Some time ago I wrote how I was a football coach on the Junior State Team forVictoria.  Below is my recap of the event:

The Australian Gridiron Junior Nationals were held in Runaway Bay,
Queensland from May 31 - June 7. The tournament included the best
players on offer from every single state in the country, which doesn’t
sound nearly as impressive as it really is.  See, frequently, teams do
not put forth a side because players have to pay their own way, and
it’s not cheap.  The cost of attending is roughly $750 US, which is
nothing to scoff at, not including the week off school that these
players (aged 16-18) need to get.  Often, the teams that have to
travel the farthest (Western Australia, South Australia) don’t show.
Getting 6 teams together is a huge accomplishment in itself.

Each team played 3 games.  The states were seeded according to last
tournament’s finish (Vic finished dead last, but showed, so we were
the #5 seed), and broken into 2 pools.  It was round robin in the
pools and the winners squared off for the national championship.  The
tournament was held at the Runaway Bay Super Sports Centre, a world
class sports venue that was host to the Japanese National Rugby team
The Cherry Blossoms as they prepared for their match against the
Queenslands Reds.  The games were played on the soccer/rugby field,
which is a FieldTurf field, though it clearly needed to be patched up
a bit!

When players weren’t practicing, recovering, or playing games, they
were treated to the coaching of Jeff Reinebold, Receivers coach at SMU
(formerly of Hawaii, CFL, and NFL Europe).  Coach Reinebold was truly
an ambassador of the game, and his experience in player development in
Europe gave him a welcome bit of insight into our game from an
International perspective.  He showed al of us coaches something new
that we could take back to our clubs.

When football was being played, it was often of an excellent caliber.
Some games were blowouts, but by and large the games were competitive.
The Victorian games however, were something else.  I missed game 1,
which we won 54-0 over ACT because of work committments, but made it
up in time for game 2 against defending champion Queensland.  We had
17 players (and a punter/kicker on scholarship), they had 34 (for a
9-man competition).  We had a handful of parents that had come down,
they had had homefield advantage.  By the end of the first hald, the
score was 8-6 QLD, and we had 5 starters out with injury.  It was
about to get ugly.

Or not.  Somehow, some way, the players found it within themselves to
find another level.  They went back out there and absolutely dominated
the Queensland offense, sacking their QB at least 7 times, stuffing
the run, and otherwise embarassing the defending champs.  We managed
to find the endzone for the lead, which we were clinging to when the
Sundevils (QLD’s state team name) were backed up at their 2 yard line
with 10 seconds to go.  With one last ditch effort, their QB heaved a
pass down the far right sideline, which beat our coverage and went for
a 98 yard score…or so it would seem.

In a display of sheer insanity, a QLD lineman decided to king-hit our
DT from behind as their guy was running downfield.  A ref thankfully
saw it and flagged it.  15 yard personal foul, replay 2nd down.
Incredible.  A play later, now it’s 4th down, and there’s 1 second on
the clock.  QLD calls a timeout.  They go into punt formation, which
we couldn’t understand - there’s just 1 second on the clock.  The
coach must’ve thought he could go for a safety and try an on-sides,
but there’s no time with 1 second.  Ball was snapped, punter steps out
the back, safety, ball game.

I’d been in close games before, I’ve won a championship here 6-0.
I’ve had close losses before and come from behind wins, and I’ve never
cried.  I never understood why players cried after a win or a loss
until this tournament.  It’s not about people who are overly emotional
- its about the investment they’ve put into the game itself.

As a player, I never put that kind of an effort into a game - into any
athletic competition.  I didn’t have that kind of mentality.  Sure I
played hard, but I’d never say that I was ever emotionally invested in
the outcome.  These guys were.  As a unit, these 18 players bonded on
a level I’d never seen before.  Players who during the club season
wanted to kill each other on the field were now arm-in-arm on the
practice field.

What makes the tournament so bittersweet is the way it ended.  We lost
12-8 against New South Wales (Sydney) in a game that was just as
frought with tension as the Queensland game.  Our offense was stifled
all day by a phenominal defensive front, but we scored late in the 3rd
quarter on an INT return for TD.  We gave up another score midway
through the 4th, but we had the ball and were driving when the worst
thing possible happened.  On a lead run, one of the NSW players got
hit and collapsed to the ground.  Medics were immediately out.  He had
pins and needles feelings all over his body.  The momentum immediately
died as we waited 30 minutes for him to be secured and carried off the
field.  The resulting drive finished just short on a 4th down play.
NSW knelt out the clock to end the game.

We Are The Champions!

For this team, the grand final represented the end of 6 months of hard
work.  From October to May (With a break over Dec/Jan), these guys
busted their butts to get down to practice, learn new playbooks, and
bond.  Sadly, only one of these players is young enough to play again
in 2011, as the others will be age-ineligible.  However, I had the
chance to see them fall in love with the game, and that alone means
that it won’t be the last football experience for them.  With all the
opportunities they have for sport in Victoria (Aussie Rules, Rugby,
Soccer, Basketball, etc), I don’t see any of them choosing those over
Gridiron - not after this week.  Even though this tournament won’t
make any of the papers, won’t be talked about on any radio show, and
won’t even get a mention on a TV broadcast, the Junior Nationals was
more important for building the game internationally than 100 super
bowls or 1000 NFL games played on Australian soil.  I saw 6
states-worth of players fall in love with a game, and I’m phenominally
proud to have been a part of that.

Our Great Fans.

Middlebury College in Vermont is looking for an assisant football coach fro the 2009 season. The pay is $11-13 an hour. Sounds like a nice opportunity for a young coach looking for some experience. Read this for more details…

The University of Maine has an opening for a Defensive Assistant. The Bears have traditionaly had a solid team up there, so this could be a nice opportunity to learn and grow with a program if you do not mind the winters. Read More…

After a somewhat promising start to the season, we took a big step back this past week - though it’s hard to say exactly what needs to be done.  We lost 70-7 to the second best team in the league, and the score is pretty indicative of how poorly we played.  Still, the game could have been much closer.

We had 3 snaps out of shotgun go horridly wrong, 2 in our own endzone for touchdowns the other way, and another recovered close to the goal line for another score.  Eliminate those mistakes and it’s suddenly 49-7.  Still bad, but not atrocious.

In week 1, our passing game was on but our running game was wretched. This week our running game was adequate but the passing was bad.  A combination of errors led to the debacle, but mostly lack of protection and bad QB mechanics.  Obviously there’s more work to do in that respect.  The interesting thing is that our QB’s mechanics are pretty good in practice, but they don’t translate well to games.  I’m not sure how to get this to change, other than making him over-exaggerate the footwork and shoulder rotation in practice.

Another factor that hurt us was that we were down 6 starters before the game even kicked off, and then lost our starting G/ILB before the end of the first quarter.  Most of our entire team played both ways for the entire game - which against a more experienced and rested squad we had little chance of being competitive.  This week we should be getting the majority of those starters back, but the real question is how much will it help us?

On the plus side of things, we didn’t have nearly as many substitution problems this week compared to last.

We get a much easier opponent next week, and then a bye to get healthy before we face the two most physical teams in the competition.  We’re hoping to get some momentum going into the bye so we can come out strong afterwards.

After months of pre-season football conditioning, technique drilling, and play
install, we had our first football game of the season. Well, the dream of an
unbeaten season washed away pretty quickly.

Things started well enough, opening up with a 50-yard bomb that no one
was expecting but us. We’d have scored a touchdown if the receiver
kept his feet. We couldn’t get the ball in the end zone though, and a
FG attempt went awful, and we lost a bit of momentum at that point.
We played hard in the first half, keeping things close at 11-6, but
the line got tired having to go both ways and eventually things broke
down and we ended up losing 38-6. It was a solid first effort from
the team in what really could be considered their first quality game
in a year.

The game was a huge learning experience for not only our players, who
were effectively all rookies up to that point, but also for myself as
a player-coach. Aside from playing 5 positions on the day
(G/T/DT/DE/FB), I had to keep conscious of the insanely accelerated
play clock (now 40 seconds from previous play as per college rules),
and player substitutions. That last one was a killer. As players
tired or got hurt, they pulled themselves out of the game…and didn’t
replace themselves. This constantly left us with people missing from
the huddle, forcing me to burn timeouts - and I LOATHE wasting
timeouts. Many times during change of posession plays guys were
aimlessly wandering around on the sidelines, not paying attention to
the game. As much as I wanted to get mad at them for not paying
attention, I had to realize that for more than 3/4 of these guys, this
is their first game. They have no idea what to do or how to behave on
the sideline. And without another coach on the sideline to be in
charge of personnel changes, there was no one to herd the cats. It’s
the smallest, simplest thing to overlook as a coach - after all, who
thinks about player substitution rules at practice? But when you’re
the one and only - it’s just another thing to keep in mind.

38-6 sound like a beatdown, and in some ways it was. However,
considering that this team lost every game last season by an average
margin of 60 points, a 32 point loss is a moral victory - albeit a
small one. We have tougher competition next week, but I expect that
many of the mistakes that cost us in the first game will be corrected
by this weekend. Bring on Game 2.

This brings up the question of why? I understand that American football carries many more expenditures such as equipment and insurance then lets say baseball, but having this sport within your school can be much more damaging. College football at any level can bring in much needed booster money as well as the unseen benefits it can bring to your student body.  There are two division two programs in particular that have seen their storied football programs vanish before thier eyes. The first being from up in the northwest as Western Washington University.

WWU suddenly cut the football program earlier this year  due to lack of funding. If you have not heard of this school before not to worry. The program has been around for over  100 years and has seen some tough seasons this past couple of years. When the announce was made alumni began fundraising and have collected over $600,000 dollars to help save the program. You would be interested in helping stop by www.savewwufootball.com. There still might be hope for this program though by more fundraising and possible state intervention.

The second school that recently cut their historic football program is Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO.   Even though I from the Denver area and transplanted to PA, I was shocked to hear that this football program was being cut. I found out about how the process went down first hand from a former CC player ’s blog. The again cut not just football, but several other programs. I personally think that the leading issues that led up to them abandoning football was the fact that they had to travel long distances for away games because there are not any D3 programs in CO. I do hope that CC comes back and possible joins the RMAC which would allow them to play other Colorado teams which they use to do. If you would be interested in help raise money to save the Colorado College program here is the website, www.saveccfootball.com.

These are not just football programs, but rather families that these colleges have decided to break up. Many of these players have seen their last game and practice without even having the chance to say good bye to the game. I hope that any football coaches keep an eye out of any players looking to transfer or coaching staffs looking for some fresh blood to think of all those involved with these cuts.

The season is but two weeks away, and now things have started to get really interesting:

Over the past few years, the Eagles have required the use of “loan football players”, which were basically players from other football teams coming down on gameday to fill out the club’s roster.  I say fill out because the team consistently had no more than 16 players on their active roster, a number of whom were hurt and were only there as stand-ins.

This season, with our official playing roster somewhat more robust (20), we haven’t had a need for loan football players, as such.  However, in our league, one team based out of a local university, has a roster of well over 60 players.  Last season, they split the squad into an A and B team.  This year, due to a lack of coaching, they’ve chosen instead to offer their rookies and third stringers to us as part-time players. They’d train with us once a week and be on our sideline on game-days.

We had our first joint training session this past Sunday, and despite gale force winds and temperatures in the low 40’s, had a respectable turnout of about 20 players, about a 50/50 split.  The session, as a whole, worked quite well, with players and coaches on both teams mixing and learning from each other.  The obvious challenge of this arrangement is not only can the players work together, but how quickly can the “Foreign Legion”, as they’re called, learn our playbooks? While neither playbook is by any means complicated, they now have to ditch the playbook they had been learning and learn a whole new one in a matter of weeks.  It’ll be interesting to see how they go.

Our season starts in just over 2 weeks - I can’t wait.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects about my job as football coach of the Eagles is that as the only coach, I have to coach the offense, defense, and special teams.  Being responsible for all aspects of the team was not something I was looking forward to doing.  My defensive experience was a grand total of three games in high school, when I was put in as depth on the defensive line.  My special teams experience was a bit more, as I was special teams captain on my team in Melbourne - though even this position required me to read up on techniques and responsibilities.

I was frantically searching to find a defensive coordinator.  Anyone who came to the club with any previous defensive experience was an instant candidate for the job.  Sadly, none stuck around once they were aware of the challenges facing them.  I can see now why bad American football teams stay bad - though I wonder what that says about the coaches who ignore reclamation projects?

So, knowing that I was responsible for coaching positions I’ve never played, let alone coached, I set out to learn EVERYTHING I could about defense.  This included fronts, reads, keys, technique, coverages - EVERYTHING.  I bought technique books and read online materials and videos.  I sent my old coaches e-mails picking their brains about defense.  I even asked opposition players about responsibilities and reads - and thankfully they were very supportive.  I think that often gets lost in the shuffle in this sport - coaches helping other coaches.  In my opinion, a win only counts if it’s against an equal opponent.  I see no harm in helping other coaches out, so long as you don’t start giving your scheme away!

I also needed to learn about the most important offensive position, Quarterback.  QB play is the toughest position to teach effectively, and QB play in Victoria in general is lacking.  You can see it once you’ve learned it - skipping into the drop, wind-ups, side-arm delivery, no follow through, no hip rotation, not looking off receivers - it’s all over the place.  I do not consider myself an expert on the QB yet, but once you know how to coach a QB, it certainly helps to fix those problems - not to mention the joy you get from seeing the problems corrected!

As we get closer to the season, things are appearing more bleak.  Team morale appears high, but commitment is low.  A Sunday practice had 12players show up - really poor considering the quality of the weather, though that may have had something to do with it as well.  The problem is that I will not put people on the field if I feel that they have not shown up to enough training sessions where I’m confident that they know the playbook and can protect themselves.  Right now, that’s about
12 people (myself included) - which is 3 less than required to play an actual game.  I have told my team this, and I have told our team president this.  Time will tell if the players are willing to find out
if I’m bluffing or not.

Found this opening at Albright College for an assistant football coach for the offensive line and tight ends. This college is located in Reading, PA. from reading the football job description, this could be a great place for a coach to lay a foundation for his career. Looking over their site, looks like they won a bowl game last year so the athletes are there. The deadine for application is open until filled which means get your resume in ASAP.  Here is a link to the rest of the details.

Central Methodist Football Logo

I recently came across a job posting for a graduate assistant position at Central Methodist University in Fayette, MO. This school is an NAIA program, but might be a nice starting point for a young coach to get some experience under his belt. Here are the details of the position:

Central Methodist seeks immediate applicants for Offensive Graduate Assistant. Playing and or coaching experience with Wide Receivers or Quarterbacks is preferred. Monthly stipend, housing and tuition benefit. Position does NOT include meals or other benefits. Email cover letter, resume and list of references to:

Trever Whiting
twhiting@centralmethodist.edu

Application review will begin immediately. Starting date will be determined upon hire.

Well, we’ve moved into pads, and now things have started to get very interesting:

For the first few weeks of the season, we had approximately 16 people at practice, with another 4 out with various injuries or illnesses, or other commitments, giving us a stable squad of 20. Once the hard work started well…we had some considerable drop off.

As I said, my job is to reverse a losing culture. One way of doing that is to make these guys realize that Gridiron is NOT easy. It’s not a game where you can go down to a park with some friends, put the pads on and pretend to be a football player. It requires hard work and dedication. The word on this team is that’s exactly what they did for years. From day one, we were working hard. Running, pushups, and technique work - I pushed my team. A number of players from the past season - guys who were identified by other players as lacking dedication and commitment - suddenly stopped showing up to training. No phone calls, no e-mails, no excuses. They just stopped showing up.

I’m a firm believer that if people want to play, they know where we are. I’m going to play the guys that want to be there, not the guys who I have to beg to get to come down.

As such, our numbers have dwindled to 8-12 at practices - which makes it incredibly difficult to get anything accomplished other than
technique. While there’s a fair bit to go over, I have to start installing our schemes if we’re to have a chance at being competitive this season. We’ve only installed two plays on offense, and even then we’ve not had a full offensive line at practice.

To make matters worse, for some reason our training venue has been usurped by a local Australian Rules team - not to mention some of our
lights are broken (we only train at nights because of work commitments). Seems like our guys can’t catch a break at the minute.

We need to have 20 players registered by this Monday. We’re at 19 now, but I have no idea if we’ll get it. Here’s hoping.