Airmen Looking Forward to Kicking-off New Season

August 26, 2014 San Tan Valley, AZ -

By Charles Guthrie (special to Kinghornet blog)

The Southeast Pop Warner Pee Wee Airmen are ready to get their season underway this Saturday. The off season has been a great time for preparation but the players, coaches and fans are ready to see what the new season will bring.  “There isn't a bad day playing football, but games are what we look forward to” says tight end and defensive lineman Dodge Chapman.  Chapman is a returning player from last year’s playoff team. The Airmen return the bulk of their players from the team that missed the state championship game by 1 point.  The Airmen are returning again to division three and are ready to get a step or two further than last year’s team was able to achieve.

“Our team has changed this year, we have more speed and more experience. We kept a lot of the same kids and that really helps” says head coach Ben Johnson.  Of the 17 that returned positions didn't change much. The big change is a new starting quarterback, Kai Millner.  Kai joins the team as one of six new players. Kai was on the 2013 Southeast Pop Warner Flames that won the division two state championship.  Last year’s starter for the Airmen at QB Jaden Masse has now moved over to be the go to receiver but will still see time at QB. “Coach has me playing everywhere this year. I’m a receiver a running back, a quarterback and now I play defense too.” Masse says.  Coach Johnson has long held onto the rule that if a player plays QB his defense time will be limited.  Also returning from last year’s team is running back KeShawn Calip. Calip led the team with 21 touchdowns last year. He was the big play threat every time he touched the ball.  “Having that one running back was the key to our success last year, but this year is different” says Coach Jeff Whiting the Airmen offensive coordinator.  Teams won’t be able to just key on number 22 this year. There are plenty more players that are a threat to go all the way at any time.  Other running backs include returner Tre Reynolds and Caden Brewer, both who are back to handle the rock and play tough defense.  Also newcomers Kyle Pointer and Crew Jackson from the Flames are both experienced running backs. 

“The real strength of our team is our offensive line” says Coach Johnson.  Indeed it appears to be. This offensive line goes ten deep and returns four of last year’s five starters.  This is a huge line headed by Harrison Hibbs who moved to center from tackle and Dayne Taylor who anchors the line at right tackle. Another starter from last year’s team is Cody Walker. Cody is starting at guard but can play all five o-line positions if needed.  Newcomer Marcus Stratton is holding down the left tackle spot and is the backup center.  Returner Zach Swain has moved from a TE or receiver to help the offensive line playing the RG spot so far this year.  Others include Bryson Payne,  maybe the biggest Airmen this year,  returners Lucas Corrveau, Ronin Kelly, Gabriel Hidalgo and new comer Andrew Hill.  “Without a good line we don’t score at all” says Tre Reynolds who as a full back knows what he’s talking about.

Defensively the Airmen are up to any task.  Each player has to really know what they are doing. Moving positions this year was needed as many players grew or gained on last year’s experience. “We shuffled some kids to help them be more successful” receivers/defensive back Coach Drew Johnson said. Adam Murset and JJ Evans are two of the kids that moved from defensive line to be corner backs. “It’s a lot more fun to play corner back then d line” said JJ. Shawn McDougal and Tyler Jones are corner backs that changed positions also. Shawn has moved to safety and Tyler has moved inside to line backer for this season. “It helps me do what I like to do: Hit” says Jones. These moves have quickly shown promise in practice.  Another key to the Airmen’s defensive depth is returning linebacker Pri McSwain. Pri is the leader of the linebackers and knows all the formations, everyone’s job and can help out his teammates at any position on the defensive side.  “I love defense and blitzing” Pri said. 

The Airmen are looking forward to seeing what they really have. “Games are your paydays” Coach Johnson tells his players often.  “We’ve been working hard and running a lot and have a real chance to be good. But we won’t really know until Saturday” Coach Johnson is right. Saturdays in September and October are when the Airmen will really know what they have and whether they can get a few steps further in their pursuit of a state championship.  

Playing with GIF

GIF were (are) a crappy invention from "Compuserve" a crappy ISP back in the day.... now they're cool. Before they were a pain to work with. Now they are EVERYWHERE.  I'm sure there is a Harlem Shake video that's "GIFFED".

Late!

New Quest - Operation "Touch the Rim Again"

So off topic of youth sports since I'm not coaching anything now and have slowed down in that department. I weighed myself the other day ouch! So i'm gonna loose weight. I am embarrassed myself ; since 8/21/2010 till now I've gained 36 lbs. pretty terrible. I look like a pear with legs and a fat head. Anyway back in April of 2010 I weighed about what I weigh now. I lost it all in about 4 1/2 months. I kept it off for about 6 months and have been climbing ever since. So I thought what can I do to 1)lose it again and 2) be more successful at keeping it off. I thought of some good ideas last time but none really worked. They were rewards, like buying things or going on trips - This didn't work because another goal I have is to spend less money. The only other rewards I could think of involved food, so you can see the issue. I couldn't really think of any rewards to motivate myself to stay in shape so i got chunky.

Well this time I think I have it. I'm still going to have some milestone awards Toned down a bit, but the real motivation I'm going to use is basketball. I used to love basketball. I could play pretty well and one of my assets was for a 6 footer I could get up pretty high. I could touch the rim and even came close to being able to dunk. Well last night I went and played at the church. This was a dismal display of my basketball skills, such as the are. I can't even touch the backboard and have a really hard time touching the net... terrible. My guess is because i am trying to put up 50 more lbs than ever and using really out of shape muscles to do it. So here's the deal I'm gonna touch that rim again, maybe even grab it. First I have to lose some weight. Second I'm going to work out more so that my muscles can get back into action and 3rd I'm going to play more basketball.

I will put some pictures from my adventures. If you see me out running know that I'm envisioning me blocking some guy because I can jump so high in my next basketball game. So I may not know you are there because my focus will be on that. I think this will motivate me...Let's Go!

Parents and Youth Sports

Parents and their roll in their children’s sports experiences is very a very interesting study. I like to look at it as most people are normal calm people that would never fight or argue with other people, but for 2 hours a week are crazy lunatics that think that their kids’ games are life or death. Not to brag but to show you my breadth of experience I will share my youth sports experience. I have coached 21 years (seasons). I have coached football, tee-ball, softball and basketball. I tried to count once and estimated that I have had over five-hundred different kids on my teams throughout the years. That’s about 500 moms and dads and several other grandmas and grandpas, crazy uncles and many other family members. I will detail the experience I’ve had with parents specifically. Just when I think I’ve met with every type of dad or mom, I get surprised so no doubt I haven’t met them all yet. My list isn’t to be all incisive or offensive. I don’t mean to hurt feelings. I do however hope that I help some soon to be soccer mom, or football dad to behave themselves in a way that will make their kid happy that their parents came. I was thinking of writing this for a long time. I had always shied away. Last week when I was on the sidelines with one of my football teams I had a kid come up to me and stand a little closer than normal. I started to pay attention a little better and could hear his Mother just yelling. She was yelling at me, yelling at the kid and at her husband, who was standing clear at the other end of the stands. I looked at this poor kid and smiled and put my hand on his shoulder pad. He said “Sorry coach, I won’t let my mom come to anymore games”. I was sad. It was a tough situation. She was embarrassing her kid and showing some awful behavior. Soon she was sitting alone because no one wanted to be by her. Pretty sad, and if you asked her, I’m sure she thought she was defending and encouraging her son to play better, or for the evil coaches to play him more. For the love of a child she lost her mind. So with that said I will try to classify each type of parent that I’ve had on my teams, however I understand their motivation is love. Love for their kid and the desire that their kid be good in sports and enjoy the game. These are generalizations so some folks over the years have qualified for many groups. Don’t be offended just figure out which one you are in and make sure you are behaving yourself.

Group 1: Future Father’s of a Professional Sports Star
This by far is the largest group. Every team at every level has this dad. One year I think I had about 20 of them on my football team. These guys are the myopic dreamers that get upset quickly at the coach. The coach is the enemy. The coach is who these guys blame all failures on. The coach is the problem. To be this guy you only have to remember one thing: It’s never the kid’s fault all failures are the coach’s fault. One of my first years as a head football coach I had a flag team; 12 six and seven year olds. In this league you didn’t get to pick any of your players. You only got one or two plus your son so that you could pick some assistant coaches. So this particularly little kid was assigned to our team. He had never played before. The first practice the Dad came up to me and wanted to coach. I told him I was all set and that I had my coaches for a while now and we were fine, but thanks. He said “Well my son is your Quarterback.” I kind of laughed inside and wondered if I had his kid and him mismatched. His son was slow and not too knowledgeable of the game. In flag football it’s all about speed at that level and so I picked the faster older kid as my quarterback and moved on. After every game, which we won six that year and only lost one, this dad would come up and belittle me in front of my son (not the quarterback, by the way) about how dumb I must be to not have his son as the quarterback. His son was six.
I have at least two or so of these dads each year. Most want to play quarterback or point guard. I think all of us have this in us a little. I think we all want our kids to be popular, successful and happy. However we need to recognize and be honest with ourselves about how good these kids are. I always tell parents, If your kid is going to play one day in professional sports, I can’t screw that up. Just because I don’t play your kid at Quarterback in flag football at eight years old, doesn’t mean his development is stunted and he won’t make the NFL. Matt Leinardt the NFL Quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner was an offensive lineman all through Pop Warner and wasn’t a quarterback until high school. This type of Parent’s behavior includes at best some speaking with the coach about positions and playing time, just annoyances, but at worst it can be yelling from the stands at the coach, bad mouthing the coach to the player and other parents and making their son quit because of the rotten coach. These to me are the worst kind of parents because they can’t see the truth right in front of them. There are dads that never help the kid out, never play catch with the kid and then show up once in a while to watch a game and wonder why their kid isn’t out there ready for the pros. Sad really. The only way to curb your behavior on this is to try to see it from the coach’s perspective. Try to attend practice see what the coaches are doing. See how your kid does in drills, sprints and other things during practice. Try to see your kid for who he is.

Group 2: The Mom that Questions Everything
This is the second largest group and probably has a lot of crossover with group one. This parent never is happy with anything the team or the coaches do. They need everything explained to them. Their favorite word is “Why” and favorite sentence is “That makes no sense to me”. I always have a hard time with these parents. Why question things? I don’t get it. I had a dad like this the year I coached my first tackle team. He attended every practice, and every game. He showed up early and stayed late. A very good father as far as I could observe. He and his son never were late and never missed anything. But without fail he’d catch me on a break at practice and say “Hey Ben, Why did you run that drill?” or “Hey Ben, why do you have that kid at line backer?” or “Hey Ben, Why is our game at 8:00 AM?” At first I was polite and would explain things but after a while I wanted to punch him. I would just give a curt answer and move on. By the end of the year I was done explaining and would avoid him. I was glad when they moved on to another team. I have at least one of these every year. I guess they just don’t understand, or want to know things that are unclear. I have no idea. Maybe other parents just are more accepting. The problem I have is the judgmental tone to the questioning. Like “why would you do that when it’s so obvious that you should do it the other way”; it’s crazy. I think they are really Dads or Moms that think their kid should be playing somewhere else, playing more or that the coach is a problem, that are just nicer and try to be civil about it. I don’t mind answering questions but there is a big difference between asking a question and questioning a coach.

Group 3: Who are you?
This is a group of dads and moms that think Youth Sports is a babysitting service. As my boys get older I kind of like these parents. But when they were young they made me nervous. Every year there are a couple of parents who I meet at the team meeting and never see again until the team party. I’m like “Who’s that guy?” and someone will say that Jason’s Dad. I had no idea. The problem with this guy is when he wants to come up and tell me what I’m doing wrong as a coach. That’s a problem for me. I had a dad that his son was one of our better players. He was a joy to coach and all of us really liked the kid. He was a funny kid and always wanted to do his best. I knew his Mom well and his step-dad was a great asset to our team. I had seen his dad at a few games but had never spoken to him or had never seen him at a practice. However after a game that we got beaten pretty badly, he came up and loudly with anger wanted to discuss the game. I was already at a boiling point because we had just been beaten and so it wasn’t going to be a productive conversation. I was lucky that one of my assistants was standing there. This assistant coach said “Sir, how in the H*** would you know?” The Dad looked befuddled for a second, and then said “What do you mean?” I said “How many practices have you been to see your son play or practice?” He then came up with about 200 excuses as to why he was too important to come to a practice. So I said if you can’t come to practice to see how your son prepares then you can’t complain about how we use him. It ended the conversation. But these parents are still very dangerous. I do believe that though. If you can’t come to practice and just drop of your kid, then keep your mouth shut on game day.

Group 4: Silent but bitter
This group I don’t mind much. However once in a while they can be a problem. They are the ones that come to most things, practices games, parties, etc. but don’t say anything. They aren’t really friendly, they don’t complain and they don’t have other friends on the team. They just kind of trudge through the season. You can tell that they don’t enjoy it but I have learned not to ask. Once I did. This mom was a single parent and had a couple of kids. Her oldest was on our team and he was a good little player. He didn’t miss ever and was had a good attitude. His mom would come and sit in her chair and watch practice very closely. She wouldn’t smile and when I said “Hi” or “How’s it going?” she’d ignore me or give a one word answer with no eye contact. I just thought she hated me or something and so I asked her one day if I had offended her or if she was mad at us about something. She looked at the ground and said that it wasn’t us. She then went on for about twenty minutes about how she hated men and how she hated football and we were crazy for liking it and how she wished her son would want to quit. I guess her ex husband loved football and she blamed it for all the marital problems. I was glad that it wasn’t us but I was sorry I asked. I felt so depressed after her preaching that I almost hung up my whistle. Another Mom was very similar. I asked her if everything was OK and she said that she hated one of my assistants because he yelled too much. She then spent a half an hour telling me how unhealthy it was to yell at kids and how her son was so devastated when we yelled. Yet she and her son showed up to practice the next night. So were we guilty of abuse or was she guilty of neglect. If we were so awful why do you keep sending your kid? I’ve learned to just assume the best; that these types of folks just have other stuff on their mind and let them come to me if there is really an issue.

Group 5: Helpful to a flaw
This group is fine. Nothing negative to say. They are just really really helpful. I think they wish they could coach. I get a few of these each year and usually their kids are the worst players on the team. Nothing wrong with that. I need players some are good some aren’t all are welcome. I just find it entertaining when we see one of these go-getter dads. I know within two minutes of talking to the dad if the kid will be a player or not. Usually the dad wasn’t a great player and loved the game so he wants his son to be better than he was. So he asks if he can help. Can I get this or can I coach or can I do that? Its something we need so I usually use them where I can. Sometimes though, they ask to do things that we either don’t need or already have someone doing. It’s sad when I have to tell them no because I know their intentions are only positive. Rarely do any of these types of parents complain or cause any problems. This group is great, they help and they are free entertainment.

Group 6: Out of Sight and Out of Mind
This group is the kind I never know. They drop off their kid, the kid plays and they show up at the end. I never hear from them or never even see them. I kind of forget about them. They either think that we are a great babysitting service or that their kid is fine on his own and we are good dudes. I guess both are true. This is a good group until you have an issue like their kid gets hurt and you call them by the wrong name, or when you need parent volunteers. Generally speaking I have no problem with them as I know folks are busy and have more than one place to be most nights.

Group 7: Rare as a Diamond – The Perfect Parent
Never had anyone in this group. Neither has my son’s coach on the team I’m not part of :). I’m by far not the perfect parent. But if there was such a beast here are some attributes:
1. Always on time to everything. Coaches worry when people are late Even the worst player on the team. They’ve worked hard with that kid all week and want them to have success on game day, practice or even smile for the picture
2. Always sell stuff. Fundraisers are the lifeblood to youth sports. Even High Schools have to sell stuff now. I’m not saying sell everything 100 times better but do what you’re asked and then be sure you turn it in on time
3. Time and a Place: there is a time and a place for everything. I’m never gonna say you can’t complain. But there is a time and a place. Please use them. Coaches never want a parent to talk to them after a practice or a game. Email or a text is better. It allows them to answer on their own time. Some coaches would rather talk on the phone. So find out which is better for your coach.
4. Attend with the kids. If the kids go somewhere, go with them if you can. The coach will feel the support just by you showing up. And be friendly with the coach. Remember generally he’s just a dad that had the desire to coach
5. Cheer for everyone. I hate it when dads only cheer for their kid. I see it every year. They don’t even know the other kids’ names because their kid is the only one that matters. While it’s ok to cheer a little louder for your own kid it won’t hurt to learn a few of the other kid’s names and cheer them on. It will show everyone you are about the team, and most of all it will show your kid.

Conclusion
I only bring this up to help a few. I really love youth sports with all of its crazy dads, upset Mom’s and bratty spoiled kids. There is way more “good” in youth sports than there is bad. One of the best kids I ever coach had the worst dad. The kid loved the team, he loved his coaches and he just loved to play football. One day his Dad was really yelling at the coaches. I heard some new words I had never heard about our combined intelligence. It was really starting to get embarrassing. I was about ready to go over and say something to him when I noticed the kid was there talking to his dad. The dad walked away, very sullen, and sat in a chair next to his wife. His wife got up and moved. Soon the other parents moved and the dad sat there the rest of the game by himself. I asked the little 10 year old after the game what he said. He told me he said: “Dad I love to play football, I love these coaches, I love everything about it. I am sorry you hate it so much. If you want we can go home now and I won’t come back”. He said his dad apologized and walked off. I would hate for my son to say anything close to this.

Year Around Aspects of Sports

So your kid wants to play High Schools Sports? Which Sport? Which School? Who's the Coach, what does he run? Does his offense/defense match your kid's abilities and skills?

Many questions are asked these days about high school sports. A few years ago the AZ Republic did a story about the budgets of some High Schools athletic departments. It was amazing the dollars that they had. I'm not talking a few thousand. It was all crazy money in the nearly 6 figures for small schools and over $100K for the larger ones. The money was used for capital projects, Coach's bonuses, equipment, uniforms, etc. There was large amounts of money. So I state this just to say that there is no denying that High School Sports are a big business and without them most schools don't survive. And that many kids will have a strong desire to play it. Also every started on your high school teams has dreams of playing at the next level.

So back to your kid.

Let's pretend your boy wants to play baseball in High School. He's played little league and was pretty good. Once the season was over the mitt and the bat went in the closet and weren't thought of again until 9-10 months later. If you are planning on going to a big school, you can forget playing baseball there. Kids that make the teams on competitive big time high schools (remember there can only 20-25 boys per team) never put their gloves away. It's with them where ever they are. They play fall ball, They hit indoors in the summer and they play winter ball all before their "season". The only breaks they may get is during the fall if they play football and then they are still hitting and fielding once a week.

When I was a kid we played football, baseball, and basketball in season. We didn't think about the other ones until it was that season. Now that is not the case in big schools. There may be some exceptional athletes that play multiple sports in the big schools but most are specialized. In the smaller schools (like in my area) there are many multi sports kids. In fact you'll see some kids play three sports in small schools. It's purely because they don't have the numbers. I have a friend at work who has two boys. One is 20 years old and is on a baseball scholarship at a major university, his other one is a freshmen at a large high school. Both have been year around baseball players since they were 10 years old. His younger boy in 2009 played 200 plus baseball games (he turned 12 that year). A typical week in this kid's life is school, baseball (3 nights a week) then 2-5 baseball games on Saturday and Sunday. That's it. He's got to go really cool places like Cooperstown NY for a baseball tournament (baseball hall of fame) and many other places to play ball. His older boy was very similar but in High School wanted to play football. He did and was really good. He was a starter on Varsity as a Junior and Senior. When it came to college though he really had no choice but to play baseball.

Let's see what's the point? hmmm well I guess it's that you better be prepared if you want to play High School baseball or basketball at a large school. Football is still a little more clear because they need many kids and it's too physical to play year around. There are some High schools that frown on multi sport players. A different friend of mine was told his son couldn't start on the baseball team if he played football. That's just silly, but that's what he was told.

Basketball is more ridiculous. There is nothing to compare it to. There are websites that rank 8th graders for recruiting to colleges. If you want to be on that list you better be good, but you also better be on a "club" or "travel" team that is well connected (i.e. funded). They are the ones that get you ranked. The kids that play these "travel" ball teams play in 25 tournaments a year. That's nothing to do with their school team. Most recruiting isn't done at High School basketball games anymore it's all done at these weekend tournaments. The schools that win state at the big school level not only allow these kids to play travel ball many of them embrace it, coach it, fund it and require it. By the time your kids is a freshmen you'll know whether they are gonna play college basketball at a high level or not. There are some rare exceptions where the kid grows or is just really good and no one knows but mostly those kids get overlooked and have no chance really. And it's not because they aren't good enough. It's because they aren't in the system. We've had fun laughing at the high school recuriting that goes on as well. Arizona is a haven for recruiting because of the open enrollment law. A tall athlete in the 8th grade is a target for any high school coach that knows about him. I coached a player like that last year. He's a good player but wasn't even a starter on our team, but he "looked the part" played at a club team and was the popular kid at our tournaments because the host high school's assistant coaches were all over him.

Conclusion: Decide what your kid wants and then be willing to be all in. But if you aren't then don't complain to a coach* that cuts your kid. I hate travel ball, club teams and weekend play. Hate it. I like kids that play three or four sports and are all about their "seasons" but those kids aren't going to make teams at high schools that have 2000+ kids at them or if they do they are lucky (or gifted). It can happen. There is a kid at our high school who is a good football player, basetball player and baseball player. He's a good athlete. However he isn't going to be good enough to play at a large college in any of them. If he wanted to quit two of the three and just focus on one, he may have been able to play. However he loves his High School time and he is my favorite kid at the school because he is all about the school, and not so much about himself (he's also in the band). It's interesting how people look back at things once they've left. I think this kid won't look at wins and losses, but more about the relationships, experiances and time that he spent with his teams. I always say "If your kid is meant to play in the pros some day, he will, no matter how much he plays now."

Hope I've helped. I know it's a tight wire because we all want our kids to do well but at what expense? I've struggled with it forever.

*Next blog subject is Parents vs. Coach

High Schoool Football Coach = CEO of Football

So generally speaking I don't have good ideas. But I think I do here. So if you are stunned, so am I. 99% of you (which means all) won't care about this idea so there. It is just something that I wanted to blog so when the whole world comes to grip with what a great idea this is i can say "I thought of that, years ago" and have a blog post to prove it.

Subject: Successful High School Football program in today's environment

Introduction: Today with HS football being the #1 perception of high school it is important to be successful in football more than anything at the school; including academics, music etc. (wait I know some of you just said "no way!"). It is important to run it like a business and not in the traditional "extra-circular" activity. The head coach should be a CEO of football and everyone involved in the football program should work for him (or her, but I'm assuming "him" for simplistic sake). He should have say in all things related to his program, including scheduling, hiring, and even teachers at the school. Points that I will bring into play will show how this is necessary.

Section 1: Mind shift CEO not a Coach

At most high schools you have more kids involved in football than any other singular activity by 200%. At a normal medium HS you have say 1200 students. 250 of them will be involved in football as players, managers, cheerleaders, student trainers etc. that's a large percentage of your student body. It's also the only sport that has such a community binding influence. You will have 1000+ people attend each Friday night, you have people in the community that come to the football games that have nothing to do with the school, you have kids that aren't even interested in sports that show up and pay to come to the football games. This is truly a large event and should be. They come to watch the boys play football, cheerleaders cheer and the band play. But make no mistake, if there wasn't a football team there are no cheerleaders and the band becomes the Orchestra, something no one knows about outside of the parents of the kids involved.

The point is the person over the HS football team, traditionally the head coach, is the singularly most important person at the school. I know that some folks think I'm nuts for saying this but I’ll get to that. Assume for now I'm right. The head coach needs help to be successful. He needs good coaches for on the field, he needs a good training staff to keep people healthy. He needs a good weight room coach to keep his players strong and he needs good admin type folks to help him with scheduling, travel, equipment, safety, etc. Typically with 3 or 4 teams a football program needs 15 or more on-field coaches. This means that they need these folks to be at every practice and each game that they are assigned. There are training staff usually one full-time trainer and 5 to 10 student trainers. The support staff includes an athletic secretary and an administrator. Also there are equipment managers, and student managers. all included this is a lot of folks that the Head Coach must keep tabs on, direct and assure everything is being done correctly. This is equivalent to a medium size business. Not only that but on game night, pep assemblies and special occasions the Head Coach must be aware of and involved (don't even get me started on the boosters either - much work there too). This is why the Head Coach must a) be a CEO and b) given power like one. A CEO in the business world means "Cheif Executive Officer" and he only answers to the Board of Directors. I am indeed stating this should be the case in HS Football. The CEO should answer to someone like a board of folks like the Principle, superintendent and others. Not to one athletic director that has 20 other sports to worry about.

CEO role should include:
1) Hiring his assistants first and foremost. He must act as a CEO and should be comfortable with the assistants on the field. This also includes trainer, strength and conditioning coach, equipment person and football secretary. This includes getting some of his assistant’s jobs at the school. School should accommodate all of them even if it means not giving existing teachers contracts for the new staff. Remember the assumption is if football is good everything else gets better.
2) All activities on game night. Game nights support EVERY other club and athletic teams in the school. This is the only time the community and students all come together. Every other team does their fundraisers during football season. They sell things, work on things and advertise things at the home football games. Football supports everything, and thus should have the choices of what goes on during their game time.
3) Fields and use of fields. The CEO of football should have full rights to his fields during the season. If he wants youth football teams to practice there he should get them to. It should be his an only his decision. If he wants the freshmen team to practice on a specific field at a certain time then it should be so. These fields are his and should be his during the season.
4) Assemblies and community involvement should be his responsibility. Make no mistake about it this, is important. Kids that are at the district’s elementary or middle schools have no obligation to a specific HS they can go wherever they want. It's important for the football team, cheerleaders and band to be involved. All of this should be up to the CEO of football. He shouldn't have to hassle another district administrator for him to bring a few players to an elementary school or have his own principle not allow it. This can be negotiated so it's often but still in line with academic goals. This is how a community gets behind a football team and a HS.

Section 2: Why so important?
This section will tell you why we should do this. There is no other reason than this: a good football team makes everything better.
A. Money: Football drives money. Not just players but many kids won't come to a school that has a crappy football team that loses, doesn't include everyone, has many issues with players, parents or is generally an embarrassment. They will leave a school to go to one that has a better perception. In today’s world especially with the younger kids perception is reality. And these perceptions change every minute. So the more students that show up to the school the more $$$ the state gives the school, The more students (and thus state money) the more programs can be included, the more involvement from these kids there is and the larger staff you'll need. Every club uses the gathering of a football game as a fundraiser. This is where the basketball team sells things, this is where the softball team works at the snackbar to get money for their season and it's where the volleyball team and wrestling teams advertise events or fundraisers they are having. Every team has money needs if you have a huge crowd at a winning football team's home games it pads the pockets of everyone. It's also the only time a school makes money because of the number of paid attendees.
B. School Spirit. This may be an ancient idea to some. But there is a lot of value of a person having pride in what they are involved in. I'm not talking about yelling at a game or yelling at a pep assembly but there is something to be said about being proud of where you went to school. This is important for self-worth and commitment abilities later in life. Many kids these days have never stuck with anything before. This is the motivation they may need. A successful (winning) football team is where this will start. Also a proud student will be much more successful in the classroom rather than one that "hates" his school. Bad runs quickly downhill.
C. Community involvement is important. YOU must have involvement with the community to have kids start to get excited to come to the HS. They coming makes everything better, the football team gets better, the band gets better and the academics go up just because of sheer numbers. It also gives you a good perception with the folks that don't even have kids in the schools. They buy more fundraising things, get their cars washed by the kids and buy a t-shirt with your school logo. Service hours, parades, visits to elementary schools, and a general presence are all part of it.

Section 3: Execution
Of course the first step is a huge culture change. Today the head coach of football is the same status and power as the head coach of the badminton team in prestige and power at the school (or so the structure is setup to be- no offense to the badminton team I happen to like badminton but it’s not the spectator sport of football). The culture has to change to the large university idea: Football drives everything so hitch your wagon to them and enjoy.

The second step is finding the CEO. Yes they should probably have to have done something in football before. They should have a concept of the football game as either a coach or a player. However I don’t think that experience of being a successful head coach is needed. If they have the personality and the leadership of being a CEO and the “buck stops here” kind of presence they will be successful. Remember their role is to set it up for success. Be a salesman and rally support to himself and his coaches and players. Great coaches (on the field) should be his coordinators. This assures success on the field. Where does a good on the field coach want to be? He wants to be on the field, with the players or in the film room game planning. Does he really want to be at the elementary speaking to the kids? Does he really want to discuss fundraisers with the booster club? Does he really want to discuss game night activities with the principle or other teams’ coaches? Nope this is the CEO’s job.

The final step is to treat it like a company would. Do reviews of folks, evaluate where the program is. Cut brutally when needed and reward huge when needed. CEO’s get fired sometimes. This is a large investment for a potentially large return but sometimes the plug needs pulled when it’s not working out.

Final Summary:
High School football is big business these days. The football team is the face of the school. There is no other singular aspect of the school that can have such a positive (or negative) effect on the school. It drives money, student enrollment, school spirit and every other aspect of the school including academics. Running it like a big business is very important. Hiring a CEO instead of a Head Coach (you can still call him the head coach) and allowing him to run it exclusively is the one way to be successful. It is a culture change from the “everyone is equal” society that we have, however everyone benefits when the football team is run well and is successful. There are plenty of schools already doing this in part. They have a strong willed head coach that takes on more roles then perhaps others traditionally would have. But if you don’t have this culture now, this is the way to go.

Jimmerific!

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