Andy Y.

I have coached 9 seasons with i9 Sports flag football. I have been in your shoes. A few years ago I had a rag-tag team of 7 players, only one real "stand-out" player. We lost our first two games because of our lack of effective defense and flag pulling. My assistant coach and I drilled it into the kid's heads that defense was going to make the difference and we only need one touchdown to win if our defense is strong. We went on to win the rest of our games and the championship that season. The last game went into triple overtime and we won with a goal line stand where we did not allow the other team to score in the end. So my advice to you is work on your defense, make the focus of your practice DEFENSE. Drills for flag-pulling and how to swarm the ball. The first guy to the ball carrier is the one who should slow them down, and make it possible for the team to get the flag. Eyes on the belt buckle/hips. You have shown that you can put points on the board, now get your defense in shape. My kids this season are 4-0, we have only allowed 3 TD's and have 9 interceptions. There are only 3 teams in our division, one of those teams has yet to score a single TD on us. I tell my kids every Sunday "Defense is going to win this game for us today." We have 4 defensive TD's this season. I praise my kids more for their defensive efforts than their offensive efforts. The first thing I look at on our stat sheet is "pulls". If a kid doesn't have one yet at halftime we talk about why that is and sometimes it is just the fact that they did not have a good chance, or that their teammate got it first, even though they were there too... lot's of discussion about this so they know that is what we as coaches want them to excel at more than anything else in games. Every kid should have at least one flag pull per game. The good ones will get 4 or more. So, good luck and have fun at all costs. I have had more losing seasons than winning seasons, so I know what you are going through. With youth sports we have to remember that we are shaping these kids for the future, more than anything else, teach them respect, humility, and sportsmanship. Those attributes will help them a whole lot more than a winning record or a trophy. Coach Andy

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

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!

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

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

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

Hey Rob, Coach Andy here from the Mustangs... saw this post today and wanted to thank you for the kind words. I did not realize the league was supposed to be 12-14 year-olds, and that the director changed it up to fill out teams, that explains a lot. We have gotten better over the season, but we are 0-6 and playing the Cobra's Sunday. Good thing is, we played them last Sunday, so we know what to expect, and I hope to focus on their weaknesses and get a win this season. We are in a building year, hopefully most of the kids come back next year so we can pull it all together and do even better next season. My kids have all made progress this season. I have worked hard to get them all a chance to touch the ball, but missed catches, and slow running has killed us all season. We have given up too many points to interceptions. Our defense is much better, and I love that the kids have really understood what we are telling them when on defense. Good luck Sunday! Andy