Johnp2

I'm pretty close to a lot of the coaches in our league (i.e. we'll socialize outside of football). This season we have a lot of new coaches, so I'm only friends with about six of the 12 coaches in our league.

Forever, we've had a support system among us in that we will provide scouting reports to one another after we play a team. For example, I received a call from the coach who is facing the team we played last Saturday in his next game. I detailed for him what to expect and my suggestions on how to attack their team (i.e. who their best players were, the type of defense they run, play selections, etc.). Essentially anything to give him an advantage. I notorious for this, and have no problem telling any coach about any team I have faced---so I get asked a lot. Ha!

Do we do this among our own teams? Absolutely! I know my team is typically one of the most highly scouted teams, and coaches know what to expect from us---the unexpected. ;-)

Just curious if any of you guys to the same with other coaches in your league, and/or you think this is unethical.

We won very easily in our last game. At the half we were up like 40-0. We opened the third quarter with a pick-six. It was the THIRD pick-six in the game at that point.

At this point I started getting a little concerned. I actually reflected on the 100-0 high school basketball game that occured here a few seasons ago and how the coach was destroyed once it got out (he actually lost his job).

When we got back on defense, I told the team, "Hey, since we are up so big here, if you make an interception it would be a class move if you took a knee instead of running it back for a TD."

A few days later, a player's mom sent me an email. She was very tactful and essentially said she would rather her son not be "limited" and instead sit out in a situation like that.

I fully respect (and understand) her mindset. However, I do disagree with this approach. A few important notes on my decision:

1. First, for most coaches that have been in this situation you know it is a no-win situation. Your darned if you do, darned it you don't.

2. My philosophy, above everything, is that we play with class (win or lose). Part of that is ensuring that my players understand how to discipline themselves on the field when we need to scale it back some. This does not mean to go half-speed, but to tweak our approach to slow the game down and prevent the score from getting out of hand. Just as we go vanilla and milk the clock in games such as this...it's merely a tactic.

3. The player 'Joey' had not played much in the game. Sitting him out would run the risk of hearing from a parent "Why should my son have to sit on the bench because our team was so dominant?"

4. If I took the approach to "sit" players because we are up so much, then I would not have players on the field. By that, we really don't have 'stars'--so who do I sit?

I informed the player's mother I respect her feedback, and I would do the same thing again if I am facing an 80 point win, but will ensure I sit her son on the bench.

I know this is a controversial subject and don't want to open up a can of worms here, but I would appreciate your thoughts on the way I handled this. If you do decide to tear into me, please be sure that you've read the post through completion. ;-)

Thanks

Game 1
We had our first game of the fall season and it was extremely lop-sided (54-0). We were up 40 points at the half, and I actually considered asking the opposing coach if he wanted to play the second half, but did not want to offend him. I actually hate games like this and did everything to keep it managable. I was proud of my players as they won with extreme class. They have been around a long, long, time, and they are fully aware that they can be on the other end of 54-0 come our next game...so they were fairly business-like in their approach.

I assure you the rest of our games won't be like this as we have two 'select' teams that joined our league from a select conference a few miles away---although one of them lost this weekend to a team that's been around for a few years in our league (heh-heh)

Over the last two fall seasons, I've had a few players elect to play tackle. I understand this, and have actually supported them...as they all come back in the spring and summer seasons. In fact, our players will go watch them play tackle, they will come to our flag games, some of them even attend our end of season parties, etc.

I also have a lot of "day one" players...those who have played with me every season I've coached. One of them has been on every teamI've ever coached (regardless of sport).

His mom emailed me the other day and informed me he decided not to play football this season. Ugh!! Just a few weeks ago she told me he was going to play--so this came from left field. There are two downsides to this. First, he is by far our best player. In fact, he might be considered the best player in our league. Most of you are aware of my philosphy (no one player carries the team), but losing a player like this downgrades our team substantially.

More importantly, however, is the fact that this is the one kid I never dreamed I would not coach. In fact, had I known he was not going to play, I would have seriously considered not coaching (it's pretty much like if my own son decided not to play).  

I responded and asked if everything is okay, and she told me he is just going through a "phase" and does not want to play. I'm going to talk to the player and his parents this weekend. I know his parents want him to play so he's probably under some pressure from them. I'm not going to give him a guilt trip or anything, but I do want him to look me in the eye and tell me he does not want to play. There have been times before where they have asked me to talk with him about things "as his coach"...and he's been very responsive to it.

If he says he does not want to play, I will respect that. I do expect him to to come out and watch HIS team play some this season, and I will have an extra jersey on hand in the event he wants to take the field. I realize some of you may frown on that, but he is a "lifetime" teammate and I would do that for any of them regardless of talent-level.  

So...question to some of you coaches long in the tooth whom have had "career players". If one of them elected not to play for some strange reason, would you take a stab at talking some sense into him? As mentioned, I'm not going to try and convince him to play but I do expect him to tell me what's going on.

Do you think speed can be taught? I say no. I think team speed and even football speed can be coached, but I don't think flat-out speed can be taught. I know that many do (there are 'speed' camps popping up around here) and that is impossible to be agnostic of any sport, in my opinion. My assumption is they teach track and field speed, which does promote the fundamentals of running, but don't think it would turn into tangible benefits on the football field.

What are your thoughts?