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Andy Y.

I9 Sports 10-14 Year-Old Division Champions! Golden Colorado

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I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for their input into this great resource for youth coaches. I have used a mix of plays provided here with a good balance between rushing and passing. I have learned a ton of information here by just reading through the forums.

Last fall my team was dead last in the division, winning only one game all season. This season with only 3 returning kids, and 4 new players, our Wildcats took the division!!!

We lost 2 of our first 3 games, then won the rest of our games to become the division champs. There were 4 teams in the division, and 3 out of the four were pretty evenly matched, so we had some really good competition. I had 2 assistant coaches that worked hard with the kids on DEFENSE. It is true what they say about defense... it is what will make the difference in the end.

We really turned a corner after that second loss. Our defense stepped up in a huge way, and the kids started to calm down on offense, and started really executing the plays well, every down. Every kid made huge contributions on both sides of the ball. I highly recommend having someone on your team keep track of individual stats during the games, and as the coach review them often to make sure kids are getting ball touches on offense. I believe this was another reason we did so well. We never had to depend on our "go to" players to get a win or make a big play, EVERY KID made a big play at some point during the season. This approach also kept the opponent's defense off balance because I could confidently go to any one of my kids on offense and know they had a good chance to make a play.

I used 2 kids at QB, with one kid later in the season who showed some enthusiasm and wanted to try it out. I asked almost every week who wanted to play QB, and only those 3 ever showed interest. I don't want any kid to feel like they have to play a position they don't want to play.

As a coach calling plays on the field I learned to watch what the defense was doing and keep them off balance. Some of our most successful plays we simple pitches to a running back, or a short play action pass. The best way to make things happen on offense in flag football is using really good misdirection plays and teaching your QB's and backs to make really good fakes and looks. I always told my QB on a pass play to make a fake pitch or hand-off, and never look at your primary receiver until that receiver made their cut, or beat the coverage. That tactic alone made for some really big plays with the receiver wide open down field. I had a rule that the receiver had 2 seconds to get open and look for the ball, the QB had 3 seconds to deliver the ball.

We worked on our pass rush a lot too. My kids had a tendency to over-run the QB or the RB on a blitz and then get beat. We told them to "Chop" your feet when you got close to the passer/runner not letting them get past, slowing them down, make them make the mistake, that created all kinds of problems for the other teams.

Our final playoff game was amazing. It was back and forth most of the game. We ended up tied at 24 at the end of regulation. In overtime each team has 4 plays to score from midfield. We won the coin toss and elected to try to score first, and we did it in 4 plays!!! We did not convert the extra point (neither team converted an extra point the whole game!) The other team (The Fury) took the field and got the ball down inside the 1 yard line in 3 plays. On the forth play they tried a short pass and our excellent pass coverage knocked the ball down! My Wildcats won the game with DEFENSE!

I am so very proud of those kids, and I am officially addicted to coaching flag football. My son is 12 years-old now, so we will play at least 2 more seasons with i9, then maybe he will decide to pursue full contact ball in high school.

Good luck coaches!

Coach Andy Yarnell

Lakewood, CO

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Andy -

Congrats! Andy and I played each other last year, I think. It's so cool to see that you guys won the championship this year. Goes to show you what some hard work and dedication will do.

Cheers! We'll probably cross paths on the bball courts this year.

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Hey Rob!

I just got back here after a long time away and saw your reply, thanks!

Hope your basketball season is going better than mine. We are 1-4, and we have 3 more games this week!!!

See you around!

BTW, I am coaching a Spring season flag football team with i9 again, really looking forward to that!

Andy

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Andy -

We're playing in the gold division this year which has some intense competition. As long as my kids keep growing and hang in there mentally, I'm good. We're 3-3 in the league you're playing in and 0-2 in our other league.

Good to hear you're coaching flag again. I expect another championship ring from you in 2013.

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Every kid made huge contributions on both sides of the ball. I highly recommend having someone on your team keep track of individual stats during the games, and as the coach review them often to make sure kids are getting ball touches on offense. I believe this was another reason we did so well. We never had to depend on our "go to" players to get a win or make a big play, EVERY KID made a big play at some point during the season. This approach also kept the opponent's defense off balance because I could confidently go to any one of my kids on offense and know they had a good chance to make a play.
Couldn't agree more on several levels. The most important is that this is the right thing to do, getting real ball touches to all players is a big deal. Secondly, your developing players will never improve against pressure unless you give them a chance. Third, just like Andy said, you'll have more weapons on offense.

We made it to the finals a few years back in the U10 division and I had two girls on my team who'd never played flag football. Everyone contributed to help us win the championship. Good stuff. http://vimeo.com/4161124

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Thanks Rob! I am coaching again with i9 spring flag football. We have a great team comprised of kids I have had over the past 3 seasons, and we are doing well. We lost the first game to the team we beat last season to win the championship, but only by 4 points! They scored a TD late in the game and we could not recover...We have won the last 2 games without trouble, those teams were raw and inexperienced. We have 2 more games against newer teams that seem to be better competition, then 2 Sundays of playoffs.

My recipe is working well again this season. Keeping stats during the game and getting every kid a chance to make a play. We have 9 kids on the team, and they are all very good at executing plays on offense, and EXCELLENT on defense! I know that I can put any kid at any position and make a play. We have 3 kids who rotate in and out of QB, but in our last game I made some kids play QB to get some experience and it worked out for them. We did have a fumble in our own end zone that the ref called a Safety???? Not sure why... but we were up by 30 at that point so I let it go.

FUN times!

Hope all the spring flag coaches are having as much fun as I am.

Coach Andy

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Andy - good to hear you're coaching again. Sounds like you'll have a great season. They called it a safety because the ball is considered dead at the spot of the fumble. If it was in the end zone, that's considered a safety. I got caught a few times trying to pitch it when our running backs were in the end zone, not a wise move.

We're in another basketball league this spring playing up in the 9th grade division. So far, so good. I'll try and swing by for one of your games.

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thanks Rob,

The safety in the endzone is my mistake... we did it again last Sunday, I have to remember not to run the ball out of the endzone when we start out down there!

Playoffs this Sunday and next, hoping for a re-match vs. the undefeated "Fury", we beat them last season for the championship, they beat us first game of the season.

All of my kids contribute on both sides of the ball, we have many weapons, therefore it should be a fun two weeks!!!!

Go 'Cats!

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Andy, have you had any experience with flag players transitioning to full contact football?

Sorry I have not been here in too long, but another season of flag brought me back.

I lost 3 of my players this season to full contact football... I hate it.

Here is the way I see it... flag football teaches the kids just about everything they need to know about football in general, minus blocking and tackling. Flag teaches them about the different positions on the field, the rules, and strategy on both offense and defense.

If you have a kid who is really good at stopping runners and pulling flags, they will be really good defenders in full contact.

I hate that I lost some great kids to the pads, but I know they went in very well equipped to succeed in tackle football.

Andy

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Andy -

Bummer about the 3 guys moving to tackle, definitely will leave a hole on your team I'm sure. I had a few kids make the transition to tackle. In fact, they are now playing as freshman for the high school team. I had one who tried tackle while playing for us, he ended up being the QB, but 5th graders aren't the greatest at providing protection for the QB. Unfortunately, he experienced a few hard hits and had mild concussions. Decided to stick with basketball and is still playing on my team. I keep in touch with Orange from these forums and I know his son made the freshman high school team this year and was doing quite well.

On a side note: I'm still coaching basketball, have my same team (now freshman) playing up at the JV level in a fall league. Trying to get them ready for high school tryouts coming up in a few months. So far, so good, they're actually 2-1. I'm sure we'll end up hitting some tough competition soon enough.

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