You know, under Federation rules you could've chosen to kick off after you were scored on.

Going to look that one up. 🙂

You know, under Federation rules you could've chosen to kick off after you were scored on.

Of course, his concern was that they didn't return enough kicks, so I'm not sure how forfeiting some of their KORs would have helped him.

To Boe44 - preparing your players for high school is not really your responsibility - maximizing their experience THIS year with THIS team is, and it sounds like you did a great job of that.  Honestly, if their high school coaches can't take a group of players that you've trained to outscore their opposition 245-33 and teach them how to punt and return kickoffs within a couple of seasons, then they're the ones doing a disservice to the players, and they should consider hanging up their whistles.

Seriously, you're doing a great job - as long as your kids are having fun, learning good fundamentals and want to continue playing on into high school, you have more than done your job.  The coaches at your local high school should be kissing your ass hoping that you'll continue sending them a stream of players that are well prepared for high school football.  If they can't coach up the handful of things that you didn't teach your players, they really don't have any business being high school coaches.

Of course, his concern was that they didn't return enough kicks, so I'm not sure how forfeiting some of their KORs would have helped him.

I wasn't sure if he was being serious, but I wanted to point out he could've gone even more to that extreme.

Of course, his concern was that they didn't return enough kicks, so I'm not sure how forfeiting some of their KORs would have helped him.

To Boe44 - preparing your players for high school is not really your responsibility - maximizing their experience THIS year with THIS team is, and it sounds like you did a great job of that.  Honestly, if their high school coaches can't take a group of players that you've trained to outscore their opposition 245-33 and teach them how to punt and return kickoffs within a couple of seasons, then they're the ones doing a disservice to the players, and they should consider hanging up their whistles.

Seriously, you're doing a great job - as long as your kids are having fun, learning good fundamentals and want to continue playing on into high school, you have more than done your job.  The coaches at your local high school should be kissing your ass hoping that you'll continue sending them a stream of players that are well prepared for high school football.  If they can't coach up the handful of things that you didn't teach your players, they really don't have any business being high school coaches.

I agree.

We practiced these things but did not use them. Did we do a diservice to our players going up to the 9th grade in not getting them experience in these areas. Proud of what we did this year but......wondering.

Blocking, Tackling and being physical.  So the fundamentals are what they need-which you've done.  We worked our onside kicks about once a week.  How many times did we use it?  1 time.  In the championship game when we needed it.  Best part was that when I called the KO team over and said we needed the onside kick, not one player said, "what's that?" or "what do I do again?"  Because we'd covered it in practice.  Thanks btw to DP - rep it and they'll know what to do when it happens.

You've covered it in practice. Can't predict when and if you'll use it. That's the way it goes.  Just my POV.

preparing your players for high school is not really your responsibility - maximizing their experience THIS year with THIS team is

^This.  All day long...

--Dave

Thanks btw to DP - rep it and they'll know what to do when it happens.

You're welcome, but you still have to know how to implement it.  Sounds like you did.

--Dave

We practiced and repped special teams. Maybe its just my feeling thats the area we were weak in coaching this year. I hate to see confusion when a phase of the game is called. Although i do realize that many times i could have just gone over it and then say ok. Kick return 5 mins later and i have a bunch of coach where am I what do I do again. With only 5 on the sideline there only so much replacing you can do.

I take pride in coaching fundamentally sound players that ffly to the ball or their assignments. Hate to see an area lacking on my team. But that will change next season.

I take a different approach.  YES WE WORK SPECIAL TEAMS

No, Unless I see a perceived weakness, I dont kick deep!  ZERO returns for TD against this year.  Longest return 15 yards.  Returning, you bet I work on it!  Zero onside kicks recovered against us.  One onside kick returned to the 3 yard line by a front liner!  Several returns over 25 yards.  Yes working Special teams can make all the difference at the youth level. 

jmho 

We have several organizations in the area feeding into our regional HS, which happens to be one of the largest schools in NJ.  To say it's competitive to make the football team is an understatement.  Every parent is concerned about giving their kid the best chance to make play "at the next level" which in this case means finding a roster spot on the freshman team at what amounts to a small college.  Every year there are kids who walk in to tryouts, never having played organized football, and beat out kids who've played since first grade.  It happens EVERY.YEAR. and people still get surprised about it.  A couple years ago, they had 90+ kids turn out for freshman tryouts.  They keep a maximum of  44... final-cut day was a bloodbath.

I've tracked our players as they move on to and through high school for several years now.  It's a pretty consistent funnel  with the most kids playing freshman ball then dropping off each year for various reasons.  From a pool of anywhere from 10-25 graduating eighth graders, our team pretty consistently places 5 or 6 kids on the varsity in their senior year.  It's like that for most teams in the area, though it varies from year to year.

My personal opinion is that we should be  coaching for the 15 or so "other" kids who will never play under Friday Night Lights.  The 5 or 6 that do go on to play on varsity football do so because of their God-given athletic ability and their work ethic... not because of anything they do or do not do while with us (though I'd like to take at least a little credit for work ethic).

Coach for today.  Most of your team won't ever get a tomorrow.

-Craig

Coach for today.  Most of your team won't ever get a tomorrow.

Yes, this ^^^

With all that is said about not teaching specials not hurting the kids, we do stress specials ourselves. We use specials as a weapon. But that is a different conversation. So I'm ok with the op's position from an inividual pov but disagree with it from a game stand point. Specials have won and lost us more than one game.

Specials have won and lost us more than one game.

And many times, it's a championship game where special teams are the difference.

--Dave