This Weeks Topic: The Head Coach as a Leader-Looking back, what do you consider the most crucial elements of effective leadership for a head coach with your staff? How did you try to empower your staff and foster cohesion in the staff? Can you recall specific instances where you “let go” some of your power and an assistant impacted a game or season?
Tim Engebretson- United
1. I think being yourself and being consistent is the most important thing when working with your staff.
Mike Tracey- Alleman, UTHS
This is a very good question because I kind of had a twisted logic in our football program. I was a defensive minded coach, but I always called the offense because I didn't want an assistant coach to take the blame for what was happening when we had the ball. I made my whole off-season focus zero in on finding or keeping the right defensive coordinator. I was incredibly fortunate to have talented coaches to choose from.
When we met on weekends, our focus was on how to stop the opponents three best running plays and two best pass plays. Yes that was a simple philosophy, but it served us well.
Our defensive coordinator presented our defensive game plan and spelled out in detail how we would teach the plan. This was on Monday nights.
We also did the same set of defensive fundamental drills to start every practice on Tuesdays and Wednesday. Regardless of the opponent and the game plan, we kept our defensive fundamentals as the heart and soul of our program.
Our biggest element that made our program work was first and foremost the kids. Secondly, we, as coaches , had to institute game plans that allowed us to compete and be successful. We did not stray from this philosophy.
As I look back on things, none of this would have worked without a strong element of trust. I had to earn the trust of the assistants weekly. It would be quite obvious if I did not trust the game plan or the people instituting it . That dynamic had to be very closely monitored . In hindsight it probably was the most important thing that we had to do to keep our staff effective.
The kids had to see that the defensive coordinator was in charge, and that the game plan was his. We obviously formulated this as a staff on Saturdays and Sundays, but in terms of its presentation and implementation, it was in the hands of the D coordinator.
All of these elements had to be obvious to all that the coaches trusted each other and that what we were asking the kids to do was in their best interest. Like most things, this all came down to the element of trust . Trust is a two-way street, but it was our staff's job to show the trust we felt for each other.
Greg King- Sterling
I think as a head coach, players and coaches need to now what is expected of them. You must hold everyone to a standard. When I met with coaches at the beginning of the year they were given a sheet with their expectations. We would go over these every year at our 1st meeting.
One of the things I did was to give coaches responsibility. I made them the “expert” for a position. Each coach, whether paid or volunteer, was given a position to coach. The running back coach was responsible for all the drills and fundamentals that were taught to all running backs in the program. They worked with only running backs in our practice plans. They had a major stake then in what we were doing.
What was nice is that I did not have a position group, I could help a young coach, or a coach that was struggling, or maybe a position that needed some extra time or work. I truly believe when coaches know the standard and are empowered to work with you toward that standard, they become effective coaches.
Expectations of Coaches
- Be loyal and dedicated to the football program, and the coaches and players that comprise it.
- Treat every player like he was your son!
- Coach all players, not just the “good” ones.
- Fulfill all duties that are assigned to you.
- Show a love for the game!
- Be organized. The practice field is your classroom. Follow the plan that is given to you. If you fail to do this you will lose all credibility with the players.
- Write out and use effective practice plans. Organize and use your practice time wisely.
- Take proper care of all equipment.
- Dress in appropriate gear for practices and games.
- Attend clinics. We can only get better!
- Don’t work for me; work with me.
- Be a great teacher.
- We need to coach attitude and character. These will take our players farther in life.
- Do not take anything or anyone in our football program for granted.
- Loyalty – This is on here twice for a reason. An assistant must be loyal to our system, plan and goals to the program. If an assistant cannot be loyal, they will not be around.
Evan Massey- Galesburg
For most of my career, I tried to have the assistant coaches involved in practice and games. I did the typical or “normal” basketball stuff- an assistant in charge of post or guard breakdowns in practice, or during games having the assistant focused on an aspect of the game like our defensive blocking out.
At different times during my career, I tried to give up offensive play calling to assistants, but I couldn’t do it. While I often got invested in other areas of the game and was slow calling a set, I knew the offense and knew what I wanted to do. But I really tried to encourage assistants to give me suggestions. I always told them, “I may not follow your suggestions but I need you to keep throwing ideas at me.” This was invaluable. Long-time assistant, Steve Peachey once gave me the same suggestion for like the fourth time, and I turned and started giving an explanation of why. He shot back, “I don’t expect you to do what I suggest and during the game, you don’t have to explain or apologize.” I tried to follow that.
I had a former player, Andie Allison Leibach who was on the same page, and was extremely loyal to me and the program. So I had a high level of trust. I turned over “leadership training” and “team goal setting” to her. While thru the summer I talked with the captains informally about leadership, in the pre-season, Andie took them out to eat and had conversations with them. Andie organized a preseason team goal setting session. The detail and organization she put into was far beyond anything I would have done. While the captain meetings and the goal setting probably would have been around 10th on my list in terms of focus, they were high priority for Andie and it showed. And the players saw Andie as someone they respected but someone they felt to talk with and share things.
Jay Barshinger was a long time football assistant and long time freshmen girls basketball coach. I gave him control of more areas of our varsity program than ever had before. He was completely in charge of the strength program. Initially I made him in charge of our dynamics to start practice. Gradually he asked to add some agility work. Eventually Jay became in charge of the first 30 minutes of varsity practice. He had the players organized to do agility ladders, cone drills, dynamics, and eventually 3 different competitive shooting programs. Not only did Jay make them better athletes and stronger athletes, it allowed me to walk around and be the assistant. I could rebound for a player or talk with a player when they were in line for an agility. It helped me with player relationships. AND a big deal was that the players were not hearing my voice giving instructions for the first 30 minutes, so when I started yelling instructions, it wasn’t old to them.
The last example was also with Jay Barshinger. I had always played half-court man 99% of the time. We pressed full court but in half-court we were a man team. I KNEW it would help us to just throw a change up at opponents 7-8 times per game. I decided to add a 1-3-1 half court defense because I thought it would require a significantly different attack. Jay and I looked at videos on different 1-3-1 defenses, and agreed what we would use. I told Jay that defense would be his thing. A couple times a week for 15 minutes, it was his in practice to work on the 1-3-1. I would assist but it was obvious to everyone, he was in charge. Then I told him that he was to be an advocate for times I should use 1-3-1 in games. So it might be going into a time out before I talked to the players, Jay would say,”Now could be a good time to just play 1-3-1 for this first possession. As a result of him owning the 1-3-1 and advocating for it- we did use the 1-3-1 for 5-6 possessions most games.
Bob Anderson- Williamsfield
I always relied heavily on my asst., although maybe they didn't realize how important they were to me. For the first probably 30 yrs. as a varsity coach I ran practice with no help at all.
I always knew this was a disservice to the kids but most times our asst. was someone who didn't work at the school, and so had to have practice at 5 pm.
Like Tom Izzo at Michigan State., I liked giving my asst. something to look for in practice. I wanted them to give guidance to our players when they saw fit to do that. That gave them something to do other than just watch me do my thing.
In our pre-game talk I always allowed our assistants time to emphasize. what they thought was important and to look for it in a game as well. I always allowed them time in our post game talk as well to talk on anything
One of the biggest helps I had from our assistants was a sheet that had things like what their players were doing that hurt us, time out situation, foul situation, turnovers and etc. that pertained to the game as it was played. By giving these assistants these responsibilities, it lead to a much better feeling that they too were a big part of the program
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