More reasons why youth football teams would never run the high school system

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More Stats for NOT Running the High School Offense in Youth Football:

Here are a few stats for you youth football coaches feeling the pressure to run the local High School offense:

Let’s say you have a team size of 25 kids. National studies from Michigan State University and the National Youth Sports Alliance say less than 30% of your players will play High School football. So now, out of 25 kids you have 7 players that according to the studies go on to play High School ball. Of those 7, not all will play at the local Public High School, they may move, play for a different local High School, or they may play for a Private School, let’s say you lose 1 player there. Of the 6 remaining, after they go through puberty some will grow and others won’t. That skinny wingback that fills out to a slow 250 pounds is no longer a wingback in High School, kids change. The big hulking center you have doesn't gain a pound and ends up playing fullback. At least half of your players will play a position different than what they did in Youth Ball.

With the weight rules in place for most leagues that restrict large players to the interior line positions, your big players are usually not allowed to touch the ball. So forget about the big players getting any training at receiver, tight end or running back, positions they may very well play in High School. In 2006 two of my former Omaha players, offensive guards James D and Ronnie C both played fullback for Omaha North High varsity as freshmen.Ronnie even ran for a TD in one big game. North has over 2500 students, made it to the state semi-finals, had two DI scholarship players and a parade all-american (Niles Paul) on their team. Neither of these former offensive guards ever got to touch the football for my teams, as both were over the running back weight limits. Neither had played in the backfield or ran this schools offense, yet they did very well at their new positions in a brand new offense. I doubt Omaha Norths head coach cared one iota that these kids had never run his offense. He gets paid to coach football and train football players, not sit back and call football plays from a tower with kids that are already trained for him by a bunch of youth coach volunteers.

So now we are at 3 kids of the 25 that would be playing High School ball and playing the very same position on the High School team as they did at the Youth Football level. If you decided to make the choice for the High School offense for the benefit of just 3 players at the expense of the 22 others on your team, it would not benefit anywhere near the majority of your players.

Add in the slim chances that your 8 year old youth football player will be playing High School ball 10 years down the road and that the High School will even have the same head coach or be running the same offense 10 years into the future. It seems darn right ridiculous to even consider trying to run the same system as the local High School, the odds are very long it would help even a tiny fraction of your youth football players.

The numbers just don’t add up to make a decision to run an offense that in most cases will have little success for your team and in the end will most likely result in fewer players deciding to go on to play High School ball. Because as you will read in subsequent posts, most youth football players quit playing because of poor coaching, their teams are not competitive and they aren’t having fun, all are symptoms of running a system that doesn’t work at the Youth Level.

While the Single Wing Offense has proven itself at the Youth Level all across the country, it is also seeing a rebirth of sorts at the High School and even College levels. Last year 3 Single Wing teams played for State High School Titles in Virginia alone, with 2 teams winning, Giles and Osborne. Menominee High School a perennial Single Wing powerhouse in Michigan won its second State Title in 7 years and blew out the Defending State Champions in the largest class in Minnesota as well. Colton High in California finished in the USA Today Top 20 running the Single Wing Offense. Those are just a few teams I know of off the top of my head that are having success running the Single Wing in High School.

If you watched Urban "The Mad Scientist" Meyers Florida team last year, you would have seen lots of Single Wing football, especially when they went into their “Tebow” formation. Other College teams running lots of Single Wing included West Virginia, Arkansas and Utah to name just a few. My guess is we will see more of it everywhere this coming season.

For those of you that get static for running what you run:

There are many high schools that run the Wing T, Flexbone, Wishbone, Straight T, Veer and Double Wing Offenses and virtually no Colleges at the Division I level or Pro teams run these offenses. Are the thousands of High Schools that run these offenses doing something wrong? How about De LaSalle and its 170 game win streak running the Veer or Bellevue Washingtons National Championship team running the Wing T? Shouldn't they be running what the College and Pro teams are running? No, they dont have the players needed to run those Pro and College offenses and neither do you.

Don't let that weak High School coach sell you on the snake oil that the most important football coach in his program is the youth or Junior High coach, what silliness. The most important coach in the High School system is the High School Head Coach, only responsibility shirking weaklings would put it off on someone other than themselves. This isn't the language I hear at the clinics from the top High School coaches in the nation, they rightfully think they are the coach that has the most to do with their teams success or failure. They wouldn't dream of trying to blame someone else for their failure or success.

Did Lou Holtz blame poor High School coaches for his last South Carolina teams failure to reach a bowl game? How about Bill Parcells, should he be blaming the college coaches for his Dallas Cowboys not making the Super Bowl? It never happenned, it would be silly, but I hear it from a handfull of perrennial losing High School coaches from accross the country on football coaching forums. Great coaches aren't excuse makers, they take and teach responsibility, it's the right thing to do. Don't teach your players by your excuse making example to be excuse making dog ate the homework kids.

Another article brought to you by http://winningyouthfootball.com Copyright 2007 Cisar Management. Republishing allowed if links are kept intact.

For more great youth football ideas and football plays, sign up for Dave’s free youth football coaching tips newsletter, please click here:

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Dave Cisar-With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams that has enabled his personal teams to win 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

Dave is a trainer of youth football coaches nationwide. He has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized, while having fun and retaining players. His book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His DVDs and book have been used by teams nationwide to run integrity based programs that win championships. His web site is Coaching Youth Football

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The top 10 football teams in London

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There is much to see for those who are interested in football in London. Just to clarify for any readers of this article from outside the UK, football means the 'beautiful game', what is commonly referred to as Soccer around the world.

London has a proud tradition of famous football teams with much competition between them to be the top club. There are generally four or five London teams in the Premier League and there are many commentators who believe that this is one of the biggest obstacles to any one of them winning the league. A 'local derby' between two London football teams could produce an electric atmosphere and turn current form on its head they are so well contested.

Premier League tickets are sometimes difficult to obtain, but a bit of persistence often gets results. There are a number of ticket agencies that can get them for a price.

In the last decade, both Arsenal and Chelsea have each won the illustrious Premier League title twice and reached the final of the European Cup.

Here are some details about the top 10 football clubs in London and to avoid any accusations of being partisan, they are listed in alphabetical order:-

Arsenal

The Gunners, Arsenal have played in the top division of English football in consecutive seasons since the 1919-20 season. They have been champions on 13 occasions and achieved a unique record for modern times in 2003-04 season when they went the whole season without being beaten.

Arsenal have won the much coveted 'double' (league and cup winners in the same season) three times, in 1971, 1998 and 2002

In recent years they have moved to a new venue, The Emirates Stadium, with a 60,000 capacity. The Arsenal Museum is well worth a visit and is open every day.

Brentford

The Bees, Brentford Football Club are currently playing in Football League I. They were founded in 1889 and play their home games at Griffin Park their home stadium since 1904. Brentford's most successful spell came during the 1930s, when they achieved consecutive top six finishes in the First Division.

Since the War, they have spent most of their time in the third and fourth tiers of English football. Brentford have been FA Cup quarter-finalists on four occasions, and have twice been Football League Trophy runners-up.

Charlton Athletic

The Addicks, Charlton Athletic have seen better days. There halcyon days were in the 1930s and 40s. In recent years they have struggled after being relegated from the Premier League in 2005 and then from the Championship in 2008.

They play at The Valley just south of the River Thames in Greenwich. The club was founded in 1905.

Historically, Charlton's most successful period was the 1930s, when the club's highest league finishes were recorded, including runners-up of the league in 1937, and after World War II, when the club reached the FA Cup final twice, winning in 1947.

Chelsea

The Pensioners or the Blues, Chelsea Football Club was founded in 1905, and play in the Premier League. Chelsea have been champions three times (1955, 2005, 2006), and have won the FA Cup five times, the League Cup four times and the UEFA Cup Winners Cup twice. They reached the UEFA Champions League Final in 2008

Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge in West London and their ground capacity is 42,000.The Chelsea Museum is open most days and is well worth a visit for those interested in museums and football history.

Crystal Palace

The Eagles, Crystal Palace Football Club was formed in 1905. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where it has been based since 1924. The club is currently competing in the second tier, The Championship.

Crystal Palace's most recent successful period began in 1988-89, when the club finished third in the Second Division and were promoted to the First Division. Reaching the 1990 FA Cup Final only to lose the replay against Manchester United and finishing 3rd in the First Division in 1990-91.

Since then Palace have been relegated from and promoted to the FA Premier League on a number of occasions, their most recent relegation from the top flight was in the 2004-05 season. This is all despite the club being almost bankrupt in July 2000.

Fulham

The Cottagers, Fulham Football Club was founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and are in the top tier of English football, the Premier League. Fulham are the oldest professional football team in London.

In 2009, Fulham had their highest-ever finish in the Premier League, coming 7th to qualify for Europe.

The club has produced many great British footballers including Johnny Haynes, George Cohen, Bobby Robson, Rodney Marsh and Alan Mullery and Jim Langley. They play at the historic Craven Cottage, their home since 1896, a riverside ground on the banks of the River Thames in Fulham.

Queens Park Rangers

The Hoops or just QPR, Queens Park Rangers Football Club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London. They currently play in the Football League Championship, and their honours include winning the League Cup in 1967, and being runners-up in the old First Division in 1975-76 and FA Cup in 1982.

Queens Park Rangers Football Club was founded in 1882, and its traditional colours are blue and white. Owing to its proximity to other West London clubs, QPR maintains long-standing rivalries with several other clubs in the area, the most notable of these being Chelsea, Brentford and Fulham with whom they contest what are known as West London derbies.

In 2007 QPR was taken over by Italian tycoon Flavio Briatore and rank among the top 10 richest sporting clubs in the world. Other major shareholders include Lakshmi Mittal & F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. So watch this space!

Tottenham Hotspurs

The famous 'Spurs' side of 1961, is still reckoned by many football enthusiasts, to be one of the best football teams in English football history. They achieved the 'double' which had not been achieved at that time since Aston Villa won it in 1897.

This has given recent Spurs' teams a lot to live up to. But Spurs have a long tradition of playing good football so there are many exciting matches at White Hart Lane especially with their close North London rivals, Arsenal.

In 1963, Spurs became the first British club to win a major European trophy - the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1970s, they won the Football League Cup on two occasions and were the inaugural winners of the UEFA Cup in 1972. In the 1980s, Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Cup 1983-84. In the 1990s, they won the FA Cup and the Football League Cup and in 2008, they beat Chelsea in the final of the Football League Cup. This victory means that Tottenham have won a trophy in each of the last six decades - an achievement only matched by Manchester United.

Spurs have planned a new stadium to be completed by 2012 and it is expected to be one of the best stadiums in the UK.

Watford

The Hornets, Watford Football Club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the Championship. The club was founded in 1881, and played at several grounds before moving to a permanent location at Vicarage Road in 1922, where they remain to this day. Since 1997, they have shared the stadium with Saracens Rugby Club. Watford have a long-standing rivalry with Luton Town.

The club is best known for two spells under the management of former England manager Graham Taylor. The first lasted from 1977 to 1987, when the club rose to the old First Division from the Fourth Division. Once in the highest division of English football, Watford finished second in the league in 1983, reached the FA Cup final in 1984 and competed in the UEFA Cup in the 1984-85 season.

The second period spanned from 1997 to 2001, when Taylor took the club from the renamed Second Division to the Premier League in successive seasons. Taylor is currently a non-executive director of the club, and honorary life president alongside Sir Elton John who owned the club during both of these eras and has continued a long association with the club.

West Ham United

The Hammers, West Ham United Football Club have play at Upton Park (Boleyn Ground), in East London since 1904 having been formed in 1895.

They featured in the first FA Cup Final to be held at Wembley in 1923 against Bolton Wanderers. The club have won the FA Cup three times: in 1964, 1975 and 1980. They have also been runners-up twice, in 1923 and 2006.

In 1965, they won the European Cup Winners Cup, and in 1999 they won the InterToto Cup.

Their players are considered an important factor behind England's triumph in the 1966 World Cup, as England's captain at the time was West Ham's Bobby Moore, and both goalscorers Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters were West Ham players.

West Ham currently compete in the Premier League, their highest finish in the Premier League was 5th in 1998-99.

Alan Rivers was born and raised in London and now lives outside London but is a frequent visitor. His website Visit London Tips is for his own pleasure as well as for every other visitor. You may be able to obtain premier league tickets here

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Of the city of tournaments for youth football teams

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Out of town youth football tournaments are an excellent end of season treat for many youth football teams. Pop Warner, AYF and other organizations have regional and national title programs that are the goal of many youth football coaches in those leagues.

When I played youth football, our team traveled to Las Vegas, Kansas City, Nashville and Atlanta to play in tournaments. It was a great way to see how we stacked up to competition outside Nebraska. I still can recall those memories, losing just one of those games in overtime in Las Vegas to an all-star team from California.

What are these tournaments like and as a youth football coach should my teams play in one? Coaching youth football means having a lot of influence on deciding to take these games or not.

There are more independent youth football organizations than Pop Warner and AFL combined and the independents play in various youth football tournaments throughout the USA. The tournaments vary in size and quality as does anything in life. That is one of the big advantages of the Pop Warner National Tournament, you know that the weekend will be a quality event and the rules will be enforced.

Most of these tournaments are done over the Thanksgiving Holiday and your team plays 2-3 games. Your football team is put in a bracket based on pre-set age and sometimes weight restrictions. Most tournaments have gone to unlimited weight with running back weights, with a few still having some total weight restricted divisions. The tournament host then puts teams into brackets based on record, perceived strength, historical league strength, coach preference, average age and sometimes average weight is considered as well. Most tournaments have very heavy restrictions as to verification of birth certificates and roster (no all-star teams) and most do weigh-ins the day of the games.

Back in my day, we lived in a different society and lived under different rules. We would play youth football teams from all over the country right here in Omaha at seasons end. The opposing players would stay in our homes during their stay.Our family made some life long friends through this process. I will never forget flying to Las Vegas in 1973, this being the first exciting plane ride for about 90% of our players.

Staying with families gave us a chance to bond with the other players and experience how they lived. In 1972 my team partner Joe Dukich and I got to stay with a black family in Kansas City and made some great friends. Of course in todays world, staying with families to get this type of experience and save money on hotel costs would be out of the question.

Since then, my personal youth football teams have played in tournaments in Iowa, Kansas, Omaha and Kearney Nebraska and Florida. Where we played had a lot to do with how much money we had available, as traveling costs a lot of money. Back when I played, we sold raffles and would go out in groups on Friday and Saturday nights to local bars and bowling alleys to sell tickets. Each player had a quota to sell and the coaches got sponsors as well, again a different era, different rules. But of course there were no lodging or food expenses back then due to the players staying with host families, so we didn't have to raise as much money.

My personal teams have not been able to play in the big Florida Thanksgiving tournaments based on several factors, one being money. The other is daylight savings time hits the first week in November or so and that means it gets dark around here at 5:30. We have never had a practice field with lights and we often see very cold temperatures and even snow at that time of year. The only time we could practice would be on weekends or in gyms. Gyms aren't the best places to have a football practice and it's also the time most basketball teams here start gearing up. We have not been able to secure gym time from any of the public schools in the area and even if we did, you can't run your football plays all out in a gym.

Based on these factors, we have been limited to youth football tournaments that are earlier than Thanksgiving like the ones in Omaha, Council Bluffs Iowa, Kansas City Kansas (Johnston County) and the Snapper Bowl in Panama City Florida. The Omaha tournament is put on by a very sharp person "John" from Omaha's Nebraska Midget Football League. It is very well run and organized and runs over a weekend. This youth football league invites teams from their league and others in the Midwest to participate. We are quite often the only local team not from their league invited to participate. We have won that tournament's "A" Division Title a number of times. Monte O'Hara runs a very nice tournament with outstanding sportsmanship, officiating and pagentry, in Council Bluffs, Iowa with some games played at the University of Nebraska at Omaha stadium with field turf and under the lights. We have always done real well there as well and are often the only Nebraska team invited to play. The Lil Vikes tournament in Omaha is one we won several times and had great experiences 3 of the 4 years we played and were the only Omaha team outside their league invited on several occasions. The Kearney, Nebraska tournament was a great experience, with the opposing team taking our kids on a hayrack ride and even taking up a collection for us at the church services we shared. We won that one in the sleet and the pictures of our kids and theirs arm in arm after the game, all smiles covered in slush is one for the ages.

The Johnston County Kansas Youth Football Tournament is in the Kansas City area and often gets well over 100 teams from the Midwest to play. I've taken my youth football teams to play in that tournament for over 15 years and done real well, we won just last season. It is well run of late, the sportsmanship was good and the organizers did an excellent job. A great place to stay is the Great Wolfe Lodge Indoor Water Park and Hotel about 30 minutes from the fields. We had an incredible team swim party there after our big win this last season.

In 2003 two Screaming Eagle teams played in the Snapper Bowl in Panama City Florida, which is 6 hours closer to us than Daytona. We had an academic contest that year for our 14 teams that involved weekly school academic accountability reports filled out by their teachers. Two hard working teams won the contest and they had the time of their lives staying on the beach in Destin, Florida. A local "Angel" footed the bill of about $26,000 for two buses, lodging and food. Since we had no way to practice after Daylight savings time, the Snapper Bowl people (Harold Creel) arranged for us to play a game in the first week of November outside the context of the base tournament. The two Eagle teams that won the academic contest unfortunately were our 2 least competitive teams, so one played and lost in overtime and the other got beat by 4 scores. My personal team failed to win the academic contest and we were expecting at the time anyways, so it worked out for the best.

If you are planning an end of season trip, now is the time to get going on planning and raising funds.

Some other suggestions include being on your absolute best behavior and send a thank you note to the organizers signed by all your players. We often get invited back and even fees waived because of the overt sportsmanship our teams practice while playing in these youth football tournaments. Mr Creel from Florida was in awe of the overt sportsmanship of our players and fans, in his words we were "Too Good to be true." We had a great time and made great friends. If you win big and ugly you won't get the red carpet rolled out for you. Just last year I had three moms from the other team in Kansas City track me down after our game and just rave about how we were the best sportsmanship team they had seen in over 15 years of coming to the tournament. That was in a game we could have easily won by 40 plus points against a team twice our size. We always get invited back.

Several teams from our youth football league play in the top unlimited national tournament in the country in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is held over Thanksgiving weekend and features teams from all over the country. Here is the Bowl web site:

http://www.thenationals.net/football.htm. The reason I think this is a stronger bowl than Las Vegas is, we have seen teams from Omaha that have been beat by teams from our Omaha league go down and win the Las Vegas tournament. There are several very competitive Omaha teams from our League that have the resources to play in Daytona, they have lighted practice fields, plenty of money and one even has an indoor practice field. There are some benefits from being a suburban team. There are various divisions in the tournament, with the Omaha teams usually participating in the "Top Gun" Division, the best of the best. The KWAA Panthers and Omaha Thunder have won that Division four times in the last 10 years at the 13-14 age group and in 2006 the Thunder won another National Title in the 13-14 age Division.

When coaching youth football in tournaments you have to pace your team, as you will play 2-3 games in 2 days. You have to have your backups ready to play early and often and have plenty of players cross trained at other positions. You will see every imagineable offense, defense and even some good trick football plays.

The trip will be a blur of activity, managing the team, the hotel and activities and then scouting your opponents. At many youth football tournaments the games are spread out all over town, a real nightmare, try to avoid those. At Johnston County and others, all 10 fields are in one spot, so you don't have to worry about directions or scouting, it is a youth football mecca with 20 teams playing at once.

If you have the chance to coach a youth football team that travels to out of state tournaments, do it, they can be a blast. You will be helping create life long memories for your youth football players.

See how good your team really is and enjoy the experience.

Dave Cisar- Dave is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His personal teams using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

To Sign up for his free tips and drills newsletter or to view 400 free youth football coaching tips go to: Football Plays

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