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AFM Magazine


What Can You do as a Coach to Improve Academic Progress and Eliminate Ineligibility

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Vic Wallace, former Head Coach
Lambuth University and now Special Assistant to the President for Athletics


Lambuth University is a small, academic university. The university provides, for all students, a person with the title: Director of Student Success, Retention and Academic Advising. Professors report to this person via e-mail, phone or note anyone who is struggling in class, not attending, not getting assignments in or any student that requires special assistance or tutoring. This person will call the student in to access the specific problem and discuss a solution or strategy to solve the problem. Coaches, advisors and parents are informed as needed. Monitoring continues throughout the semester.

Steve Wyllie, Head Coach,
James A. Garfield High School (OH)


What we do at James A. Garfield is pass out eligibility reports. The sheets are a half piece of paper in which the player writes his schedule. The players are to place the report on the teacher’s desk for him/her to sign at some time during the period. It is the player’s responsibility for giving and getting the report to/from his respective teachers. The reports are turned in Thursday and checked over by coaches who determine what actions should be taken.

The report covers both his academic grade as well as his conduct in the classroom. If a player is failing classes, he must have study table after practice (30 minutes). It is here where some of the students can get homework finished or tutored. If their conduct is poor, initially they are punished with extra running. However, if the actions in the classroom do not improve, they begin losing playing time and dressing privileges. At Garfield, we use the rule of starters do not start, players do not play, and dressers do not dress.

Patrick Coleman, Defensive Coordinator,
Oceanside High School, San Diego (CA)


I am currently the DC at Oceanside HS in San Diego CA, but prior to joining the Pirates I was the Head Football Coach at University City HS for three years. When I took over the program at UC, we had a major issue with eligibility, and student-athletes learning the lessons off the field that were just as important if not more than the lessons on the field. The challenge for me as a first year head coach was to establish my program and my expectations. I am a firm believer that as a high school football coach, my job is much more than coaching football, it is growing boys into young men. Right from the start I made clear to the team, the campus and the community that I would have high expectations of our players on and off the field. That players are students first, athletes second and we are at school to get the best education possible, and then be the best team possible. My rules were very strict and discipline fair but swift. The basic discipline was loss of playing time. If I received any negative reports from teachers, or administration, then players’ time on the field would be affected. For the first five games there were multiple starters that did not see the field, sometimes for the first half or more, but the foundation needed to be set, and the penalties enforced. Once the student-athletes begin to, “get it,” the campus climate began to change. Football players went from being a negative addition to the campus to a positive addition. There were two tactics that I believe helped with the change, besides the discipline. The first was having the players wear dress clothes with ties on game days. This not only set the tone for the day, but also identified players to the staff on campus. I received multiple comments from the teaching staff and administration about how the ties had made the players become more respected, and was a great change to the campus and the student-athletes attitudes.

The second was the addition of study hall to the practice plan. Many coaches have times where their players can go to tutoring or study hall and I put it in the practice plan. That way all student-athletes would have time to study, and all players could be monitored. What I did was alternate lifting programs with study hall, and have different levels in at different times. But it was always on the practice plan, just as offense or defense would be.

Also, on all communications players were referred to as student-athletes to continually reinforce the concept. I should add that my second and third year as the HC, we did NOT have any ineligibles in the program. All varsity players made grades and the team GPA was above 3.0.

Dave Myron, Assistant Coach
Perry High School (MI)


I had a team that would have been decimated by eligibility checks. So I instituted a daily progress report. Each player had a sheet with his classes written on it and a space for him to write down the day's activities. He, not his teacher, had to record his homework, etc. on the sheet. If there was no homework for the day, he wrote “no homework.” At the end of class he had to show it to his teacher and get his/her signature. That's it. Many teachers expressed their preference for this system. They could write down any notes they wanted me to be aware of. Also mom and dad started demanding to see the planner as well. I checked them before practice and anyone who did not have a planner or had an incomplete planner had study hall/running. Not a new idea, but the focus on individual responsibility and daily checks helped to keep disorganized kids on track and I was able to offer help when it was going to be useful, not after the fact.


WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! The next topic for the ‘5th Down’… The first phase of any off-season is the evaluation phase. AFM wants to know what you give your players, aside from weekly film grades, to evaluate them at the end of the season. Do you hold exit interviews or give them assessment sheets? If so, what are some of the questions you use when you meet with them? How productive has this been for you and your program so far as you get ready for an intense off-season? Send your responses to AFM’s Associate Publisher, John Gallup, at jgallup@lcclark.com.





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