Developing a winning football tradition. (Football).

WINNING FOOTBALL teams and winning traditions do not happen by accident. They must be built-and inspired-from the ground up by people who know precisely what they are doing, not only on the field but on the administrative level.

"People" will be responsible for the path, the growth, and the execution of the program. But, in the final analysis, the guiding light has to be the head coach, the man who hires the staff, decides upon the technical approach, and brings all the vital parts together (academics, motivation, personal interrelationships).

Coaches involved in the construction of a winning program may glean a lot of useful information from the accompanying outline.

ADMINISTRATION:

1. Work closely with administration. The administration and coaching staff should be on the same page.

2. Neither should have a hidden agenda.

3. Go through administration before doing anything (purchase order, trip, camps, combines, etc.)

4. Encourage the administration to know the athletes and develop a friendly relationship with them.

DEVELOP OR HIRE A QUALITY STAFF.

1. Hire good people who share your philosophy, or build on the staff you already have.

2. A team is usually only as good as its coaching staff.

3. Each coach should be happy with his job and enjoy what he does:

* A coach has to feel that he has input in offense, defense, special teams, conditioning, and academics.

* Discover what each of your coaches is good at and put him to work on it.

4. Outline a brief outlook of the season from summer, in-season, and off-season workouts, to camps, strategies, coaching responsibilities, practice schedules, meetings, etc., and have it printed up before the season and distributed to every coach.

GET TO KNOW YOUR JOB:

1. Go to their homes (new kids, transfers, 8th graders).

2. Meet with them at school.

3. Have pizza party to bring the team closer together.

4. Get to know everything about your kids, not just the athletic part. Kids don't care what you know, they just want to know that you care.

5. Win a kid's heart and you'll have a soldier who will go to war for you.

BOOSTER CLUB:

1. If you do not have a Booster Club, start one.

2. Approach boosters about fund-raisers and season tickets.

3. Involve the kids and their parents.

4. Start with small projects and get progressively bigger. Example: Combine, Camps, Lift a Thons, etc.

5. Get cheerleaders involved in fund-raisers.

ACADEMICS:

1. Check all players' eligibility prior to first game.

2. Check graduation requirements.

3. Academics must be a priority, stress this to your players.

4. Start a study hall for athletes who are struggling with schoolwork.

5. Talk to the teachers and get them involved.

6. Get a progress report from each athlete every three-weeks.

7. Do not let athletes fall behind.

8. Stress that athletics are an extension of the school day.

STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING:

1. Build a solid strength and conditioning program.

2. Install an in-season, off-season, and summer program.

3. Excite the kids about training (make lifting fun).

4. Give rewards for attending workouts, making gains, and being on time.

5. Award t-shirts and certificates to the athletes who make their days and show improvement.

6. Award charts, boards, and clubs for outstanding progress in the weight room.

7. Take the kids to other schools to see how they work out and what kind of facilities they have.

8. Visit colleges and mingle with their athletes and coaches.

9. Start a power lifting team.

FIELD AND EQUIPMENT:

1. Your playing field is your home, treat it as such.

2. Always update, recondition, and keep your equipment looking great.

3. Never put off tomorrow what you can do today.

4. Always be neat and organized.

5. Put mascot signs on field to signify number of wins.

CAMPS AND PASSING LEAGUES:

1. Enter kids in as many camps and passing leagues as possible.

2. Get your kids involved in helpful learning situations.

3. Do all you can to bring them closer together and learn while having fun.

YOUR OWN FOOTBALL CAMP AND COMBINE:

1. Have an offensive or defensive team camp.

2. Invite college recruiters to your campus.

3. Expose your kids to possible college scholarships.

4. Raise money for your program needs.

TEACH FUNDAMENTALS:

1. Blocking (all angles)

2. Tackling (all angles)

3. Catching a pass.

4. Carrying ball correctly.

5. Taking a hand-off.

6. Defensing a pass.

7. Techniques and fundamentals of each position.

OFFENSIVE SYSTEM:

1. Multiple set fronts, motions and shifts to confuse defense.

2. Simple to teach and learn, hard for a defense to read.

3. Spread the field and attack the defensive weakness.

4. Get ball into hands of best athletes.

5. Develop all phases of the game (the more the defense has to prepare for, the less time they will spend on each phase).

6. Good short, intermediate, and screen passing game.

7. Power running game.

8. Finesse running game.

9. Play-action passing game.

10. Trick plays (keep practice upbeat).

DEFENSIVE SYSTEM:

1. Have an attacking and aggressive style of defense.

2. Do not sit back and react to what offense does to you.

3. Make offense adjust to what you are doing.

4. Predicate defense on speed.

5. Stress tackling! Tackling! Tackling!

6. Have every player on defense get to the ball.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

1. Focus on special teams as you do on all other phases of the game. If the kids see that you are serious about it, they will become serious, too.

2. Spend time on special teams every day.

3. Set up time for specialists before practice (kickers, punters, holders, long snappers, returners).

4. If you have a soccer team, use that resource for kickers.

5. Have kickers and punters start kicking during summer.

6. Do not assume that your kids understand everything about special teams; teach them your philosophy and make it theirs.

EMBRACE THE PAST:

1. Seek out athletes from the past and have them come back and talk to the kids.

2. If you can get your former athletes involved, they will volunteer for fund-raising and donations, and will take active roles in athletics, etc.

3. Get the community behind you: have a "Meet the Players Night"; involve cheerleaders, treat everyone to coffee, donuts, etc. Once they are there, have them sell your kids and the program.

4. If you have to bring in a famous athlete to draw the crowd, have him do the selling job.

FEEDER PROGRAM:

1. Visit your feeder schools and talk to the kids.

2. Make sure to talk to your middle-school coach, recreation coach, and hire a good JV coach.

3. Get the men involved in your program (free passes to games, appearance on sidelines and at practice, invitations to work your camps and combines).

4. Have your feeder coaches install a basic version of your offense and defense, using the same terminology and assignments that you do.

5. Have every feeder program from recreation to JV conducted the same way.

Win! And good things will begin to happen.