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07-21-2014, 02:01 AM
So we have had a lot of talk about some of the best teams in the state like Belfry and Mayfield who run the same play book from little league all the way to high school. I would love to know what schools do this and what schools don't. If this is such a good idea and gives such a big advantage then why don't all teams do this. Or is this not as big of a deal as some say.
IMO if you get a group of freshman who have ran the high school head coaches playbook and system that long then I think it is a big advantage over teams that don't. I would like to get a feal for what schools do this and what schools don't and then look at how well the schools that do have done compared to the ones don't over like the last 10 years. I just get a feeling that we have a lot of coaches who either don't know how to do all the small things to get their program going and some who don't care and have no interest in what is going on in the feeder schools and they do just enough to field a team and get a few extra thousand a year on the salary. If you want to, post your school name and if your school does this and if you don't want to then well..................someone other then you probably will lol.
IMO if you get a group of freshman who have ran the high school head coaches playbook and system that long then I think it is a big advantage over teams that don't. I would like to get a feal for what schools do this and what schools don't and then look at how well the schools that do have done compared to the ones don't over like the last 10 years. I just get a feeling that we have a lot of coaches who either don't know how to do all the small things to get their program going and some who don't care and have no interest in what is going on in the feeder schools and they do just enough to field a team and get a few extra thousand a year on the salary. If you want to, post your school name and if your school does this and if you don't want to then well..................someone other then you probably will lol.
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07-21-2014, 02:06 AM
I have a funny feeling that if I do the numbers on this that all the teams that do have had better success overall then the ones that don't in the last decade.
07-21-2014, 06:45 AM
It just makes sense. If a kid is learning the playbook in late elementary school or junior high, when he gets to high school, he can concentrate on improving fundamentals instead of trying to learn a new playbook with new terminology, etc. You want a kid to react and run when he's on the field, not try to remember which play this was. It should be instinct by that time if he came up in the system. Football isn't rocket science, but you do have to use some common sense along the way. I guarantee you your Belfrys, Mayfields, Highlands, etc. use this system. A high school team is only as good as it's Junior High program.
07-21-2014, 07:39 AM
"If this is such a good idea and gives such a big advantage then why don't all teams do this. "
I think every team would love to do this but it simply is too tough to do for several reasons.
1. Coaching Turnover- Each time a new Head Coach is brought in you bring in a new system. Each time a Head Coach is let go or sruggles, people second guess what kind of system should be ran.(Look at your LC thread and see how many people suddenly thinks Lawrence County should be a 50/50 pass:run team). Coaches come and go but there will always be football at the Feeder School level and typically the same coaches. People are creatures of habit, so those coaches will coach what is familiar to them and only change when someone takes a vested interest to make that change happen.
2. Consolidation- Up until about 8 or 9 years ago Belfry DID NOT run an universal system. There is little doubt that the reason Belfry is on the strongest run in the program's history coincided with this change. What hampered Belfry for all those years was the fact that they did not have a single consolidated Middle School. They had 5 or 6 K-8 Elementary Schools.. each with their own team... their own coaching staff... and subsequently their own playbook. Coaches coached to beat each other and used plays to do so... the fact the talent was spread much more thin meant the weak were exposed and the strong were over used. This results in attrition. When these kids got to HS it took two years just to learn to play together instead of against one another.
3. Competition- As mentioned above, most feeder coaches coach to the level of the competition they have to face. You can't fault them...they are just simply preparing for who they have to prepare for. If your schedule is weak it is very easy to coach to that level or cut corners... in the case of Belfry they have evolved over the past two decades. Initially the Belfry feeder teams mainly played each other with the occasional game against local competition. Then as consolidation began they started playing Regionally against the other county programs and surrounding areas. Now Belfry's competition is on the Statewide level competing for Middle School State Titles and playing tournaments from throughout East and Southern Kentucky. When you play tough competition you suddenly strive to perfect little things. There is no better way to do that than having a repeatable system in place.
4. Education/Training- In Belfry's case almost all the credit goes to Steve Mickey. The former acclaimed Assistant Coach made it his mission to get the Feeder System changed. For as great of a coach that he was, IMHO his best coaching job came from how he had to bring a renaissance to the Belfry feeder system. He not only helped take the Middle School to the State Level, he also instilled grassroots leagues. He took a vested interest in educating the coaches and taking the time to show them the intricacies of Belfry's offensive and defensive system. Much like a good coach recruits his own players, he recruited former players and got them involved as assistants... because who better to teach the system?
5. Vested Interest of the Head Coach- As mentioned above, Belfry was fortunate to have Steve Mickey.. a man who numerous programs would have loved to make a Head Coach. Most schools simply don't have that luxury so it falls on the Head Coach to duplicate Mickey's efforts to bringing everyone in concert, "Coaching coaches", and babying the program through it's infant steps. Especially if the HC is a new hire, they simply don't have the time to be able to do this.
I have mentioned this before... but IMHO Steve Mickey deserves to be inducted in the Belfry Hall of Fame twice as a coach. Once for his distinguished service at the HS Level... the other for his role as the patriarch of the Belfry Feeder System.
I think every team would love to do this but it simply is too tough to do for several reasons.
1. Coaching Turnover- Each time a new Head Coach is brought in you bring in a new system. Each time a Head Coach is let go or sruggles, people second guess what kind of system should be ran.(Look at your LC thread and see how many people suddenly thinks Lawrence County should be a 50/50 pass:run team). Coaches come and go but there will always be football at the Feeder School level and typically the same coaches. People are creatures of habit, so those coaches will coach what is familiar to them and only change when someone takes a vested interest to make that change happen.
2. Consolidation- Up until about 8 or 9 years ago Belfry DID NOT run an universal system. There is little doubt that the reason Belfry is on the strongest run in the program's history coincided with this change. What hampered Belfry for all those years was the fact that they did not have a single consolidated Middle School. They had 5 or 6 K-8 Elementary Schools.. each with their own team... their own coaching staff... and subsequently their own playbook. Coaches coached to beat each other and used plays to do so... the fact the talent was spread much more thin meant the weak were exposed and the strong were over used. This results in attrition. When these kids got to HS it took two years just to learn to play together instead of against one another.
3. Competition- As mentioned above, most feeder coaches coach to the level of the competition they have to face. You can't fault them...they are just simply preparing for who they have to prepare for. If your schedule is weak it is very easy to coach to that level or cut corners... in the case of Belfry they have evolved over the past two decades. Initially the Belfry feeder teams mainly played each other with the occasional game against local competition. Then as consolidation began they started playing Regionally against the other county programs and surrounding areas. Now Belfry's competition is on the Statewide level competing for Middle School State Titles and playing tournaments from throughout East and Southern Kentucky. When you play tough competition you suddenly strive to perfect little things. There is no better way to do that than having a repeatable system in place.
4. Education/Training- In Belfry's case almost all the credit goes to Steve Mickey. The former acclaimed Assistant Coach made it his mission to get the Feeder System changed. For as great of a coach that he was, IMHO his best coaching job came from how he had to bring a renaissance to the Belfry feeder system. He not only helped take the Middle School to the State Level, he also instilled grassroots leagues. He took a vested interest in educating the coaches and taking the time to show them the intricacies of Belfry's offensive and defensive system. Much like a good coach recruits his own players, he recruited former players and got them involved as assistants... because who better to teach the system?
5. Vested Interest of the Head Coach- As mentioned above, Belfry was fortunate to have Steve Mickey.. a man who numerous programs would have loved to make a Head Coach. Most schools simply don't have that luxury so it falls on the Head Coach to duplicate Mickey's efforts to bringing everyone in concert, "Coaching coaches", and babying the program through it's infant steps. Especially if the HC is a new hire, they simply don't have the time to be able to do this.
I have mentioned this before... but IMHO Steve Mickey deserves to be inducted in the Belfry Hall of Fame twice as a coach. Once for his distinguished service at the HS Level... the other for his role as the patriarch of the Belfry Feeder System.
07-21-2014, 08:57 AM
I think its a good idea. Raceland doesnt necissarily run the exact same offense in the JfL, but it is a variation. From 3rd grade on most of them run some sort of spread, atleast some of the time. Its more about spacing, lining up, and center/qb exchange that early on though. Playbook vocabulary doest come into play. As the kids get older, bigger, faster, and more capable of understanding more complex things, route running and timing in the passing game gets worked on, then traps, counters, pulls, and leads are all introduced in the runniń game. It's hard at the gradeschool level due to cosching turnover. Personally, I am going to be involved with the JFL at Raceland for the next several years, I am hoping to get the ball rolling on introducing more and more to these kids, many underestimate their capacity for learning technical aspects of the game that early, give them the opportunity, they might suprise you. i do believe that The Jr High runs out of the same playbook as the highschool though. So by Frosh year, they have 2 full years with the exact playbook they will be using in HS.
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