Bless Em All
Well-known member
In my opinion, discipline and then developing talent. Taking marginal kids and making them men/women. Coaches have a tough job and don’t get enough credit. Again, just my opinion.
What makes a coach successful?
- Thread starter jnjcoach
- Start date
scbuckeye99
Well-known member
Having read the majority of the comments in this thread I think too many are missing the mark here. We've become so focused on the end result be it W's and L's or making better people or providing a positive experience that we've ignored what the coach actually is doing to make these things happen. Having been on a hiring committee for both HFC and previously for AD I can tell you questions surround topics such how are you going to hold kids accountable? What will your relationship with the Youth and MS programs look like? How will you hold your asst. coaches accountable? What does your off-season schedule look like? What does a week of in-season practice look like? and really the most important question as of late....How will you create a presence on campus among non-athletes, staff, non-football coaches???
In my 16 years of teaching / coaching (non football) I've seen far too many football coaches who become enveloped in this football bubble if you will where that is all that exists and the rest of the school / athletics don't matter. Grant it I teach / coach at a school of a little under 1,800 students but a month ago as our HFC committee began discussing some of the issues with our last HFC, one of our AP's (Assistant Principals) brought up the fact that a good percentage of our teaching staff could not name our exiting HFC. And he had been in the building the last 3 years.
In short what makes a good head coach?? (regardless of sport BTW) Investing in the kids, investing in the community and well showing that you give a darn both on and off the field.
In my 16 years of teaching / coaching (non football) I've seen far too many football coaches who become enveloped in this football bubble if you will where that is all that exists and the rest of the school / athletics don't matter. Grant it I teach / coach at a school of a little under 1,800 students but a month ago as our HFC committee began discussing some of the issues with our last HFC, one of our AP's (Assistant Principals) brought up the fact that a good percentage of our teaching staff could not name our exiting HFC. And he had been in the building the last 3 years.
In short what makes a good head coach?? (regardless of sport BTW) Investing in the kids, investing in the community and well showing that you give a darn both on and off the field.
330Football
Well-known member
Put them together and you get a great coach
FeartheRooster
Active member
Success is not linear in my opinion, there are many, many forms to measure a coach by, we all know that. As much as we all enjoy and believe in all the “rah rah” type stuff, if your school is a “football” school (as most are) you get fired if you don’t win. Unfortunately if you can get fired for not winning, it boils down to that. Administration measures you on L’s alone usually...unless you coach baseball. (They can’t make much money on baseball.)
With that being said, all the other feel good stuff is how you mold young men, establish a program, and how you build a culture in your school. That stuff is measured during and after your tenure as a coach, it can live many years after you’ve moved on. Those kinds of things are the branches to your tree, being able to reach more kids than you ever imagined.
With that being said, all the other feel good stuff is how you mold young men, establish a program, and how you build a culture in your school. That stuff is measured during and after your tenure as a coach, it can live many years after you’ve moved on. Those kinds of things are the branches to your tree, being able to reach more kids than you ever imagined.
How about develop your own? I hate recruiting! unless its your own kids in the building. Develop your own kids in your district and start at a young age to get the interest brewing. A good/successful coach has one eye on the future at all times.
I agree with all of these, but coaching is at the top.
I think you need to add expectations.
Expectations drives everything else in the list.
In a school were expectations are very low and season after season is a losing season, this feeds on itself and becomes a habit. Habit also applies to winning.
Winning Of course costs way more effort to maintain season after season. Expectations keeps the effort at that level.
Reddengineer
Active member
Besides the obvious, knowledge of the game, able to motivate players and coaches, I've seen a couple of patterns leading to success here. #1, having the entire program on the same page, Jr. High through varsity. Here, this goes back to the 60's under Abe Bryan, Ohio HS HOF coach. Records are disregarded. You are to teach the program. #2, just because a kid is a great athlete doesn't mean he has to start both ways. If he isn't better on the other side of the ball than the competing player, jeez, don't give him that position too. A watched a local coach do that with an OL once, sat a future all-stater at DT to play a great OT both ways. It was a waste. #3 Don't play for points, play for the win. We've seen accusations of substituting too early, but it pays off. At the end of the year, you don't end up with a replacement for an injury or such having never seen the field. That's just my thoughts on a good coach being sustainable. I've seen guys who were good on the game, would have a really good team every 3 years or so, but could not be successful consistently because they did not build.
FootballFan1795
Well-known member
Almost forgot to update you cincifbfan: The coach ultimately ‘resigned.’
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