Recently on the Texas High School Football Twitter chat, the question was asked, “How do you define “old school” coaching and is it still relevant today?”
What surprised me was how many responses chose to interpret “old school” as being a pejorative term. While I like to use every “best practice” strategy that I can, I would characterize how I was taught and how I try to run my program as being “old school.”
Over the past several years, I have found many coaches who are impatient early in their careers and feel that they instantly need input on scheme, play calling and other responsibilities that it took me years of being a “get back” coach to acquire. Part of this is that some coaches get play calling duties early in their career due to lack of other coaches rather than having earned that position over time. The other part of this is that millennials in general have not been asked to do the grunt work that many of us in previous generations were asked to do.
I feel I was lucky that as a part of my development I started coaching freshmen, with very few real responsibilities other than to scout opponents, help the varsity coaches and learn how to coach. Over time, I got to coach a varsity position and help with game planning and then finally, begin to coordinate a sub-varsity program and later a varsity program. The long process of being a yeoman and learning that there are lots of important jobs that are less than glamorous helped prepare me as much as anything to become a head coach and varsity coordinator.
As a part of my early development, I learned that there were a number of “non-negotiables” to be able to coach in our program. I am sure that there are many more than I can remember but, the ones that really stuck with me and that I incorporated into the programs that I have run since becoming a head coach in 1999 include the following:
- If you are 15 minutes early, you are 15 minutes late.
- Encourage all players but coach only your own.
- Wear coaching gear to practice. Don’t wear your work clothes to the practice field.
- Wear coaching shoes at practice. Do not wear sandals or flip flops to practice.
- Set up your drills before practice. Don’t waste time during practice setting things up when you can have it done ahead of time. Don’t take gear from other coaches’ drills.
- Loyalty–When we leave the meeting room, we never question or criticize another member of the coaching staff publicly. We may have it out in the meeting room but, we will not criticize others in the program.
- Dependability–You have to have the time to coach and when you are assigned a task, follow it to completion. Shrugging your shoulders and saying you didn’t know what else to do is not acceptable.
- Your wife is not my problem. You know the commitment you have made and that your wife doesn’t like the time involved is something you should have covered before the season.
- Don’t say the word, “hot.” Ever.
To me old school is about a process that begins with selfless commitment to the program’s process whether that process is glamorous or not. It’s about loyalty and dependability and attention to detail. I know one could choose to associate it with a fixed mindset (we have always done it this way) but I’ve seen too many coaches like Rick Jones and Craig Ruecker who continue to grow and adapt to feel this is an accurate statement. Regardless if you see yourself as being Chip Kelly or Bear Bryant, holding kids and coaches accountable, demanding focus and attention to detail and remaining loyal to the program will never get old.
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