I have completed the hiring of my new coaching staff. It took longer than I had hoped so now we are playing “catch up” as far as everyone learning the new system. I had hoped to have had a staff meeting in March but now we will meet in April and May.
What I’ve had to do is start tutoring individual coaches on material that they need to learn. We are having a “Mini Camp” at the end of May. That means that our coaches need to at least know their basic drill sequence for their position for those 2 days of practice. The coaches who have received the brunt of my time so far have been my new Defensive Coordinator and my Offensive Line coach. Then my JV Offensive Coordinator (who will be my Press Box Spotter on Varsity game nights) is hungry to learn the system… so we’re working on his soaking up as much Delaware Wing T offense as he can. He’s a sponge!
This Mini Camp that I mentioned has a 2-fold purpose: 1- introduce our system to our players at my new school and 2- drum up interest in football as the school year is coming to a close! We will be able to evaluate the talent and teach them some fundamentals in 2 2-hour practices. More importantly, in my mind, is the impression we’ll leave in our students’ minds about how positive an experience playing football at our school will be for them. I want this Mini Camp to carry over into our summer weight-lifting program. Momentum at this time of year is an important factor.
Somebody asked me if we are going to participate in any 7 on 7 tournaments. My answer was: “I love 7 on 7 but right now our program is not where it needs to be in terms of having players up to speed with running our passing game or even aligning in a Cover 3. I wouldn’t know how many players would even show up if we did participate.” This falls under the catagory of… we’re growing and learning. Don’t push things too fast. It comes in steps. We’ve got a young quarterback whom I am very excited about. By next summer, we’ll be ready to compete in some 7 on 7 tournaments. Till then, we’ll spend the time learning our system.
For those of you who are in a similar situation as I am (being a new head coach at a new school), I want to bring up that American Football Monthly magazine is going to be publishing an article I’ve written for them entitled, “10 Things New Coaches Need to Do… When starting at a new school.” Look for it this spring.
Let me know if there are questions or topics you’d like me to discuss.
