Category Archives: Coach Grice
Regarding Worry
“Poor me! Poor me! I get no breaks. The wind and rain conspire against me. My team is hampered by injuries. The opponent is loaded with all star players. They have better facilities. Better assistants. The field is tilted in their favor. It is so unfair! My team fails and I look like an incompetent fool. The parents will hate me. My players will not listen. Look at how I am cursed! Woah is me!”
This is the ruinous voice that worms into my mind. It is a voice of impulse, of anxiety, it is an inner demon. Whether it is speaking truth or lies… usually gross exaggerations… it is of no benefit. I must ignore it… silence it… exorcise it.
Would I pray to God that he remove the curses of unfairness and disadvantage? What if they are not curses? What if they are blessings… opportunities for learning and growth? Can there be any true learning without suffering?
Maybe I should pray to God that He remove the snot leaking from my nose, too. But why would I put that on God? Didn’t He already give me a hand to wipe it away, myself? (Epictetus)
“But if I fail, my peers will judge and devalue me. My parents will despise me. My assistants will plot against me. I will lose status.”
So what? Maybe their judgements are correct. Maybe they are incorrect. What difference does it make? What progress will be accomplished by being concerned about their judgements?
“But they may run me off and I will lose my position and status and become the source of ridicule!”
Therefore what? Maybe they are fools. Maybe they are wise. Either way, what could I have done about that if it was already decided?
I will take on the lesson:
I will fail. I will suffer. I will learn. I will grow. I will rise higher.
I will fail again. I will suffer. I will learn. I will grow. I will rise even higher…
I will endure this or I will quit. The choice is mine. Stop whining. Stop fearing. Get to work!
8 Man Variation
Caution: I’ve never applied this in the real world! I don’t know how the defenses will align so this is a pure guess.
THE FLOOD (aka SPRINT PASS)
Flood is a core play for us. We install it in 2nd grade. It adopts multiple route concepts into one play along with a run option. There is a conflict, spacing, and a play action element to it. We use a sprint out to buy the QB time and to present a run option to him. The design (since 6th grade) is to use our Z (in rocket motion) to log back and pin the DE. The X should run a go route with mandatory outside release to get the CB’s hips turned away from the QB. The WB should either fake a 2nd level block or fake a go, then run an out at 5-7 yards that gains depth if the flat cover guy is underneath him and the CB has bailed on the go route. Take the green grass they give us. The QB has two reads: 1) High or Low receiver then 2) Run for it. We can attach an arrow route to the BB to create additional conflict for the flat/curl/out defender. The defense tends to get tuned in to our running QB and they’ll often abandon the WB running the out. We’ve been very successful with it at all age levels.
Counter
Once we’ve controlled inside penetration and have hurt them with sweep and power, we call “Counter” for the homerun.
We try to make most plays look the same: same formation, same rocket motion, same Q spin. In this play, the Q (single wing TB) takes the snap, spins to fake handoff to the rocket running sweep, then pivots and hands to the wingback coming across the formation towards the short side.
This is an INSIDE RUN. The sidesaddle must slip under the DE and push him behind the play -or- pin him into the OL if he is crashing. The power tackle pulls from the long side to lead to the first danger that presents. There should be plenty of time to bring the power tackle across the formation.
DO NOT LET YOUR WINGBACK bounce outside before he slips under the edge player. He’s going to want to bounce outside this instinctively. If he does this in practice, make him suffer something unpleasant. 😉 If he does it in a game he will lose 5 yards.
Variations of this play are deadly for most SW and DW teams .
Offseason
Baseball has ramped up. I always consider baseball season the start of the new football year. Time to polish playbooks and recruit. We always encourage our kids to play sports other than football in the Spring. We’re not being judgmental about it. We just want kids to try everything and it’s annoying when we lose kids in to baseball in the Fall.
This upcoming season will be our last together as my 8th graders will age out. This has been a magnificent team. We will have played at the Division 1 level all seven seasons (2nd through 8th grade). JYFA is a monster organization in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado. I expect we will field 30 teams in the 8th grade division this year. We play in one of the smallest associations in the league by population– less than 16,000 residents. Yet our team has finished as #3 or #4 every single season. We’ve won more Division 1 games and more Division 1 playoff games than any Mountain Area youth team in over twenty years. I’m very proud of them for that. Although I’m already a little sad thinking about the end of the run, I’m very much looking forward to this season and to watching these boys play in high school. They’re an awesome group.
Ron Jaworski… Side Saddle Wing T QB
“The coach, the late Dike Beede…was the last collegiate proponent of the sidesaddle T. The sidesaddle T is a bizarre formation that is something of a cockeyed wing T. Jaworski would line up a yard behind the left guard to receive the snap from center. A tailback and a fullback lined up five yards deep, as they would in a pro set, and on every play a wingback would go in motion, pausing briefly behind the center as if to receive the snap. The wingback would then continue toward the sideline as if he had the ball, and the center would hike it sideways to Jaworski.”
Sidesaddle Single Wing Football 