Game Planning Your Coaching Career (Part II)

The Third Quarter

After the first half (introduction and growth phase) and making adjustments at half-time, the third quarter becomes the maturity phase of the coaching career. This does not mean that, as coaches, we do not continue to grow or learn. It means that we become more stabilized in our “giftings” as a coach. I admire the confidence of the FBS assistant who maintains a positive attitude that he will land a job in a better environment, after being let go as a staff member for not winning enough games.  These guys have made a lifetime commitment to managing change and are successful coaches in the marketplace. 

Perhaps the third quarter of your career is not one of moving your family…..then staying put will bring its own type of change. The internal things that we all have experienced, budget cuts or increases, enrollment changes that lead to classification changes, staff turnover, schedule changes, facility upgrades, administrative changes, the list goes on and on. During the third quarter, these changes should be viewed as opportunities for growth. We continually preach to our players about overcoming adversity and when change comes to us, we must put into practice the things we have told our teams. We get to see how our attitude is when things don’t go our way. Are we going to be a critic and head in the opposite direction, or will we be a reactionist that, depending upon the surroundings, be on board when good things occur but become disgruntled when bad times hit? 

The coaching profession demands that we are more like visionaries, despite circumstances that are unfavorable, seeing the hope in every occurrence. In a game, the third quarter, especially the first series for both teams, dictates the momentum for the remainder of the game. The third quarter of a football game seems to go faster than any other quarter, perhaps because of fewer time outs, less penalties, etc. The third quarter, the maturity phase of a coaching career, seems to be similar as fifteen years quickly becomes year twenty! Time seems to go faster the older we get and being involved in the daily grind of what we do and realizing the responsibility of keeping this profession great, rests with us. 

This phase is much like the junior year of our players assuming leadership roles and not being distracted by the thoughts of some seniors who worry about their life after football.  In this quarter, the game comes down to one thing – managing the changes that have occurred by your opponent and implementing the strategies your staff had included in the game plan. So it is in game planning your career, you may have decided to stay in one place. There is still an adjustment if your administration increases the resources for the program, as any increase in resources demand an increase in production and expectation. There are many programs that have increased their expectations because of the coach’s success. Expectations are everywhere. Our players have expectations of us and we certainly expect certain behaviors from them.  Because time is the opponent we all compete against, let us embrace the change in this phase of our career and game plan for a shift in the paradigm we once knew. 

This quarter will be the shortest of all, so understand that reacting to change will help you survive in the profession and planning for it will help you to thrive.  The planning function is what we as coaches do better than most professionals in other industries, but because we are committed to loyalty, a backup plan from a career standpoint is something that is still a foreign concept to us. 

The game planning for your career in this quarter is in response to changes, either positive or negative, at the place where you coach. Some of the best examples of character are from coaches who endured the hard times, adjusted from learning the causes of the problem and began to succeed again. Success is always defined by the individual and when that definition is shared by both coach and administrator, clarity exists. Any distortion of that definition results in an unhealthy expectation. Game plan for the changes in the third quarter as a coach professionally, the same way you do on Friday night or Saturdays in the fall. 

Coaches who reach this point in the profession often face the philosophical question of “Is winning enough?” Many at this time start to look at the career of coaching as a calling and start to implement things such as FCA huddles, Habitat for Humanity projects and leadership groups that focus on the value of the individual and not just the value of what that individual brings to the scoreboard. If you haven’t already done so in your coaching experience, I strongly encourage you to start one of these ideas. It will transform your view on coaching and impact the lives of your players. 

The Fourth Quarter

Coaches have conditioned their players to recognize that the fourth quarter is special. Almost every football team puts four fingers in the air and some teams sprint to the other side of the fifty at the start of the final quarter. We have all coached our players to finish stronger than they start. We practice scenarios as coaches specifically for the fourth quarter – the four minute offense, two-minute offense, one-minute offense, last play, prevent, on-side, hands team, etc.

Just as teams re-assert themselves in the game with the clock winding down, coaches tend to do the same. Experienced coaches re-invent themselves, giving a new enthusiasm to finishing stronger in a career than they started. I marvel at coaches who have stayed at one school for decades. They are leaders in their community, not because of what they do on Friday night, but because they are respected for what they do in teaching young people.  It seems that the abundant examples of these men are in the past because today, staying in one place doesn’t seem to be the norm. Have coaches become less loyal? No, but in the deciding phase of the fourth quarter of a career, we must make the decision to either re-invent our methodology and re-invest in our occupation or allow us to make most of the decisions that we once handled. 

The loyalty issue can be seen in the change of the American culture.  Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, generations would work their entire life at one place, usually the steel mill where men would spend 25, 30 or 35 years with the company. With global economies came outsourcing and Fortune 100 companies being bought and sold. A faster more connected world has fewer people staying in one location for their career. Today, the American culture demands that winning and success must be achieved at bigger schools almost immediately. This perception is becoming more evident in smaller schools that have embraced the big school mentality. Candidly, each of us love the grind of competition in preparing our players to perform to the best of their ability. 

The need to re-invent and re-invest yourself as a coach in the fourth quarter of your career is more needed now than ever. A FBS assistant who takes a head coaching job on the D-3 level or as a D-3 assistant, who moves to the other side of the ball for the first time, renews the need to learn and improve. A high school coach who, because of declining enrollment, decides to switch his system of play is a dynamic change for an experienced coach. Just as there are more scenarios associated with the fourth quarter than any other time in the game, the same is true for the profession. Changes occur more rapidly and situations arise where the most specific game planning is required. The fourth quarter in some games also allows us to play younger players when the score is in our favor. The best decision a fourth quarter coach can do is get his players some experience. Professionally, coaches with years of valuable experience need to impart this wisdom to the next generation so these coaches need to be involved at the highest level in local coaching associations, state, and/or national committees. Although the game of football has evolved greatly, the foundational truth is that there is nothing new under the sun. The best words a fourth quarter coach can speak are, “I’m here to teach you something and I am also here to learn something.” 

In closing, the theme for our football season this year is a great truth for all of us in coaching. “Focus on today and do the best we can today,”  Psalm 118:24 says. “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Men, we are fortunate to be in a profession we love and are truly blessed to be able to do what we do. Let’s do what some older coach did for us and mentor a younger guy who has the same enthusiasm to be successful that we had when we started coaching football.

About the Author:

Geno DeMarco enters his 21^st season as the winningest football coach in the history of Geneva College. Among tenured coaches (10 years) at one institution, DeMarco ranks 19^th in winning percentage for all divisions in the Eastern United States. The nine-time coach-of-the–year has placed over 100 former players into the coaching ranks.  He can be reached at gdemarco@geneva.edu.