Philosophy

COACHING PHILOSOPHY

  • Football Teaches Young Men About Life

“The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity.” – Lewis Grizzard

Football is an accelerated version of life. It requires that young men demonstrate the traits of fully mature adults at a much younger age than would otherwise be necessary. Within each football game, there are ups and downs, emotional highs and lows, successes and failures, pain, and adversity. Being able to overcome all of these obstacles requires an emotional and mental toughness that is difficult to find, even in the adults of today’s world. Football allows coaches to use a game as a platform to teach the players about life. There are many critical life skills that players must use to be successful in life and in football. Some of these are discipline, work ethic, responsibility, accountability, teamwork, and leadership. It is the job of each coach to be more than just a football coach. They must be a life coach, as well. Many young men do not have positive adult role models in their lives. It is a coach’s responsibility to give them at least one of those people in their lives so that they will have an example of how to make it through the challenges they will face in life. A coach can teach his players much more about being a good person, a good friend, a good student, a good son, a good man, a good husband, and a good father than he ever could teach them about the game they play.

“What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a player." – John Wooden

  • Football Teaches Discipline

“There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.” – Nick Saban

There are always two ways to do things in life: the easy way and the right way. In today’s world, too many people teach young men to take the easy way, which cripples them for life. The easy way to make money or the easy way to complete a job often results in negative consequences. Teaching the young men to have the discipline to do the right thing, even when it is difficult to do so, will encourage them to not take shortcuts in life. Taking shortcuts in football and life will result in failure in both. Discipline is doing the right thing, even when you know that nobody is watching.

“Discipline is the foundation upon which all success is built. Lack of discipline inevitably leads to failure.” – Jim Rohn

  • Football Teaches a Good Work Ethic

“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.” – Vince Lombardi

There is no other attribute that can carry a person further in life than a good work ethic. A good work ethic can overcome deficiencies in many areas. In a job setting, a worker who has a good work ethic will get promoted to better positions and obtain raises for better pay over employees who may have more skill or natural talent but a poor work ethic. In football, a player who has the work ethic to master their job and their technique can become a better player than a player who has more natural talent but a poor work ethic. Learning how to work your way through difficult situations through blood, sweat, and tears is possibly the most important thing a young man can ever learn. As a coach, I have an opportunity to teach young men this very ability.

“I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.” – Thomas A. Edison

  • Football Teaches Responsibility, Accountability, and Teamwork

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi

In a family, each member has their responsibilities to the group that they must fulfill in order for the family to succeed. The same can be said about the workplace. If each member of a company does not fulfill their responsibilities, the entire company suffers. Football is a great model for this. Every season, every week, every day, every play, each football player has a responsibility that they must fulfill for the team to be successful. Everybody from the starting quarterback to the last player on the roster has a responsibility for each and every play, and they must be accountable to their teammates for that responsibility. If each and every player has the discipline to take care of his responsibility and hold their peers accountable for theirs, then the entire team is working together for a common goal and is learning the ultimate form of teamwork. A player putting the goals of the team ahead of their own is the ultimate form of sacrifice on the football field, and when all of the players on the team do this, amazing things can happen.

“It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman

  • Football Teaches Leadership

“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” – Vince Lombardi

There are two types of people in the world: leaders and followers. Too often, young men will choose to be followers because it is the easy thing to do. Each time there is a group of people working together, there are always the individuals who rise to the occasion and lead the group. Football is no different. There are individuals on each football team who have the potential to be great leaders, but they need to have great leadership modeled for them. One potential problem with young men becoming leaders of the team is that they can lead the team in either a positive direction or a negative one. The responsibility to teach the young men who develop into leaders falls on the coach. His leadership will serve as a model for the young leaders on his team and in turn, will give those players the ability to be good leaders for the rest of the team. The more models of good leadership there are, the more leaders will develop within the group. As more leaders are developed, the entire group becomes more autonomous and can accomplish much more than they had ever imagined. Once those leaders develop and separate themselves from the followers, it is their responsibility to continue to develop into a better leader, and to not sink back into the role of follower.

“A leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.” – Vince Lombardi

  • Football’s Focus is on Doing the Right Thing

"Winning is important, but it is not as important as doing the right thing. If you will do the right thing you will win eventually and be respected by your team and change lives, which is what coaching is all about." – Duane Silver

Football is a game that teaches young men about life. If we lose focus on that fact and allow ourselves to be caught up in thinking that winning is the most important thing, we take away the greatest thing about the game. Learning discipline, a good work ethic, teamwork, responsibility, accountability, and leadership are much more important than the final score of a game. If the young men can learn these things, then the wins will take care of themselves.

“I try to do the right thing at the right time. They might just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY

Overall Philosophy

  • The #1 goal of this program is to make sure EVERY PLAYER that enters this program is a better person for being a part of it. We want to help take kids where they cannot take themselves.

  • Put the TEAM before any individual. Promote unity and a family environment.

  • Stress academics and great conduct in the classroom.

  • Be the most physical team on our opponent’s schedule. Strive to be the most physically and mentally tough team that we can be.

  • Play the game with emotion, but always with class and composure.

  • Teach and stress fundamentals. A team that BLOCKS and TACKLES better than their opponent will win the game.

  • Win the turnover battle and time of possession.

  • Use schemes that allow our players to be successful. Adjust our system to fit the talent of our team and group of players. PLAYERS win games, not PLAYS. NEVER ask a player to do something he is unable to physically or mentally handle. Place them in the best position to feel comfortable and play fast.

  • Have the best physically conditioned team on the field.

  • Never be out-worked or out-coached.


PURPOSE AND GOALS OF THE FOOTBALL PROGRAM

The purpose of the football program in public schools is one of ever increasing importance. The football program should provide an area of moral enrichment, physical improvement, discipline, teamwork and mental toughening. Further, the program should reflect the personality of the school and community.

Pride in one’s personal achievements, ability, and school carry over into the classroom, community and ultimately our society. The “will to win” and the willingness to sacrifice in order to be a winner grows each year a young person is involved in athletics. A burning desire to give your best and be the best in every endeavor is the cornerstone of success in any program and in life.

A successful football program will provide encouragement for academic success. Not only is academic success encouraged – it is required for participation in football. Athletes and their coaches should never lose sight of the fact that scholastics come first and athletics second. Proper guidance by coaches, beginning at the middle school level, can greatly enhance the development of these values. The school wishes all athletes to reach their highest achievement level in the classroom, interscholastic events and in society.

Integrating the football program into the total school program should provide a source of pride and identification for the administration, faculty, student body and community. A balanced athletic program is essential and should be well coached by highly qualified men whose attitudes both on and off the field of play reflect the excellence of the school in all activities.

School athletics has tremendous potential for meeting the needs of our youth. An extensive, well-balanced program of interscholastic athletics for the student represents an area of great potential for practicing the pursuit of excellence.

It is, therefore, the goal of the football program to offer the opportunity for participation to each student who has the ability and desire to participate. However, participation is a privilege – not a right. As a privilege, the coach has the authority to set high standards for those wishing to participate. Coaches also have the right to revoke the privilege from anyone who does not comply with the regulations and expectations of the program.

The standards for athletics will provide the security of authority, which youth need in today’s society. Since athletes are representatives of their school and their sport, exemplary conduct is expected on and off campus. Proper dress, appearance and good grooming are requirements. All athletes will know the expectations set forth by the football program realizing that the school values their success and will provide the necessary support for goal achievement.

An effective football program will be the result of dedicated coaches, supportive parents and committed students working in synergy toward a common goal. Athletes not only develop

physically, but more importantly, they receive strong support as they play the most important game, the game of life.