Yesterday we had our first coaching staff meeting of the season, it went really well. I have a few great additions to my coaching staff. I also have all my core coaches that have been with me for a long time coming back. We are all excited and ready to rock and roll this season.
Topic # 1 Overall Team Philosophy
This upcoming season will present many challenges for my coaching staff and I. This new team I am coaching this year did not win a single game last season-we have our work cut out for us. The biggest thing we want to change this year is the overall attitude of the players. Here is our philosophies- We want to develop more excitement, enthusiasm, toughness, speed, and pride within the team. We want to create a “Team First” environment. We want to EAT every time we step on the field- every time we step on the football field we will play with great Effort, Attitude and Toughness. We want to do everything fast and with enthusiasm. We want to be a fast team in every aspect, from the practices to the games. No players will walk on the football field! If they do it is push up time! We have a great group of coaches and a coaching philosophy that wins football games. We are all well prepared and ready to shock the league!
Topic # 2 Offense
We spent some time on the basics of the offense. We talked about our formation, huddle, line splits, snap counts, motion timing and positions/hole numbering system. We talked about the overall philosophy of our Rocket Wing T Offense. We also talked about our blocking scheme and how we will block certain defensive fronts that gave us a little bit of a problem last season. I also assigned all my coaches to a position. I then sat down with all the position coaches separately. I talked to each position coach about our practice plan for our individual position practice sessions. We discussed crucial coaching points and vital techniques for each position. All the coaches received our practice plans and our offensive playbook.
Topic # 3 Special Teams
We did not spend as much time as I would have liked on special teams, but we did get some good discussions in. We talked about our punt return team in great detail. We had great success with our punt return last season (a couple returns we took for 6 points). We talked about our kick return team a little bit as well. We had good production with it overall, but we didn’t return any for 6 points last season- which was a bit of a disappointment. We then talked about our onside kick, long snapping, and a little bit about our punting game. I am very lucky because my special teams coordinator is one of the best in the country, yes I would bet on that!
Topic # 3 Practice Rule Change
I coach in the Pop Warner Youth Football League. This season they have implemented some new practice restrictions. The amount of time you can operate contact drills each practice has been greatly reduced. They have also set some rules regarding the contact drills themselves. I went over these practice rule changes in great detail with my staff. Check out Pop Warner’s New Practice Rule Changes.
Good Luck!
