A Coach's Biggest Asset: Organization
Published: Oct 22, 2007
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TAMPA - The enduring image of a football coach pacing the sideline - headset on, script of plays in hand, barking out calls and substitutions under the lights - is what most fans identify as the biggest responsibility a coach can have.
The reality is, coaches spend most of their time in a dark film room, scouting opponents. Or in the middle of the field, with sunglasses, a bucket hat and a whistle, motivating their team to finish practice strong and stay focused.
Today's football isn't your father's football. It's not about who hits the most during the week or which team has the bigger guys.
"It's become a science," Hillsborough coach Earl Garcia said.
A high school coach has to deal with all the usual football distractions - injuries, chemistry, upcoming games - as well as a few more. Players need time to keep up with class work. Some have a part-time job. Others are dealing with far greater concerns than whom they should block.
But for about two hours each day, a coach must find a way to keep his players into a practice, mentally and physically. A typical practice consists of individual, group (backs, receivers, linemen) and team sessions, but each team has its own nuances.
"The average kid's attention span is not very long," said Tom Fisher, Zephyrhills' head coach for 19 years. "Once you've gone past a certain time on a drill or play, you've lost them."
The goal is to not lose them.
A Legend's Way
Aside from the obvious - players, pads and a patch of grass - there are two things Garcia must have to practice.
The first is a segment timer, a giant programmable box that keeps track of where the Terriers are in their elaborate practice schedule. The second is a trainer carrying a water bottle to players in drills, so the entire team doesn't have to take any water breaks and stop practicing.
"If my timer isn't working, and my trainer leaves," Garcia said, "I quit."
The reason for both is maximum efficiency and time management - a search that hasn't stopped in Garcia's 15 years leading Hillsborough's football program. It continues with every practice, every drill, every repetition of every play in the Terriers' game plan each week.
The segment timer breaks practice up into five-minute intervals, where specific lessons are taught during individual, group and team work. A horn sounds when each segment ends, signaling each coach to move on.
Group practice (seven-on-seven passing with backs and receivers; inside run drill with backs and linemen) takes up four segments, as do full-squad scrimmages. In group and team practice, Hillsborough can run between 22 and 25 plays in 20 minutes - an incredible level of efficiency.
That five-minute structure began to gain popularity in the late 1970s, when college coaches began implementing the system and speaking about it at coaching clinics. Those same horns can be heard daily outside a practice at the University of South Florida.
"It forces you to be organized," Garcia said. "You do not want to waste your players' or your coaches' time. That is the only commodity that is absolutely equal amongst all of us."
Each Terriers practice lasts 2 hours, 40 minutes, or 32 segments. But it takes that long just to plan each practice. Position coaches report to coordinators, who finalize their schedule and submit it to Garcia, who compiles it and posts the final schedule on a bulletin board for the players.
"Coaches who aren't planning like that are shortchanging their kids, shortchanging their team," he said.
Other Approaches
Actually, the vast majority of prep coaches don't do it like Garcia, nor do they have the resources at Hillsborough's disposal - 10 varsity assistant coaches (seven on faculty), a full training staff, and more than $30,000 worth of video equipment to scout opponents and formulate a game plan.
Forty miles north of Hillsborough's campus, Hudson is preparing for a critical Class 3A-District 8 game against rival Gulf. The practice field is like many in the area, sandwiched between other athletic facilities, with tackling sleds and other contraptions off to the side.
But there is a new attitude and mentality at this school, which went 25 years between playoff appearances from 1979 to 2004. In 2005, Coach Mark Nash's second season, the Cobras won their district and two playoff games, and are contending for another postseason trip this year.
And Nash and his veteran group of assistants don't believe in five-minute segments in their practice.
"There's good and bad to that," Nash said of segmented practicing. "What they're trying to do is not miss anything. The downside is you don't become perfect at something before you move on."
Nash tweaks his practice daily with emphasis on his squad's weaknesses, including more or less time for offense and defense, as well as the use of pads. The 2005 squad didn't have full pads on once during the season, because the senior-laden group had little to prove. The 2006 team, a young group that went 2-8, wore pads almost every day.
Nash would rather take extra time on team scrimmaging if his squad is slow to pick up on the other team's tendencies. Assistant coaches can go long on a specific drill in individuals if they feel their players aren't getting it right.
But like Hillsborough, Hudson's coaching staff knows the importance of managing time, considering it a coach's most valuable commodity.
"Time management is probably the biggest skill set for a head coach," Nash said. "How successful you are is a direct result of how successful you are managing your time."
In order to win, not only do the players have to understand the importance of practice, but the assistant coaches and school administrators also must believe in a head coach's system.
"Kids are kids. I don't care if you're talking about Armwood, Hudson, Hillsborough, Admiral Farragut, kids are kids. And you've got some that can play, some that are average, and some that can't," Garcia said. "But you have to maximize what you have. That's where organization comes in."
Bart O'Connell can be reached at boconnell@pop.tampatrib.com.
