Game Planning Your Coaching Career (Part I)

(This article is written to discuss career planning in the coaching profession and this is by no means the only way to pattern your pathway. The experience of one coach, while addressing many issues, does not include all scenarios. However, the organization of the material is well-known to all coaches as it is structured just as all of us would game plan against an unfamiliar opponent. It is hoped that this discussion would have us in the coaching profession talk about these changes with younger coaches entering this vocation). 

By Gene DeMarco, Head Coach, Geneva College

Pre-Game 

A generation ago, college students were educated to prepare themselves to enter a Fortune 500 company and stay employed with that company throughout their entire career. Those who studied education did so with the idea that they would land that first teaching job and grow as the school district dictated. Today, students are taught to manage change, as employees often switch companies for better opportunities and teachers leave for better financial rewards in thriving areas. The coaching profession has taken a somewhat similar approach, and planning for these changes is more important today than it was for the previous generation. 

The First Quarter

Remember the first time the thought of coaching football as a profession entered your mind? Maybe it was from the lessons learned in the arena of competition as a player. Perhaps the thought was planted by a family member or the influence of a coach was embedded in your mind. Whatever the motivation, the first question you asked someone was “How do I get a start in the coaching business?” Much like a freshman entering college, the thoughts of acceptance, purpose and success were also questions in your mind. As a young coach, in the “First Quarter” or the “Introduction Phase,” you are immersed into a profession that is highlighted with legends, gurus, tough-leaders, and larger-than-life characters who have shaped generations of young men. Most of us started as graduate assistants on the collegiate level, junior varsity coaches on the high school level, junior high volunteers or even youth league contributors, to get our feet wet for coaching the game of football. 

The primary focus in the game planning approach for any coaching career is that during the first quarter you must find out the most critical part of coaching - who you are as a person. Most mistakes made early in our coaching careers are nothing more than the failure to be authentic. We didn’t know much so we tried to emulate someone else. It didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work now, because players respond to coaches who are real. Each of the guys in our locker rooms can smell a fraud and his insecurity. The other side of the coin was that some of us thought we knew a whole lot about teaching, motivating, leading and coaching, but didn’t know that we didn’t know. We plan weekly for the first quarter of the game, as we all run the offense that our players have practiced over a thousand times  or we set the defensive scheme that our kids have had countless repetitions with. Football teams (or programs) that are successful, continue to display their true identity on a weekly basis. As a coach in the introduction phase, be who God made you to be. Through your personality, your motivation, your skill set – be real. 

Studying coaches who have been successful is a staple of this profession and learning from others is how we make the commitment of continuous improvement. However, there was only one Vince Lombardi and the sooner we learn that we are not him, the better we establish the authenticity we need. Players respond to people who care, people they can trust and people who try to make them better and give them an expectation of hope. These are the foundational concepts of servant leadership and any coach or football program that is grounded in this philosophy will succeed. 

Game planning for a career is somewhat like game planning for the unfamiliar opponent.  As coaches, we look at tape and talk with other coaches but until we see the team execute on game day and get a real feel in the first quarter, we do not know the attributes of the team on the other sideline. The identity of an opponent is what they do often and what they do best. Likewise, in the first quarter of the coaching profession, the foundation for our career is found.

There is not one perfect way to coach. It is an art that embodies a systematic approach and it differs from program to program. So it is with the identity of those programs that determines, what, how, when and why they do what they do. One tool for young coaches to use is to write a personal mission statement. Put it down on paper in twenty-one words or less. Include three objectives as to how you will fulfill this mission statement. For the numbers guys, put goals to the objectives and make sure you understand what you’re writing. Put a time frame on your goals and throw in the numbers to evaluate yourself objectively. 

The Second Quarter

The second quarter of a coaching career, the growth phase, is that period of time where, as coaches, we incrementally learn and grow the most. This is that 3-5 year period, after being introduced to the coaching profession, where we acquire the knowledge to understand players, plan, organize, staff, implement and evaluate phases of the game of football. 

For many of us, this was the greatest growth spurt we encountered in our career.  It seems like in the second quarter of a football game, after each team has introduced its game plan, more production is seen by one or both teams, resulting in more points. In a sense, each team has learned a little bit more about each other and the result is an increase in production. Defensively, it could also be a time where both defenses learn more about both offenses, but nonetheless, the second quarter of the game is similar to the growth stage of a career where production is easily seen.

Game planning in the second quarter is usually the back page of our call sheets, the “what if” part of the plan; that is, “if they do this…..we will do this…”.  So it is in the coaching profession as we make adjustments professionally. Your sphere of influence is now a little greater and your performance, much like the output of an offense that has learned the scheme of the defense, is much greater in the second quarter. It is usually during this phase of the coaching career that we find ourselves being offered a better job with more responsibility. Often, it is someone noticing the performance of your ability rather than looking for that next job. 

The energy level of this growth phase is fueled by these opportunities. The day-to-day question that you had in the first quarter of your career has now changed to a confidence that you possess because of the success of the first quarter. This is a critical phase in the coaching career as many questions become a little easier to answer. Like any promotion, the fear of the unknown is offset by the faith in your ability and the hope that this is a better opportunity than what you had previously. The difficult scenario is when you had been in a great situation being mentored by quality coaches, and you then take a job as a coordinator or even a head coach at a smaller level where you encounter a difficult circumstance, and fail miserably. To compound this issue, maybe you pursued this opportunity, took a chance and it became a bad move. One former hall of fame coach told us years ago that guys who look for their next job usually lose the one they have. He also said that early in a coaching career there are no good jobs - you have to make a bad job better. 

At this point, we need to realize that the game is not over and, just as a game that may seem out of hand in the second quarter, there is still plenty of time to learn, connect and adjust. One of the best things we do as coaches is adjust when things change rapidly – we call it managing chaos. Somewhere back in the first few years of coaching you managed chaos, albeit on a smaller scale. As we tell our players, this is the best time to get back to the basics. Review your personal mission statement. This is something young coaches should do and with this mission statement, put three objectives to this vision. I know of friends in this business that have placed goals, measurable, easy to understand and within a time frame, as the objectives of their mission statement. This is as important in the “second quarter” of our career as knowing who you are in the “first quarter.”

I have heard the “know who you are” phrase put in different language today:  values, philosophy, narratives, etc. but regardless of the lingo, the identity piece of every coach will always be tested. It seems that it happens quickly after we find out who we are – only now, because it’s later in the game, we are responsible for not only ourselves, but the others around us as well. Let’s face it, as a young coach in the profession, we are responsible for ourselves. The next thing that happens is that we take a new job or position and we are responsible for others. Regarding the second quarter, poor performance brings a key idea to this whole idea of game planning your career and here is the reason why - coaches do so much more than coach. In fact, ask ten coaches from sports outside of football and you will get ten different answers. Ask ten football coaches what coaching is about and nine of us will say it’s getting a group of young men together, headed in the same direction, to achieve a common goal. 

The nature of football, a team game, requires a coach who is immersed in self-sacrifice.  It is servant leadership and I’m sure all of you could tell me the things you do outside the realm of X’s and O’s of football. The stuff nobody sees. This very quality of servanthood allows us, no, really demands us, to ask the question “How can I change to help the situation?” That is, taking ownership of the problem, finding an answer and correcting it. 

In the second quarter, if the game is getting away from you, do what you would do during the actual football game. Take control and ownership of the deficit – get your assistants to believe that the adjustment will work. Selling it to the players is the easy part. The second quarter tests us in a game like no other because we have to implement the adjustments that we anticipated and deal with the ones we didn’t see coming. 

How many times on a film review session did a staff member say, “Coach, they gashed us on this formation because they hadn’t shown it before.” The quicker the recognition of the problem, taking ownership of it and sorting out all of the correct information, the better the opportunity you have to get back into the game. It is the same in regard to career planning. Learning is the key to succeeding in the future. What you can learn from this and how will you make it better? As coaches, we thrive on the fact that there will be another game to coach – it is the very core of why we coach – hoping that a player gets better, hoping that a unit improves, hoping that a team succeeds and hoping that we are better today as a coach than yesterday. Remember, the deficit in the second quarter doesn’t mean the end. Contrary to many opinions, it can propel you to a greater degree of performance in the future. If you can’t remember having a deficit or failing in the second quarter of your career maybe the opposite is true. Are you are even better than the first quarter? Ask the question, “Is your mission statement being fulfilled, and are the objectives and goals being met?” 

Finally, what adjustments are you making to get better in the second half of your career because the game, my friend, only gets tougher when you have enjoyed success? Think of those games when you had a 21 point lead at half-time. What did you tell your players? Exactly - don’t look at the score. Let’s get better in the second half.

Halftime

Perhaps some of you actually had a time away from the game. Frankly, at higher levels, contracts are written and guys are getting paid while contemplating their next move. At smaller college levels and high schools, a time away may happen because of family emergencies, relocation, or a year to recharge. Halftime is getting the correct information to the right people who can improve their performance in the second half. Likewise, maybe you are looking to get back into coaching. A refinement of your objectives will be needed and your goals adjusted. For coaches who don’t have an interruption in the profession, the beginning of the third quarter is perhaps the most important time of your career. 

However, we may become myopic as coaches, by doing the little things in an obsessive manner, so at times we need to take a look at the big picture from a career standpoint. Sometimes opportunities present themselves and we are so busy being busy that we don’t even acknowledge the opportunity. The standard reply is that if the job was so tremendous, it would catch our attention immediately. While this may be true, be prepared because staying in one place means that change will occur in the future. Just as the opponent will adjust a few things for the second half, the coaching career of a person who stays in one place brings many changes. Managing that change is vital to your success. 

(Part II of “Game Planning Your Coaching Career” will be available online in the next issue of American Football Monthly)