LIMIT TO A FEW HOMERUNS, RATHER THAN A BUNCH OF “NICKEL&DIMES”.

I try to space out the fundraisers to 1 every other month and if it can’t generate a minimum of $5,000 than we don’t do it.  Carwashes usually are a waste of energy in the sense of raising money, however, they are great for team building.  Here is what we have had the most success with:

1. Cookie Dough in Feb
2. Drive Thru dinner in April
3. Silent Auction dinner in June
4. Gold Cards (entertainment discount cards) in August
5. FB Concessions/drive thru dinner in October.
6. Ad sales for game program/team poster/game signage goes on from Jan – Aug 1.

Cookie Dough:  A kid has to sell 5 boxes to go to Hume Lake camp (lot of fun).  Our net profit is appox $9/box, so those first 5 go to football and then we let the kid use $5 per box from 6 sold on up to use towards paying for camps.  Top sellers get “sleep in” days from zero period and if sell 20 boxes they get a FatHead Poster.  We will net profit $5-$6,000 on this fundraiser.

Drive Thru Dinner:  Parents make the salad & beans, we get the chicken donated, and the dessert is the left over cookie dough…so all we buy is dinner roll & styrofoam container…so a $10 dinner is a $9 net profit for us.  We sell them on a day that the baseball team is at home against our city rival and we get alot of walkup sales, plus we send players with dinners to all 3 diamonds & they sell them right in the stands.  We will net $3,500 on this one.

Silent Auction:  Our players get no credits here.  This one is huge.  We generate $10-$20 thousand off this.  I reach outside my parent group for help here…I get very influential people in the community who attend/organize these functions to help (chamber, politicians, wine cellar owners).

Fireworks:  We only did a booth once, and it was a complete nightmare because of the number of parent volunteers that are out town.  Don’t beat yourself up & be a tight wad…we paid four young college students $10/hour to work the afternoon/evening of 4th of July so our hard working parent volunteers could enjoy their families.  The years we didn’t have a booth (my preference)..we partnered up with someone & sold the pre-sale script thru their booth.  We keep 40% of the gross sales…so the booth owner gets very little profit from our sales…but I sell them on the huge amount of traffic we will drive to their booth.  The people that show up with script will always buy more product.

Gold Cards:  First 5 cards go to us.  $2 credit for every card sold after that.   This is the only fundraiser that can be used to offset spirit packs.  Top seller gets $100.  Sell 30 cards, keep game jersey.  Our mid checkpoint is on a night that we do really tough conditioning.  Any player that has sold 10 cards by that night, gets excused from conditioning.  They have to sell 5 cards to play in the scrimmage. Anyone selling over 20 gets put in a money draw.  Every kid puts his hand in the bucket & pulls out a $1, $5, $10, $50, or $100 bill.  There is only one $50 and one $100 bill.  We sold 2200 cards and netted $14,000.

Ad Sales:  This is pretty standard business card, 1/4 page, and 4′ x 8′ vinyl sign hung up in the stadium of every home game.  Signs are $300 with a $150 annual renewal.  We pay to make the sign.  If a kid sells a sign, camp is paid for.  The keep 50% of their ad sales as a credit to use for camp & spirit packs.  We have package deals for business’ wanting to advertise in all 3 venues…and throw in shirts, hats, polos, and season passes as incentives.

OFFER PLAYERS INCENTIVES

I really believe in giving players back 40-50% of what they sell so that they can buy spirit packs & go to camp.  Fresno is 100% free lunch…Porterville was 85% free lunch.  Lot of hispanic field workers.

INVOLVE YOUR PARENTS

I have heard coaches call parent groups “lynch mobs”…I disagree.  Have an open door policy (even if you don’t like who walks thru) and be very organized with detailed job descriptions typed up so parents with little money can still contribute by cooking/driving/collecting.  If your coaching staff sincerely loves kids & treats kids right, what parent is not going to become your biggest fan?  And the more parents who are on your committees…the bigger your network got…the ‘ole “I know the owner of…” type of thing starts rolling.

Alot of these ideas are listed in DVDs and books at our website: www.championshipfootballvideo.com.  We have several coaches that have talked on these ideas at our clinics…just click on the following link.

We all make mistakes.  There are many types of mistakes (not cleaning your room to murder)

Only thing they all have in common is the initial regret we feel.

This is followed by how we handle the mistake:

              (1)   Admit it & correct it;

              (2)   Make an excuse;

              (3)   Shift blame to someone else.

You have to be a very confident person to take full responsibility.

Have the self discipline & confidence in yourself to ADMIT IT, ACCEPT IT, not let it happen again.

Commitment is the most important part of a relationship.

            How has your commitment been to yourself making you better? (DVD, scout report?)

            How has your commitment been to your team mates?

Discipline is not something you do TO someone, it is something that you do FOR someone.

            The coaching staff cannot relax discipline, it can’t be fun all the time, so please expect discipline.

Parable of the two dogs.          Think of your life if your parents had not disciplined you?

            Some of you have that problem.  You have been allowed to sleep in, not do your HW.

Discipline vs Harrasment:  If the consequence does not teach the person a lesson or if the person refuses to learn the lesson…then it just becomes harassment.

PERFECTION IS POSSIBLE IF WE ACCEPT NOTHING LESS.

            “Inexperience” is an excuse made by people who know that they are going to lose.

            Do we have some other excuses?

1. We have to learn how to compete
2. We have to learn how to win
3. We have to know how to handle winning
4. We are ready to win championships

Why does the military spend so much time marching?  Why do they run at 5am when they could run at 7am?  What does perfect lockers, perfect beds, perfect uniforms have anything to do with winning a war? You would think that the military would want to send bikers and gang bangers who have been trained to fight all of their life to war…but they can’t win with those type of people because they lack SELF DISCIPLINE and would end up getting their own people killed because they have no sense of team.

Why do soldiers die for their country?  Is it really for their country, or for their buddy.

We can send a man to the moon and bottom of the ocean, but the hardest thing is self discipline.

Why would you want to be on the Earth & not be the best?  The best at everything?  We are going to start being perfect or come so close that the average man can’t tell the difference.

WOULD YOU WANT A COACHING STAFF WHO TOLERATED THIS BEHAVIOR???

Some of you are saying: “Hell yeah, its about time.”  Others are saying “Oh crap.”  And some are saying “We can’t do it”.

I am here to tell you that we will do it and we will reach it when the last group of you stop saying We Can’t.

1. Establishing a set weight room routine
2. Coaching Coaches
3. Fundraising
4. Player Academics

WEIGHT ROOM.  I inherited a zero period class that had 27 players and were lifting from 7am – 7:40.  Week 2 we got our numbers up to 50 with our “bring a friend” concept and I challenged them to start at 6:45am, so we had time to do dynamic warmup & post-workout flexibility stretch.  We are lifting M, T, Th, F…and this week was our 1st Wednesday team meeting.  We talked on nutrition, which I have handouts and a powerpoint (available in our SSX Strength & Conditioning program).  Future Wedensdays will include leadership training, establishing our student tree program, and some academic gameplan stuff (available in my Team Building & Leadership Manual).

The biggies of my nutrition talk is:

• Eat 5 times a day, every 3 hours
• 1-2 protein shakes a day
• Pack a tuna sandwich, protein bar, protein powder in a shaker cup, boiled egg in backpack to eat at 10am and 3pm.
• Buy a bottled water every day and fill it up 5 times a day.  Put “notches” to keep track
• Don’t need supplements.  God put everything you need on the planet.
• Basic understanding of carbs (fruit, bread, rice, pasta) and protein (50g per meal).
• Absolute no-no’s (diet soda, ketschup, mayonnaise, chips, candy)

COACHING COACHES.  At this new job, I am working real hard to keep my family as a priority ahead of football.  For many years, I put football ahead of family and it has caused me some personal grief…so I am trying real hard to keep weekends free for family.  So our offensive coaches meet every Tue night from 5-7pm and defensive coaches meet every Wed night from 5-7pm.  The first meeting covers program philosophy & vision.

• Love our kids.  Stay positive.  If a coach has to jump on a kid or correct him, make sure that an “atta boy” comes the players way later in practice.  Every coach is required to walk thru the locker room after practice and pat kids on back.
• Still be accountable & consequences.  Small things in practice (profanity, jump offsides, FB touches ground, jogging) is 14 up downs, because we have to play 14 games to get to section championship.  Late to practice while stretching, grab largest blocking bag, put over your head, and run 1 lap.  Really late and more serious consequences, stay after practice for Warrior reminders.
• All major discipline issues go thru head coach to maintain consistency.
• No standing around in practice.  Coach on the fly.  Condition with a football…we will not line up & simply run wind sprints.
• I also went thru schedules, important dates, etc.
• X’s and O’s…playbook stuff will be covered at 2nd meeting.  The stuff above is more important.

FUNDRAISING

• I am meeting with alumni weekly and establishing a very 1st class, silent auction dinner dance at end of June
• We are going to do a tri-trip bar-b-que pre sale fundraiser right now.
• Organizing our Ad sales for game program, poster, and stadium signs.
• Entertainment discount cards will be end of June

A great motivator for kids to sell and help kids pay for camps/spirit packs is to credit every kid a certain amount from their sales.  My basic rule is the kid keeps 50% of the net profit.  Fresno is a very poor, inner city school and the kids need financial help.  Plus it motivates them to sell more.  For example, the program keeps all profits from the 1st tri-trip sold and after that each kid gets a $5 credit for each unit sold.

PLAYER ACADEMICS

The 1st thing I do is put every players schedule on a large spreadsheet.  Then every player does weekly grade checks that are turned into their team leader, who then turns them into me.  I use a red marker on that spreadsheet to highlight problem areas and those players with bad grades meet with me every week.  I check their binders and require an assignment calendar.  We also talk about basic study & organization skills every Wed instead of lifting weights.  Our school also has an aggressive study hall/tutorial prog

The 1st week at Fresno was very hectic.  The most important thing is to come in with a “WOW” effect.

• I decorated the football room where I would be meeting with players with everything I could find that had some connection to our past success (pictures, newspaper clipping).
• I made sure I always dressed in school colors.
• Met with all players in small groups (juniors on Tue, sophomores on Wed, freshman on Thur) at lunch.
• Brought in a professional speed trainer who trains NFL athletes to start speed training after school.  His credentials were so impressive that the basketball coach made it mandatory for basketball players.
• Really brought energy to the weight room.  My voice was gone and I was drenched in sweat after every class.

Things concerning X’s & O’s and meeting with coaches were not important.  I will start coaches meetings  this week (2nd week).  The priority has to be the players!!!

Some of my speeches were:

1. WHY NOT YOU?  Someone is going to turn this program around.  Someone is going to make the playoffs & break the streak.  It could be the juniors, maybe the freshman, or it could be the 2nd graders.  So WHY CAN’T YOU be the one who turns it around?  The recipe is easy to figure out but involves alot of hard work.  It involves you doing things that haven’t been done here in a long time.  Lots of work, dedication, and sacrifice.  Obviously whatever you did that past few years has not worked…so CHANGE IT.  Quit doing what you’ve been doing.
2. IT’S YOUR TEAM.  There are players on this campus who we haven’t seen.  They miss weights, are not coming to our meetings.  Reach out to them and get them here.  These are players that you call friends and real friends do not always tell their friends what they want to hear…they tell them what they NEED to hear.  When you tell them that they are missing and need to start showing up, they are going to give you excuses…DON’T ACCEPT THEM!  I then demonstrate some mock conversations with our dedicated players and explain to them how to answer the excuses that they are hearing.  For example: “Joe, you need to start going to weight training.  We have a new coach and a new attitude.”  EXCUSE:  ”I can’t get up”…”If an alarm clock is kicking your butt, how are we going to beat ______”  EXCUSE: “I’m doing [whatever] and will start going after____”. …”Great and while you procrastinate, everyone on our schedule is lifting while we fall behind.  They already beat us and are better than us and now they are getting even better than us while you do whatever.”………………..I go on to explain that it is their team.  I am just laying the pavement, pointing them down the correct path, but the players have to take ownership.  I challenge them everyday to bring one friend and I give them daily numbers to hit.  (today we had 27 in weights, let’s break 30 tomorrow).
3. THREE LEVELS OF TRUST.  Coaches have to trust players.  Players have to trust Coaches.  But most important:  PLAYERS have to trust PLAYERS.  This is trusting that you will show up, be on time, be prepared, know your assignments, study your scout reports.
4. FOUR STEPS OF REBUILDING.  First the players have to Hate To Lose.  They have to hate it so much that they are willing to work harder than ever before to change it.  Second the players have to Learn How To Win.  I teach them this by creating competition everywhere.  Fundraising, Weight Room, Practice, 7 on 7, camps.  Third the players have to Expect To Win.  That means waking up on Friday morning truly believing that they will win.  Big difference between HOPING to win and EXPECTING to win.  Finally ((year 4 or 5) the players have to Handle Winning.  Basically fight complacency and getting big heads.  This is why so many Superbowl Champs don’t make the playoffs the following year.

• How to communicate with parents
• How to install a “tradition of work”
• How to organize and motivate a coaching staff
• Coaching keys to winning
• Motivational ideas and techniques
• Team policy
• Expectations of parents, coaches, and players

• Installation of the offense; Practice Organization; How to run it at High Tempo…including communication, signals, and wristbands.  The High Tempo not only wears the opponent down, but it prevents defensive substitutions and makes it hard for that 17-year old Linebacker to make the correct calls at the LOS.
• Screen game to fit any offense:  Alley, Bubble, RB Screens, and Middle Screens.  The Screen game is the key to making Coach Jones’ offense work.
• PlaySheet & Game Planning:  Knowing Where & When to run the correct plays during the game.

• How they use signs, cards, & wristbands to run their no huddle offense;
• Their complete run & shoot passing game, and how they mix in screens & draws
• Inside & outside zone read game;  stretch; & T-Lead

• 3 hours of the Pistol Wing T (run, pass, screens, draws, trick plays)
• 3 hours of Traditional Pistol (Zone Read; Inside Traps, Horn, Splice, Split Zone; 3 & 5 step pass)

Championship Coaching Staff