 8pm. Stay on time! 3- Hand-out sheets covering topics like: Coaching Expectations and Policies; Coaching responsibilities (on and off the field); Offensive philosophy and any new schemes we’re going to implement; Defensive Philosophy and schemes. NOTE: I have our Defensive Coordinator handle this part of the meeting. It gives me a break and it puts the DC in a realm of authority within the staff. I used to print out all those copies of 10-12 handouts. Last year I figured out: email the handouts to the staff as attachments and let them use their own paper! They only have to make one copy. They bring their sheets to the meeting.
We then cover Important Dates during the summer. Finally, we look at a pre-season roster. It gives us an idea of who’s signed up for football and who are the new guys planning to come out for the team. My closing thoughts this year will be from Nick Saban’s book, How Good Do You Want to Be? He talks about some of the key elements of having a successful program. I’m going to talk briefly about 1- commitment; 2- conviction; 3- character and 4- attitude. Find a coach… find a staff that exhibits these 4 traits in abundance, you’ll find success!
I work to be very organized. This is a hallmark of leadership. Stay on task… stay on time!
