I posted a few times about the little league football team I coach out in Saratoga Springs. My brother and I took on the job when there weren't any other takers to coach. People thought I was nuts to drive all the way down there from Murray just to coach my nephews team. We ended up picking up a couple other guys to help but I was the only one that had played a significant amount of football.
The season is now over and everyone had a lot of fun. Unfortunately the season wasn't successful from a win/loss standpoint. I found out after the season that the league has a rule about a player being able to drop down an age division if he weighs ten lbs or more under the X-man 120 lb limit. (If you weigh 120 or over you have to play interior line) The other teams in the league took advantage of this rule while ours did not. We ended up playing against offensive lines that were far larger than ours and a year older. I could see the point if they were letting really small kids play down a division but not guys who are so close to the X-man weight limit. Needless to say I'm going to fight to get this rule changed next year.
Most of the guys on the team had not played tackle football until this year. They made strides every week and the improvement was noticable. Unfortunately the improvement still wasn't enough to overcome the weird play down rules. We have several players that have potential to be very good players. One of those is my nephew who is the quarterback. While not usually the case our passing game was our best offensive weapon throughout the season. I felt bad for the kid because he was constantly running for his life.
Anyway I scouted out the PG team the week before we played them and figured that we could probably have success against them with a middle screen. I installed the play in that weeks practice and the kids worked on it like crazy. I'll bet we ran that the thing fifty times that week. This is the first time we ran it in a game:
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I was extremely proud of these kids and how hard they worked. This play took away a lot of the season's frustration because the players got to see how hard work pays off. Yes, I know it was a simple screen but trust me when I say that running it didn't come easy for a lot of these kids. The line timed their release perfectly and the QB threw the ball at the last possible moment. Everyone ran down the field to block after the catch. It was magical to see and that was why everyone was freaking out.
I think it's cool that in spite of the rough season every single kid wants to come back and play next year. I was as close as I get to becoming emotional when all of them expressed to me they want me back as their coach.
Anyway I just wanted to share this with all of you.
The season is now over and everyone had a lot of fun. Unfortunately the season wasn't successful from a win/loss standpoint. I found out after the season that the league has a rule about a player being able to drop down an age division if he weighs ten lbs or more under the X-man 120 lb limit. (If you weigh 120 or over you have to play interior line) The other teams in the league took advantage of this rule while ours did not. We ended up playing against offensive lines that were far larger than ours and a year older. I could see the point if they were letting really small kids play down a division but not guys who are so close to the X-man weight limit. Needless to say I'm going to fight to get this rule changed next year.
Most of the guys on the team had not played tackle football until this year. They made strides every week and the improvement was noticable. Unfortunately the improvement still wasn't enough to overcome the weird play down rules. We have several players that have potential to be very good players. One of those is my nephew who is the quarterback. While not usually the case our passing game was our best offensive weapon throughout the season. I felt bad for the kid because he was constantly running for his life.
Anyway I scouted out the PG team the week before we played them and figured that we could probably have success against them with a middle screen. I installed the play in that weeks practice and the kids worked on it like crazy. I'll bet we ran that the thing fifty times that week. This is the first time we ran it in a game:
[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ah3RvFt3krE&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ah3RvFt3krE&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]
I was extremely proud of these kids and how hard they worked. This play took away a lot of the season's frustration because the players got to see how hard work pays off. Yes, I know it was a simple screen but trust me when I say that running it didn't come easy for a lot of these kids. The line timed their release perfectly and the QB threw the ball at the last possible moment. Everyone ran down the field to block after the catch. It was magical to see and that was why everyone was freaking out.
I think it's cool that in spite of the rough season every single kid wants to come back and play next year. I was as close as I get to becoming emotional when all of them expressed to me they want me back as their coach.
Anyway I just wanted to share this with all of you.
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