I recently started coaching freshman football for Piedmont High School this year. My son is on the team and I have coached a lot of these kids in flag football for the last two years, but I didn’t really know what to expect from them now that they have full pads on.
We started with 28 guys when our Two-a-Days started. After the first week, we were down to 18 and yesterday there were only 14 due to injuries. At this point I don’t know if we will be able to field a team in the next couple weeks. I think some of the boys don’t know the difference between an ache ‘n pain versus an injury. Of course, I want all the boys to stay healthy but Football is a really really hard sport. It’s not for everybody.
We have a name for the “injured” players: Cupcakes. When they go to the training room, they get “frosted.”
One of the boys came out to the field with his nice watch on. The other coach says to him, “Hey Sunny, for the next two hours I don’t think you are going to need to worry about what time it is out here on the field.”
Overall, my experience during the last two weeks has been amazing. I’ve noticed a phenomenon which baffles me: an intelligent freshman boy can put on a helment and instantly turn dumb. I don’t know why this happens, but as I remember back to my days in highschool, college, and even in the NFL, there were players who came from Stanford, Northwestern, and Ivy League schools who turned dumb as soon as they put their helmets on. I attribute atleast part of this phenomenon to the overwhelming situation of playing defensive football: lining up, thinking about your responsibility in the play, reading whether its a run or a pass, trying to make a tackle, taking on blocks . . . all the different scenarios that can play out.
My goals for these young players are, by the end of the year, for them to truly understand hard work, dedication, and true commitment. LIke I said before, Football is really really hard. It’s not for everybody. But sometimes just knowing that you have 27 other boys counting on you to make it out to practice is enough to get you out there to be tough and work through the pain and. I know at the end of the year, how ever many guys we have standing on the field, will have learned what it takes to be a good, if not a great, defense. I hope they will know who they can count on and who they can’t, and how important it is to, even if you make a mistake, make that mistake at 100% effort. It takes zero talent to make effort so I expect balls to the wall at all times.
Hopefully we will have very few Cupcakes come game time.
Hey Romo, sounds like your coaching at an all girls school. Just kidding, kind of. It must be frustrating. Schoch pulled Randall out of Culver last week and he will be playing for me this year over at Chaparral. Should be a fun year as I have a great group of athletes. I have a hunt date set the weekend of 11-15. Hit me back. Oly. P.S. Great website!
Hi Bill,
Nice to hear you’re coaching high school football. I thought I’d let you know that your name came up just yeaterday at a football practice in Southern California. My wife went to school with you at Rockville High School and we remain in contact with several of the old freinds. One of your former Raider teammates is coaching with us, and it would be great to have you come down for a visit with our players sometime…? South Orange County is a great place to visit. Give it some thoughts…
Hey Bill,
Biggest problem today is kids are just plain soft all over (not only in the head). I have 3 sons all who played pee-wee through high school football. 2 played defense and although sore never came home hurt. 1 played wide receiver. 2 concussions and a broken clavicle were his ticket home. But today I look at my sons sons and they are just plain soft. Perhaps if they got out and played dodgeball instead of playing Xbox they’d be able to make the cut.
We have no one to blame but ourselves.