Preparing for a Pounding

I just don't know what to think of our 8th grade football team this year.

For the first time in 3 years of coaching 8th graders, I've finally got an offensive line -- in terms of size. As for speed, well -- that's one attribute that we're LACKING.

Our conditioning is bad, our footwork is worse. We've got players who think that they can miss practices and figure they'll start during games. On our roster, we've got 22 players. The prior three weeks of practice we've averaged 14 players. Sure, there's guys gone during the summer, involved with the State Fair or family vacations. Today, we had 21 players show up -- the other person is out with a foot injury, which is excusable.

I've got receivers who don't know passing routes ... and I'm not kidding -- I got a question the other day: "what's an 'out' pattern?" That's what we're doing right now, buddy. You've already done it twice, I would say.

Yes, we are mentally weak. They don't have the football expertise that my previous teams have had in the past. They have no idea what an option is, no idea what a counter or a trap is, no idea what a bootleg is.

With all this, I'm learning also, forcing myself to take a different approach to coach. Our new varsity head coach makes it quite difficult this year as he's incorporating the middle school into his offensive and defensive scheme of things, something that I don't agree with. I see the genious in his playbook, but expecting 7th and 8th graders to run the play to full potential? Hardly. I can see why we should prepare the 8th graders as they become freshmen next season, but I wish I could have had it my way this year. I had a pretty solid playbook last year, running I-Form and Wing formations and I wanted to go deeper into the Wing-T offense this year.

But all I want is for all these guys to play to their full potential and they're simply not giving it. Ask them to give 100% every play ... and I get about 60% in return. There's no enthusiasm, no willingness to hit, nothing.

It's tough as a coach to keep a positive attitude in situations like this and I'm constantly searching to find the right buttons on these players that will make them play to their full potential. Tomorrow's our first game and in the morning, we're going to have a "chalk talk" for my specialty players. Hopefully we can get something out of this, but based on today's practice, our guys have a 5-second memory.

Yeesh...!