I was on the phone with a good friend of mine from North Carolina yesterday named Bill Bollman. We were tossing ideas back and forth about coaching, and he came up with a real doozy.
I've never liked cuts in football. The lessons this sport has to teach are simply too important to restrict them to a magic few players. Not to mention that I'd be second-guessing my choices constantly. "We cut Billy, but did you see him today? He grew three inches and gained twenty pounds. Is he living in the weight room?" I'd be further terrified that I'd cut some young man who would have eventually filled that critical position we always seem to get every year. You know the one; at least once a season we all look to our assistant coaches and say, "You know, we have no one else that can play Center/Tight End/Free safety/Etc. If Bobby sprains an ankle we are in serious trouble."
Worse yet, when do you cut? After conditioning week, usually. Conditioning week is usually performed without pads. That means you might cut a player who looks like Jane, but would play like Tarzan in pads, in favor of one who looks like Tarzan but plays like crap! Until you've seen a player in a few tackling drills, you really can't consider whether or not he should be cut-- but you can't see him in tackling drills unless he has equipment.
I'm paranoid about that sort of thing, which is why I'm glad I talked to Bill. He came up with an idea that is stunning in its simplicity, and yet so powerful that it bears a lengthy look.
Bill gets some 72 players out each season. He's only got about 38 sets of gear. That leaves, unfortunately, 34 players who spend football season watching from the stands.
But what if we could take those players and create a special team for them? What if we could keep them involved, keep them learning football, keep them working? What if we could use a method that professional and NCAA teams use all the time: the practice squad.
The way it works is like this. Each player gets two sets of cuts. The first cut drops him to the practice squad. That's where he will play out his season unless he quits or you pull him up to the game squad. A second cut drops him from the team entirely. These I would use primarily for "attitude." Any player that wants to stick with the team is welcome to do so.
Practice squad players would be issued team tee-shirts. They come to every practice and they work on similar drills to the game squad. They practice tackling, blocking, and other crucial skills of football using non-contact or low-contact drills such as the ones popularized by HUGH WYATT. Only the Game Squad actually receives helmets, pads, and uniforms for game day.
They hold bags for scout team, allowing you to get more reps for your game team players. They are a legitimate part of the football team; entitled to all awards and praise-- or punishment-- thereof. They are held to the same behavior and academic standards, and considered nearly as elite as the game squad.
They are also available if you suddenly lose a player and need to pull someone up from the practice squad. In one week I had three offensive linemen go down, two from injury and one from a behavioral incident. A practice squad to draw from would have been awfully nice when we were reshuffling our entire team. (Not that we cut anyone. We've never had the numbers.)
You'd have to approach this in a certain manner. Where a young man's pride is involved things are never easy. I think that Bill is right, though. If you put enough focus on it, start in the preseason long before you hold a tryout or a camp, and start talking about how the practice squad is going to make the team better, how the practice squad gets privileges and entitlements just like the game squad, how the practice squad is composed of football players who need more work and practice, not wannabes who can't make it, there's a good chance you could turn this into a valuable resource for developing talent.
I have always thought it's a crying shame that there are young football players out there that won't get to play football this season because there aren't resources available to let them become a part of the team. I believe that it should be a major goal of any program that cuts because of equipment issues to gradually increase the amount of available equipment until every young man (or woman) that wants to play is able to do so.
Some programs cut because they can't get the coaches. If there are players, there are coaches. Every player has at least one parent or guardian. Every parent or guardian is a potential assistant coach, if approached the right way and carefully trained by a competent head coach.
Some programs cut because they can't get the equipment. Football gear costs money. We all know that, but there are ways to get more equipment. Seek out grants and gifts from local businesses. Create and sell a program at your home games and sell advertising in it. Hold lift-a-thons and get the players to work on getting sponsors for each ten pounds they lift. Hold a charity basketball game. Sell concessions at your games. Talk to the local schools about gifts of their old equipment as "handme downs."
If all else fails, just try to buy one or two more helmets and pad sets per season until you can suit up any player that wants to play.
As coaches, we have to remember that we can't coach the players that aren't on the field. We need to get them, and keep them, on grass. Bill's practice squad idea is the start of that process, but after that we need to get our players equipped and make them a part of the team.
~D.
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