We all seem to have preconceived notions about people, places and things based on the information we have been exposed to or often based on the point of belief of those in our immediate environment. In youth football, I can’t count the number of times I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the play and actions of teams and coaches. Quite often the reputation of these Pee Wee teams and coaches was a product of others, fair the aggregated frustration and covetousness of other youth coaches, nothing more than unbiased sour grapes. Unfortunately in the world of youth football coaching, these impressions and attitudes are pervasive, widespread and often deplorable.
Be start Minded
When coaching Pee Wee football, I try to go into these situations with an originate mind and a soft heart and let the other team and coaches display me spoiled. One of the most disliked and misunderstood coaches in two different leagues my teams have competed in has actually become a trusted friend and confidant. His organization has gone out of its scheme to treat us well and in turn we have gone out of our plot to do the same for them. Now our organizations relish a strong but respectful rivalry and we view forward to playing each other every year for the fair reasons. Would we have felt the same draw if we listened to others and came into the game with one toe in the water? Probably not.
gargantuan Mistake
Unfortunately I too succumb to making judgments about people I know runt about and in many cases these judgments are 100% sinister. I had the opportunity to meet and exhaust some time with Rick Neuheisel from UCLA last weekend at the Clinic of Champions in
Reno, Nevada. Coach Neuheisel gave a very spicy presentation on his version of the 2 microscopic offense and how UCLA will be drilling it this tumble. I knew of Coach from his days at Colorado, his Buffalos were always a ample game when my beloved Cornhuskers were on their schedule. Of course Coach Neuheisels unorthodox West flee “outward rush” attitude was diametrically opposed to the Nebraska no-nonsense, blue collar, physical ground attack attitude. Coach was not a very well liked man in these parts, the West flit persona, passing attack, surfer dude persona etc. Then there was the controversy at Washington University with a NCAA Tourney Hoops, pool, more poor publicity. For some reason, while no one around here knew the guy, he was known as “Skippy” and the usually polite Nebraska fans seemed to like to ridicule this man in the papers, on talk radio and in everyday fan conversation.
While one can’t lift too remarkable away from spending a couple of hours with someone, you can glean somewhat of a feel for that person in my plan. Coach Neuheisel opened his presentation with some background, he didn’t talk about his 66-30 collegiate head coaching recount or his championships, he talked about some humbling moments he had as a player and how we could portray that to our teams and kids. I didn’t know that Coach walked on at UCLA as a very undersized quarterback who was given number 24X as a freshman. X meant you were a duplicate number and probably would never suit up or pick up into a game. Number 24 by the draw that year was Freeman McNeil, so obviously they didn’t judge Coach N was going to obtain on the field. In those days they didn’t redshirt freshmen at UCLA. Fortunately for coach, one of the other freshmen got homesick and halt so Coach got this players number, #20. Coach N was never in the game program that year, in fact the other kid discontinue so gradual that Coach N was known by the modern #20’s name, not his believe, as the game programs had already been printed.
UCLA and Coach Neueheisel
As the season progressed, UCLA was having a very unpleasant season and the coaches were trying to salvage a spark on special teams. The coaches offered a chance to anyone that would volunteer to play special teams. Coach N volunteered to play and to his surprise the UCLA coaches assigned him to the kick return team, where his job was to block L4 on a trap type block. At objective over 195 lbs Coach had to block other teams linebackers that weighed 230-250 running at fat run with malice in their hearts on their kick coverage teams. Coach had a number of very self depreciating stories to deliver including one where he was knocked unconscious and his face camouflage was broken during one of these returns. He didn’t verbalize it in a manner to brag, but to announce and to obtain a bit of fun of himself. A quarterback playing special teams as a designated blocker, that impressed me. He never mentioned his Rose Bowl rep at UCLA or his Rose Bowl MVP award, nothing like that.
In the after-session mixer in the Speakers Suite Coach Neuheisel couldn’t have been different than what I imagined. He was frightened, cordial, not outgoing at all, trustworthy, humble and very willing to offer serve and guidance to any that asked, even to a lowly Pee Wee football coach like me. He went out of his blueprint to offer wait on and appreciation for what youth coaches do for the game of football. He looked you in the survey, gave you a firm handshake and listened intently to what you were saying, asking gigantic questions and asking for clarifications along the draw. I came away from that experience with a considerable different belief of Coach Neuheisel. He had absolutely nothing to collect by spending time with a youth coach from Nebraska, none of my kids are being recruited by UCLA and I’m certainly not a donor prospect for UCLA.
Lesson Learned
On my draw aid to my room I felt a bit ashamed at judging someone so wrongly without the back of more information or personal experience. I distinct hope I’ve learned my lesson, because my prejudging has so often been so immoral and it’s incongruent with how I want my contain kids or players to act. I had the very same experience with High School Coach Steve Calande from Pennsylvania, I was 200% unfavorable about him as well and now we are lickety-split friends. My understanding changed after finally meeting him at a coaches Clinic in Pennsylvannia in 2002. The suitable of the fable is fabricate your contain decisions about people, including players, youth football coaches and parents. hold an initiate mind and they may surprise you.
I’ve been on the other raze of those situations myself. I can’t count the number of times guys have advance to me after a clinic and told me while they were looking forward to hearing me announce, I was grand different (in a postitive draw) than they had expected. I’m not a score at all costs Pee Wee football coach in any contrivance shape or fabricate. Our premise is: you can score, have fun, play kids, be broad sports and inform gargantuan fundamentals too, they aren’t mutually curious goals.