2011 Game 9 vs Montgomery Catholic

I am in my fifth decade of coaching as I began my career in 1978.  I often get asked what is the difference between when I started and today so I will attempt to answer that question.  There are a lot of different aspects to high school football.  Offenses, defenses, players, expectations, schedules, equipment, costs......this just begins the list of items involved in high school football.  I will try a top ten list.

TOP TEN CHANGES IN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL IN THE LAST 34 YEARS

1) RULE CHANGE THAT ALLOWED THE OFFENSES TO USE THEIR HANDS TO BLOCK-This has had more influence than anything else.  It took high school football from a defensive game to an offensive game.  Thirty years ago you did not see the high scoring games you do today.  This rule change allowed bigger linemen to be more effective and hurt the smaller quicker teams. It allowed for the spread offenses to use wide receivers to get defenders away from the ball yet still allowed them to block or hold the defense well enough to run the ball.  It created much more passing than 30 years ago.

2)  THE USE OF VIDEO- Thirty years ago we were filming games and their were no copies of the film.  We seldom got to see our opponents game from last week and you had to call the team that played them last week to find out if they did anything different on offense or defense.  We can now trade video with our opponent over the internet almost instantly. It is in color, much better quality and I can watch it on my computer at home.  Players can watch it over the internet at home.  We can video our practice and watch it that night over the internet at home on our laptop.  We can use video for all kinds of motivational things.  A coach with a great knowledge of video is invaluable.

3) PLAYOFFS- Years ago we were in 8 team regions as today (we called them areas in those days) but we were in only 4 classes. Only the winner of the area made the playoffs so you had to have a really good team just to get there.  There were a lot of 9-1 teams that didn't make the playoffs.  There were only 4 rounds and if you won 2 games you were in the semi finals.  Since only 12.5% of the teams made the playoffs, coaches were not as concerned about the playoff thing.  Today the pressure to make the playoffs have cost some coaches their jobs.

4) SUMMER PRACTICE- For years we just lifted weights and ran for conditioning in the summer which I really liked.  Back in the late 70's, some coaches didn't required their players to do anything in the summer.  When the rules changed to allow you to practice in shorts throughout the summer, Hoover under Rush Propst was the first to take advantage.  They started to practice 4 days a week and installed a pass happy offense that they could practice efficienltly in June and July in shorts.  As they won others followed suit.  We lost to Straughn in the second game of the 2002 season.  I thought it was because they had practiced throughout the summer and we had not. Because it was a region game, it affected our ability to make the playoffs.  I realized then we would have to change our summer routine.

5) COACHING-  Today there is an unbelievable amount of knowledge available to coaches on strategy and coaching techniques.  When I started in 1978, there was no such thing as a coaching video.  There were a few books available but they were limited.  I learned from other coaches, reading coaching magazines and going to coaching clinics.Today the average coach knows more about offense and defense than 80% of the coaches in 1978.

6) MOTIVATING PLAYERS- Football has always and will always be a game of effort and desire.  Therefore the ability to motivate players is a huge deal.  The teams that are the most successful today are those that play as hard as possible each Friday night.  Coaches today know more strategy, but know much less about motivating this generation of players.  We tend to enjoy the strategy but refuse to look at ways to get our players to play at a higher level. Players enjoy the emotional size and really look for those coaches that can inspire them to be what they would really like to be. Such a coach is worth his weight in gold. There was less strategy in the 70's and some of that generation of coaches were about discipline, effort and motivation.

7) PHYSICAL PLAY-  Players are stronger and bigger than ever before but the spread offenses have limited physical play.  Back in the 1970's, few teams passed over 10 times a game. They ran the option of some kind and some of the games were kind of bloody. The use of hands in blocking means that players use their shoulder pads less.  More and more players want to play football but tackling has become a lost art at every level.  We spend much more time trying to convince players to be physical when tackling, blocking and taking on blocks than ever before.

8)  PARENTS- Many parents are very supportive of their sons and understand the value of football.  Most of those were players themselves or they are mothers who had brothers or boyfriends who played in high school.  They understand about the game.  Single mothers who have never been around football often have difficulty understanding why their son wants to run into other people.  They may not care whether their son plays football and some may even discourage them from playing.  I have found that parents who believe in the value of football can have a great influence in helping others understand what their son can gain from playing the game.  Thirty years ago there were more two parent families and more male influence at home. There was a lot less to worry about.  Parents today have many more pressures placed upon them, more things to be concerned about in dealing with their children.  Football should be a helping hand as a young man travels his high school days.

9) PLAYERS- They are as talented as ever and I have found them to be willing to work as much as any generation.  Players today have many more negative influences on them because of the internet.  They read and listen to much more information about high school football.  They compare themselves to others more readily.  They see much more individualism and think that it is the right way to conduct themselves.  They see more negative images than positive and much fewer examples of sportsmanship.  For the most part I don't believe that players have changed a lot.  Their environment had changed and they are a product of their environment.

10) TOUGHNESS- Players are not as physically or mentally tough as thirty years ago.  Schools are not as tough as in the 70's.  High school kids cannot get a tough summer job anymore.  They spend more time inside playing video games and are not as heat acclimated as the players of the past.  It is not their fault.  Simply a product of their time.

So is high school football a better game than 30 years ago?  It was a tremendous game in 1978 and that has not changed.  As most things in life, you get out of football only as much as you put into it.  I had two sons who played and I believe that it taught them lessons they could not have learned any other way.  The best thing a high school football player can have is not a certain helmet or pair of shoes; it is the support of a parent, the love of a teammate and the desire to play not for himself, but for his school and teammates. And that has not changed in the last 34 years.