[Football1]

A friend from work is on a committee that is hiring a football coach for his son's high school in the north east. He asked me if I had any thoughts on what they should ask which was alot like asking a barber if he has any thoughts on the right way to cut a short hair. This is what I suggested to him via email:

Football is about building a program more than it is a team. I would look for men who can describe an innovative plan for building a program that young men will count as instrumental in playing a part in their development toward becoming the man they were intended to be. That man would likely answer questions around that by describing a few of the following:

1. Strength and Conditioning Program: one that is flexible enough to support multi-sport athletes and demanding enough to rapidly improve an athletes 40, Bench, Squat, and Power Clean max's.

2. Recruitment: Coaches can't subscribe to "build it, they will come" nor "its built, they will stay". They should have a plan for reaching into the community to find young talent who will benefit from the program and visa versa.

3. Structure: Great football programs present a "family" atmosphere that welcomes underclassmen and gives Seniors and Juniors a roll in team leadership. Hazing must be forbidden from the outset and seniors groomed to lead by example with work ethic and character.

4. Community: will he embrace the culture and people of the area where the team plays? Every interview and radio show becomes sort of a test for a football coach to keep the support of the area.

5. Discipline: the days of the ultra rigid drill instructor type coach have passed us. Young men are not raised like today and fail to respond to that approach. Still, great coaches find a way to push even "troubled kids" to get the best out of them. Might be an area to ask a candidate to cite an example where his approach worked to get the best out of a player.

6. Tactics: Much can be said of X's and 0's and the specific Offense and Defense a coach prefers. And while they all may have a core plan here - the best ones will want to carefully assess the players he inherits and bend around that nucleus a play book that maximizes the strengths of those kids.

7. Assistant Coaches: no sport relies more on the guys who work for the head coach. Does he have his own he must bring? Can he work with those who remain. How does he manage them. A question that might provide insight into this is "what instructions do you give the guys who sit in the booth so you get the best information to make in game decisions on the field?".

I hope the folks who are selecting our coach asks these questions.