Summer Priorities – What should be your priorities heading into the summer months?

The summer months bring about a number of challenges for every football coach. Staying in contact with players and parents without school every day can be difficult. Similarly, coordinating staff meetings and giving players and coaches the needed time off before the grind of a new season begins can also be taxing.

What should be your priorities heading into summer? What are the most effective ways to communicate with players and coaches? How important are strength and conditioning programs and 7-on-7 competitions? What about community service and fundraising?

To get answers to these questions, AFM turned to a panel of six successful head coaches. They included Josh Niblett, Hoover High School (AL); Norris Vaughan, Mountain Pointe High School (AZ); Gabe Infante, St. Joseph’s Prep (PA); John Rodenberg, Archbishop Moeller (OH); Gerry Yonchiuk, Lebanon High School (PA); and Matt Ortega, Coatesville High School (PA).

What is your approach to the summer break and has it changed over the years?
 
Vaughan: It has actually changed quite a bit in my 30 years as a head coach. We are working out every morning with our grades 9-12 (200+kids). We bring the freshman in at 8, then the JV at 8:30, and finally the varsity at 9 o’clock .This allows us to get our workouts in and then the kids can go to their jobs, or summer school or whatever they need to do. They then come back on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 7-on-7 and fundamental work.
 
Yonchiuk: Our style of offense helps us in this regard – we are an air raid team. So the summer schedule is tailored to our type of offense. In the spring we go uppers and install everything. In June we have three teams come in every week and get 7-on-7 work in.  We try to work around the basketball schedule because those are some of the types of kids we want to have out for the team.

We’re doing something very neat this year. Hal Mumme, the father of the air raid offense, is going to be coming to our camp and coaching and teaching our kids in July. This is going to bring an air of excitement to our team that’s hard to replicate.

Infante: I believe it begins with familiarizing yourself with your state’s out of season participation rules and then devising a plan that maximizes your time and allows you to provide a well thought out transition between seasons. The bulk of my career (12 years) was spent in New Jersey where football specific activities are restricted until the end of the spring sports season. In Pennsylvania, it’s different. We can practice fundamentals and techniques so long as we use blocking dummies and shields. This period  allows for a smoother transition and helps our kids be prepared recruiting-wise for college camps during the summer months.

What are the basics of your summer strength and conditioning program?
 
Niblett: We always want to get stronger and faster, but more importantly we want to be explosive with that strength and speed. We are trying to create better athletes. We go four days a week (M/T/TH/F). The offensive line comes in at 5:30 in the morning, and the skills people at 6. We do this to escape the heat, and allow our players to get a job and most importantly stay hydrated. Monday is a speed and conditioning day and upper body explosion. Tuesday we focus on change of direction drills and the lower body. Wednesday is an off day to get away and relax. We come back Thursday with change of direction and speed as well as upper body lifts. Friday we finish up with Yoga/Pilates/and Kempo Karate. We may do some Crossfit training also.
 
Vaughan: We have a great situation here with our strength coach and assistants. It is essentially a strength camp for our kids. They pay $120.00 for nine weeks of strength camp and instruction. This encompasses the times I spoke about earlier. It has worked out great for us.
 
Ortega: We have been lifting since January and we have the luxury of the last class of the day for our students that are with us in the weight room. I give them the week after school is out off to get away, relax and enjoy the summer. We go at it hard until the week of July 4th which they have off. I see July as a huge time for us; I really think that’s when we get geared up and in shape for the season. We do a lot of cross training that month where we begin to implement the football training with running and strength and conditioning. We also have an entire Crossfit course outside of our gym that we utilize during this time.
 
Infante: The focus of our summer strength program can be summed up in two words, conversion and transition. In June, our focus is on converting the strength we’ve developed in the weight room to an on-the-field application. Our goal here is to transfer what they are able to do in the weight room with a bar and weight to the field. We spend a great deal of time teaching how to take the weight room to the field and its validity. In July, we transition into more sports- specific skills and our weight training program enters a max strength/power phase.  I believe it’s important to give the kids a week off before camp starts to get away and reenergize.

How do you communicate with your coaching staff during this time? What are their responsibilities?
 
Rodenberg: As many ways as possible! In June, we tell them to enjoy their summer, and if we do anything, it’s informal meetings. We have a great strength and conditioning coach that allows our coaches to just coach and that’s huge for us. In July, we will meet in order to make sure we are all on the same page. We also run a youth camp and for me that’s kind of our primer for the season and fall camp. That gets us going again in the coaching mode.
 
Niblett: We call our coaches unit coaches, not position coaches. We do this because we want them to fit into the framework of what we are trying to do. This spills over into the summer as well. Our summer strength and conditioning sessions are set up in teams with unit coaches drafting captains of their “team” and those captains then draft the rest of the players. Our coaches are here all the time. I handle the strength and conditioning part of it and their job is to create a personal relationship with each player. We preach about coaching and teaching the skill over the scheme. We are interested in attention to detail. I hate meeting to meet so we don’t do it. If we are going to meet, we are going to get something accomplished and get out.

Infante: Communication is the cornerstone of any great organization. I believe you have to have year-round communication with your staff while balancing the fact that this is not their full-time job. At a minimum, we meet in the off-season at least one time a month, usually the first Tuesday of every month. I also distribute to them an up-to-date calendar keeping them up to speed on everything we are doing and when. I expect our assistants to meet with their position groups at least once a week throughout the off season in order to foster a stronger relationship with their players.  I believe this is important since many of our coaches are not in the building and do not have the ability to build those relationships on a daily basis.

Do you maintain communication with players and parents?
 
Yonchiuk: I have a great couple of young assistants who are technologically savvy and help me out a great deal. We use Facebook, our school version of Facebook and also, Hudl, Text, and Twitter to get messages out to the kids. We also put some of the ownership on the senior leaders and have them get in touch with all the players.
 
Rodenberg: I use twitter a lot. Every day I put up a motivational message. We also utilize our website, www.letsgobigmo.com for all calendars, materials etc. We are big on social media because it’s a very easy and quick way to get in touch with the players. We use Twitter, Text, Instagram, and Facebook.
 
Vaughan: We embrace the technology in this respect also. We will use Twitter, Skype, Hudl, our blog and website www.mphsfootball.com. This allows us to get everything out to the parents at any point almost immediately.
 
How do you design your practices for the start of August practice?
 Infante: We see the summer as a must-have in terms of our installation and teaching progressions for camp.  The summer months are used to teach our schemes and install our individual plays. Camp then is used to create our packages of plays that work together very well.
 
Yonchiuk: I have the belief that our season starts at Team Camp. We get nine sessions and this year Coach Mumme will be there to help us out. We also have three heat acclimation days, and then camp. We install within the first week and now rep our plays so that we can get our tempo up and go faster and faster.
 
Ortega: We have a veteran staff at Coatesville, and we get most of our work done Xs and Os- wise between January and April. We do all of our installs through spring and summer nights. We meet twice before camp to make sure we are on the same page and then we get after it.
 
Do you involve your team in 7-on-7 programs and/or big man challenges during the summer?
 
Infante: Competition is a cornerstone of our program, so we do participate in 7 on 7’s. However, we believe that the summer is also about developing team and leadership. Community service projects allow us to do both. We have for the last few years had a football service trip every summer in which the coaches, team and families go out and do a number of things. In 2011, we performed disaster relief in Alabama. In 2012, we worked with Habitat 4 Humanity in rural Virginia. In 2013, we distributed food to poor children in Columbus (OH). This summer we are going to Detroit to help revitalize that city. We also do 7-on-7’s in June and July. June is more competitive in nature where we participate in tournaments. In July, we scale it back and compete against individual teams. This allows us to slow things down and teach more.
 
Rodenberg: No, I don’t like 7-on-7’s because I feel that they are a negative impact on our team. They teach bad habits and people play defenses that they won’t ever play in a game. We are fortunate enough to have enough numbers that are quality on our team that we can get great work done while staying at home. We will send our big guys to camps but I tell college coaches all the time to be real with us. If they are truly recruiting this kid, then we will send him. If not, then no, I don’t want him to go and waste his time.
 
Ortega: Like my overall approach to summer workouts, I have scaled these back as well. We will go to a few (1-2) tournaments if we think we can get something fundamental out of them. One thing we are doing this year instead of going away to team camp is on Tuesdays we are having what we are calling Tuesday Team Night. Here, we are inviting 2-3 teams to come in and lift and eat. We will switch off so that no two teams are eating or lifting. Then we will all go into the auditorium to hear a speaker. We are trying to bring in influential guys to really make an imprint on our players. Once that is over, we are going to go outside for 7-on-7 and big man competitions. We will culminate the evening with an entire team competition which will be some sort of Crossfit activity.
 
Niblett: In Alabama, we are allowed four days of competition with other teams so we have to be very selective in what we do. We will send our big guys to those one-day camps if they are being recruited.
 
Do you get your players involved in fundraising activities?
 
Matt Ortega: In the past, our kids knew that if they didn’t help fundraise then they would not be eligible to go to team camp. Now we do something different in that we have five major fundraisers and the kids/parents are responsible for working or participating in three of them. In doing so, the kids get credit which they can use on their “spirit packs”, and any left over money can be used to purchase things they might not otherwise have the opportunity to purchase on their own. A spirit pack is generally a package each player receives before the season which includes a shirt, shorts, and socks.
 
Vaughan: We have them participate in two big ones – the discount cards where they are responsible for selling a certain number of cards, and also a simple letter writing campaign where they supply email addresses for us and we take care of the rest. Some other fundraisers we do are selling the ad/signs on the field, having a casino night, and a summer golf tournament.
 
Infante: Yes, I believe players need to be vested in their programs whole heartedly. The players participate in what we call a “Bench-a-thon”, in which each player is responsible for getting sponsorships to pay for the amount they lift. This has been a great fundraiser for us over the years. In order to get their spirit packs and equipment, they must turn in their sponsorship money.
 
What priorities do you place on family vacation for you and your staff?
 
Niblett: My guys get a calendar in February that goes the whole way to December. We give them the weeks of Memorial Day, July 4th, and the week before camp off. Family is most important to us. Our belief is that when we are here, we get things done and when we are gone, we simply get out. I do nothing during the season on Saturdays for this reason; I want our coaches to be family guys.
 
Yonchiuk: I’ve been lucky that I’ve had one coaching change in nine years. I look at my coaches as people first, and coaches second. This really helps with the home life and the wives behind all of us as coaches. We get in, get our work done, and go home. I just ask the coaches to communicate with me when it comes to their vacations.
 
Rodenberg: Take them! Coaches in the summertime due to our strength and conditioning staff can come and go and we encourage that. I just ask that they are back and ready to roll by July 14th. I’m not a big meeting guy. Almost all of my coaches have young kids and I want them to spend that time with them because they can’t get it back.