Program Building

Using Peers and Self-Reflection for Postseason Evaluation As the football season draws to a close for most programs throughout the country, I find an essential part of your development lies in self- and peer-reflection. While this is easier said than done, thanks to the schedules of high school coaches who shuffle from sport to sport, it’s imperative to get to these tasks ...

Mattering and Marginality A Pre-Season Note to the Student-Athlete Dr. Cory Dobbs, The Academy for Sport Leadership  www.sportleadership.com People want to matter.  Every member of your team has a yearning to matter.  Unfortunately it’s almost guaranteed that a teammate or two, on your team right now, feels like they don’t matter. Mattering is a motive.  When we feel that others depend ...

Football Parent’s 10 Commandments Parents please feel free at anytime to contact the Head Football Coach on the main Sr. Campus at the field house if you have any questions or concerns about your son and his involvement in the football program. Be positive with your son. Let him know how proud you of him by simply being part of ...

A Player’s Job Description A coaches job is to get players to do their jobs well.  But just exactly what is a player’s job description. Here is a link to the original article (You can also access other coaching articles on her blog) A Player’s Job Description By Dawn Redd-Kelly, Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College. Editor’s Note from Brian: This post is ...

Summer Program Organization in Football Phase 3: Summer Program (Pre-season) Standards (players) 1. Improve strength, speed, agility and conditioning. A. Team members not participating in baseball will lift 3 times per week (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7am). B. Attendance is mandatory unless communicated to head coach and or position coach. C. Nutrition education and monitoring will be used through summer months. 2. Install basic ...

Expectations of an Assistant Coach “A good coach makes better players out of border line athletes and often makes good players out of mediocre ones. A good coach emphasizes their abilities –enables them to make the most of their god given talents –gives them the best chance for success by putting the right player in the right place.”Robert Zuppke It is ...

Rules vs. Standards Editor’s Note from Brian: This article was written by a basketball coach, but I feel that the principles are applicable to coaching any sport. This article was contributed by: Justin Matthew Brandt CoachJustinBrandt@gmail.com CoachJB.weebly.com Here is a link to his YouTube channel I have been asked on multiple occasions on what my rules for my classroom or team are. My response ...

Norming the Team Why Norms are the Driver of Team Culture Dr. Cory Dobbs, The Academy for Sport Leadership “It’s not enough to know how to lead; you need to know how to build leaders too.” On a scale from one to ten, how important is having a positive culture to your team’s ability to reach its potential?  When I ask ...

Coach Stone Offers His Tips to Dominate the Football Offseason Coach Anthony Stone shares ideas to get your mind right for the offseason and start building for next year. Regardless of how your season ended, that campaign is now in the past. The stress and pressure from the season has subsided, so you can take a step back and assess all the moving parts. This is ...

Teamwork and Culture Shaping Bill Wadley Recently retired Men’s Swimming Coach Ohio State This presentation deals with shaping and changing cultural barriers and shifting well established habits which becomes the challenge of cultural shaping. Coach Wadley discusses the goals and barriers that impact faculty and staff success and how to simplify systems and structure. This presentation also explains how culture can be ...

Setting the Standards for a Successful Football Program Mission Statement The mission of the of any High School football program should be to develop a team that excels on the field, achieves in the classroom, positively impacts the greater school community and is prepared for success beyond high school. Every student-athlete in our program will be treated with respect and dignity but will be ...

6 Ways to Develop a Winning Team Culture This article was provided by Inner Drive, a mental skills training company. Editor’s Note from Brian: The article is written using soccer as the example, but I believe that it has applications to football as well. The women’s Euros kicked off on Sunday, and we’re all excited to see how well England will perform. They’re up against ...

Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid We surveyed college recruiting personnel to find out where a highlight video can go wrong and how athletes can avoid falling into those traps. We talk plenty about the power of a highlight and how it can raise your recruiting profile. But there are two sides to that coin – a bad highlight video can turn ...

Creating a Championship Game Plan for Your Program: Kevin Wright Head Football Coach Carmel High School, In. Creating a Championship Game Plan for Your Program: Including Establishing a Winning Culture, Getting the Maximum Number of Kids in the Program and Forming a Year Round Calendar This video presentation by Coach Wright begins with him talking about dealing with adversity, being positive and the importance for providing encouragement ...

Game Planning for Next Opponent The Following information is how some teams from around the country game plan for their next opponent. Team #1 Our game-planning begins in the summer as we gather as much film as we can about our opponents and view it. From a defensive perspective, I look for a few things and trying to get a feel for ...

Transforming Thoughts from Top Coaches Judson High School, Texas Transforming Thoughts from Top Coaches (Part of How to Build Your Program Foundation, Staff, and Purpose) Coach Wacker gives an outstanding presentation on how to build a successful program by establishing a foundation. Coach Wacker shares his thoughts when establishing an offense and defensive system a coach should do at least one ...

Create a Winning Culture Focused on Player Development Tracy Archuleta Southern Indiana This program is presented by a baseball coach, but I believe that it has applications to football programs. Coach Archuleta begins his presentation defining skills that are needed to fit your needs as a program followed by finding athletes with passion and that can understand your system. Coach shares his philosophy from hiring ...

Approach to Practice The following information represents several different programs’ approaches for running a successful football program from top to bottom. Approach to Practice The first thing that is told to the student-athletes is that practice is the coach’s time; the intent is to work hard, be efficient, and simply get better. The games are for the players; this is ...

Expectations for Assistant Football Coaches The following information represents the thoughts and expectations for assistant coaches from several different successful football programs from around the country. Expectations for assistant coaches REPORTS TO: Head Coach, Athletic Coordinator, High School Principal, Assistant Director of Athletics, Athletic Director. SUPERVISES: Athletes and team assigned. Assumes supervisory control over all athletes in program when such control is needed. JOB ...

Developing Your Intermediate and Lower Level Programs Nothing is more important to success than the time you spend on the practice field. The important thing is how you utilize this time. The time you spend preparing for practice is as important as the actual time you spend on the field. The only way you can determine whether your practices are organized or ...

Program Culture Thoughts This article was sent to me by Dennis Hutter Coach Hutter is the Head Women’s Coach at Mayville State University. Dennis also has a coaching website. The URL is http://www.coachhutter.com/ I believe that the vast majority of these points can be applied to coaching any sports. Six Ways to Create Culture Within an Organization – Andy Stanley Name ...

Cracking the Code to Building an Elite Team Cracking the Code to Building an Elite Team By Cory Dobbs, Ed.D., The Academy for Sport Leadership “A team is not just a collection of individuals.  When everyone clicks into place, a team is truly a community, a tightly knit fellowship.”  Many coaches are expert tacticians, strategists, and teachers of techniques.   Few are adept at building teams.  ...

Ideas for Your Parent Meeting The purpose of this post is not to say that you should run your Parent’s Meeting like this, but just to stimulate your thinking on how you can make your Parent’s Meeting as productive as possible.  It is more than a task to complete on the season checklist, it is an important opportunity to build ...

Finding and Building Coachable Athletes The article provided by Coaches Network By Dr. Wade Gilbert Much was written last April about Jordan Spieth’s record-setting performance at the Master’s golf tournament. At only 21 years old, Spieth broke multiple scoring records and became the first golfer in 30 years to lead the tournament from wire to wire (first day to final day). However, it ...

Traits of Successful Programs This article provided by Coaches Network By Bruce Brown, Proactive Coaching Successful coaches weave these 10 principles into all aspects of their team’s activities—whether it be during the off-season or pre-season, or in practice and in games. Consistent and clear standards and values. Pre-set team values are the foundation for every successful team. What is your team’s identity? ...

National Champion Coach on High Performing Teams This 12 minute video with 24 time National Champion Rugby Coach Jack Clark was posted by whatdriveswinning.com. If you go to that site, you will be able to view other similar videos with other coaches who have built highly successful Division I programs in various sports. Coach Clark played football in college and tried out for ...

Building Great Teams Part 2 This article was written and submitted by retired High School Coach Dave Millhollin. Building Great Teams Part 2 By Dave Millhollin Editor’s note: This is part Two of Two parts for this article. Here is the link to Building Great Teams Part 1 Positive Reinforcement, Recognition and Praise Through our team building process, we stress the significance of ...

Building Great Teams Part 1 This article was written and submitted by retired High School Coach Dave Millhollin. I am always looking for good information to share. If you have an article, drill, play, or anything else that you would like to have posted on the Coaching Toolbox, feel free to contact me. Building Great Teams Part 1 By Dave ...

Culture Trumps Everything Culture Trumps Everything The Power of the Setting By Dr. Cory Dobbs Founder, The Academy for Sport Leadership *This Following is An Excerpt from the workshop workbook: A Leader in Every Locker. Authors Note: The workshop workbook for A Leader in Every Locker(excerpt below) provides a very disruptive approach to team building. The idea of a leader in every locker ...

Favorite Success Aphorisms These are some of my favorite personal development success aphorisms.  I have given credit where I was able to.  If you have any to add, or know who I should attribute any of these to, feel free to comment below. I am far from perfect, but I work to have these thoughts guide my actions. There ...