Update: The Jamboree is tomorrow night at 6:45 and then at 7:15.

Much like the 12U team last year, I have absolutely no idea what to expect in the Jamboree, because I don't have a benchmark compare it against. As I've noticed over the preseason, the kids have changed a bit since the last time I coached at 8U (2021). Not better. Not worse. Just different.

Things seem to be going well, though. While I still haven't found the perfect spot for a few kids, I like what I see on the offensive line, at QB, and at RB. The defense (Multiple 62) hasn't been outstanding but a lot of that is because our RB's are solid and the pulling G is doing an awesome job on Power and ISO. It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow... especially with the defense going out first.

We did very well at the Jamboree tonight. I was worried that our star RB wouldn't make weight, but he was 100 pounds on the nose in full pads.

We won the first game 18-0 and the second one 12-0. We only ran three plays: Iso, Power, and Bootleg (off an ISO fake). The offensive line did a great job stepping with their inside foot and blowing people off the ball in a wedge-like fashion. Defensively, we lined up in a Wide Tackle Six. The front four was so disruptive that the opposing coaches were complaining that they weren't in stances when the ball was snapped (apparently that's a local rule, so I apologized for it... even though I'd argue it put my kids at a disadvantage).

It wasn't all perfect, as we had a few scores nullified by penalties (block in the back), a false start, and a snap infraction on the backup center. However, it's hard not to be pleased when I see that I wrote down something positive about each player's performance. I can't think of a game in the last two or three years where I could honestly say that.

Our first real game is on Monday. It won't get here fast enough!!

First real game is tonight. Against my neighbors, of course.

I'm a little nervous. We were a little flat on offense Thursday. Part of that was because the defense did a great job (Coach Parker's contain drill turned my Jack and Bauer LB's into animals) and part of it was because we were missing people (including our regular FB). Still, I thought we should do better than we did. 

I remembering feeling the same way when we played this team last time (albeit at 12U). In that contest, I almost broke the record for consecutive "Toss Cut" plays. I'm optimistic that something similar happens tonight.

We got beat 13-12 last night.

I'm actually pleased with the results. Defensively, we didn't give up very many big plays. The other team went full Jack Gregory, 4 yards here, 4 yards there, and didn't make mistakes. 

Unfortunately, we did make a handful of mistakes and at the worst possible time. On both extra points, we had players move early (we rep this every day, so FRUSTRATING!!), so we ran the PAT from the 8. We had a chance to stop them early in the first and third quarters but missed the tackle (turning a two yard loss into a 4 yard gain).

I'm most proud of the way the guys didn't quit. Every time it looked like we were going to be stopped, we'd hit a big run on fourth down to keep it going. When the other team had a chance to go up 14-6, our kids stopped them for a loss.

So, while it didn't go our way, I'm encouraged. The team we played beat our next two opponents by a combined score of 86-0, so I like our chances. 

Even though we won 33-0 tonight, I'm not happy with how it went. 

For starters, we had players show up 45 minutes after I said to be there. They were told to be there at 5:15. Eight of them walked up at 6 pm for a 6:10 kickoff. Because people arrived late, we had a number of kids that didn't know what position they were playing and we ended up with way too many in the huddle. I informed the parents post-game that anyone showing up after 5:15 wouldn't start the next game. We'll see how that works.

On the field, it was a little bit better. We ran Single Wing Power on every play, except for one extra point because the kid that was supposed to run the ball told me that he didn't want to after we broke the huddle. I told the QB to pull it and he went in untouched. Defensively, we caused a lot of chaos. There was only drive where they finished with positive yardage and we scored a pick six in garbage time.

This team is good enough to win our rec league if we can clean up the penalties (which made me nuts because we practice those things Every. Single. Day). We have games on Monday and Tuesday next week, which should give me some clue whether we can win it all, or will struggle over the second half of the year (where we play the same teams again).