Building a Girls Flag Football Program: Culture, Practice & Reality | Jordan Davis

What does it actually take to build a successful girls flag football program?

In this episode of She Plays Flag, I sit down with Jordan Davis, Head Coach Girls at Allatoona HS in Georgia, to break down the realities of coaching, building culture, and running a program from the ground up.

Jordan shares his journey from multi-sport coaching into girls flag football, including how early experiences coaching his own kids shaped his understanding of the game and its unique strategy.

The conversation dives into:

•  What a strong program culture looks like 
•  The gap between “ideal” programs and real-world challenges 
•  How to structure practices and manage game day 
•  Coaching philosophy vs. execution 
•  Lessons learned from coaching multiple sports 

This episode is especially valuable for:

•  New coaches entering girls flag football 
•  Programs trying to build consistency and accountability 
•  Anyone looking to understand how successful teams are actually run 

As girls flag football continues to grow across the country, conversations like this highlight what it takes behind the scenes to build something sustainable.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of the She Plays Flag podcast. I'm your host, Matt Mashburn. And before we get to today's episode with Coach Jordan Davis of Alatoona High School in Georgia, a couple of housekeeping notes. Just want to let everybody know you can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, a couple of others. I just want to encourage you guys and really ask you guys to please comment, leave ratings, leave reviews. Let me know how I can make this better. That's the only way I can get better at what I'm doing here and get the best information, the best content, the best topics, best guests. So let me know what you think. Let me know what you would like to hear on this podcast. Again, uh, comment, leave me a rating, leave me a review. If you hate it, give me a one-star. If you love it, give me a five-star. Just let me know how we're doing here. Um, and then I also want to point out, remind everybody that at the She Plays Flag Instagram account, there is a guest interest form on there that you'll see uh if you are interested in coming on as a guest and letting us know what you're doing in the flag world and how you're doing it, uh, and coming on and helping other coaches um to take a look at that form. There it was a little bit glitchy there for a month or so. I didn't really know. Uh, so I wasn't getting the entry. So if you have uh entered, uh entered your information on that, I do apologize. I've got everything settled now, so I'll go back and start making my way down that list. So today's episode uh is with Jordan Davis. He's the head coach at Alatoona High School in Georgia. And I thought this was such a great episode. I got a ton out of this, a lot of very tangible, actual things for coaches out there. We talked about everything from building a culture, structuring a staff, practice planning, game planning, watching film, how to deal with multi-sport athletes, that sort of thing. So I think you're gonna get a lot out of this. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of the She Plays Flag podcast with Coach Jordan Davis of Alatoona High School in Georgia.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Well, as far as my background and everything, getting into coaching at all, like I've I say it all the time, teaching PE, I felt like I played a lot of different things growing up and had a lot of experiences in a lot of sports. And so then when I started teaching, uh, I think I have coached everything there is to coach at some point, except for baseball. Um, and even that, I mean, played grow as a little kid too. So um, as far as perspectives of how I got my coaching strategies, and I mean, I had a lot of different influences from a lot of different people, my own coaches uh that I had in high school and everything, and how they ran it. And one of those I will always say uh biggest influences, especially after I got out in the coaching world, uh, was Jimmy Dorsey at McKeeson, because I played at McKeeson uh for him. And I, as far as seeing it from the coaching perspective now, the program that he ran, I mean, if you don't talk in X's O's on the field, all that kind of stuff, whatever, you can debate all that. But the program that he ran from the way that we held guys accountable, from the way that we interacted with each other, from the way like nobody missed practice, everybody was at every like just it was top-notch. And just seeing things like kids don't come to practice was like when I started coaching, was like just a foreign concept because everybody was always at everything we ever did, and so we worked hard. Um, the coaching staff, if they ever had issues with each other, it never showed to the players. Um, they always seemed like locking stuff. I mean, just everything about the program he ran. And so that was kind of what the as I got into coaching and kind of see that's not the way it always is everywhere. And the reality check of that was kind of like, okay, so I had this like ideal mindset of like what what a program should and could look like, uh, mixed in with all like the other realistic expectations, once you get out of that as well. Because um, I was I graduated in 2001, so Jimmy had been there for a long time to establish that culture and everything. So I was uh in the well-established part, so I didn't get to see maybe what it was like when he was starting and all that, but um seeing that on the outside, like as as you get into coaching with other people, like it it definitely uh was eye-opening to kind of see what to expect. So um I got in, so I my first job was coaching middle school football in Faldon County, um, getting in through that and then just kind of uh stayed with that, and then I started coaching soccer as well. That was the next one I added. I coached basketball for a couple of seasons and that as well. And then once I started having my own kids, that's when I kind of started backing off the coaching um a lot more, and I just ended up coaching golf with one of my good buddies that's over at Hillgrove High School, and we had a few years with that, and then um from there with my own kids, we I started getting into flag football a little bit more. So that's when I started coaching them, was really my first experience getting into flag football. Uh we played it a little bit in college, just like with ourselves, but no competitive leagues or anything like that. So um and then as I was coaching my own kids, I got to kind of really experience, okay, I really love this game. I mean, it's it's a lot of strategy that goes into it that's different than football. Uh it's not you just trying to get people that are big and strong and just run straight over them. It's not like so. There's a lot more that went into it, and I was just really intrigued by it with coaching my own kids. And so when I had the opportunity to get the job in Alatuna, I mean, that's it, I was really excited about it as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

You you started coaching middle school football, and then you're coaching basketball, soccer, golf. Do you did you have did you have any kind of background in in basketball, soccer, or golf?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Uh, other than just playing uh recreationally, uh, no, not at that point. But so uh just again through teaching it, and then a couple of I had really good professors in college that did a good job teaching us how to teach some of these things. And so that with soccer, that's kind of how I fell into that. And then again, I guess the people I was working with saw that I knew what I was talking about, and I could learn how to coach it a little bit more as well. So that's I mean, I was not the head coach of those sports, and I was learning from somebody else that was kind of forehands of me, which is so.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Well, and then I think that's the key is the learn. And you know, my my hypothesis is that there are potential, there are a lot of potential flag coaches out there on the sideline who are saying, I I can't do this, I don't know flag. I've never played it, I've never coached it. And I want to just bring that up that uh, you know, it takes a little bit of courage to jump in and coach youth athletes and something that that you were not well versed in at the time. But if you have that willingness to learn and you're doing it because you want to, you know, you know you have something to give to these young athletes, get after it and do it. And so coaches out there, there's no reason to sit in the sideline if you're needed as a coach, is what I say.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

And yeah, it's a big commitment and everything. But yeah, I mean, it's it's it's definitely something if you, especially now with the things that uh that Jake has done, like with the coaches clinic and everything last week. I mean, like like there's people out there and there's resources if you're if you're uncomfortable with it, you can definitely tap into it to learn and get better, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, and so I just wanted to point that out that you know that this is it's it's not a new a new phenomenon where a sport becomes sanctioned and starts to grow the way it is and it needs coaches. It doesn't matter if you've never coached before, jump into it. You you will they will find a role for you on a coaching staff uh and you'll learn. And I think that's just something important to to call out. So tell me about the the the start of the uh the Alatuna flag program. What did that look like? How did it come about, and how did you get involved in it?

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Well, and like you said, I've I did I teach it at the middle school, I think actually put me in a unique position with where we started because uh a lot of the girls for the first year or so, I had already they had already had me as a teacher. We did flag football in school, they had fun with it, and they and they kind of knew the relationship with me, and they felt comfortable stepping out into something new because they knew the face that was going to be starting it. So I was in a unique position to get it going there. But I mean, those those that first year in 2020, like more wearing masks on the sidelines and everything else was definitely an experience. But I think we had we started the year with 17 players that year. And um, it was a lot of hey, this is come out, let's try it, it's great. And I was very reliant on softball players at that point, and so until the softball team was knocked out of the playoffs, I think we were practicing with nine girls or something like that. It was it was definitely less than 10. Uh, we could barely run a full offense, like just to put plays together, stuff like that. So um it and like I said, it was good that those girls knew me, trusted me, and so it helped uh to kind of get it going. And we actually were really successful. I I didn't really know what to expect. Like when we first started out, we ended up making the semifinals that year, um, in that very first year. And it was one of those that I was learning every step along the way with it. Uh, and it's I kind of like I had some really good athletes too. Uh, we that first couple years, and it's like I wish I could go back now with what I know and and re-coach some of those kids because I mean we would have some pretty good teams, uh, knowing what I know now. But uh yeah, I was learning, but it's um just one of those that, like, yeah, we we I I had the right players, and it just kind of like I said, as much as they were learning, I had a base of understanding like what this is what I wanted to do, this is how I kind of want to go about it. But then as you learn how to coach girls, especially in football and understanding their background knowledge versus what possibly the boys might have had coming in. Um it and so yeah, but we we were good. We couldn't even like I think we had a couple injuries happen and we couldn't even scrimmage each other going into that semifinal game because we didn't have enough bodies that were healthy to do it. So um, but it was definitely interesting, and we we built off that, and I think we had 30 the second year, and then beyond that, we've had to do tryouts every year. Uh, I think with the most one time we had as many as 75, 80 girls come out to tryouts one of those years.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

So the so you had 17 the first year was were is that who came out, or did you go and find those 17 players? How did that kind of come about? How did you get those girls out, those 17 out there?

SPEAKER_00 11:02

There most of them, let's say, of the 17, I would say that I probably knew 14 of them before the year. And so there's once they were still in middle school and we started talking, like, hey, this is gonna be a thing potentially. Like, are y'all would y'all be interested? I saw I kind of planted that seed before they even left to high school. And so um they they were kind of already interested in it, but yeah, it was it took a lot of me like begging some people like, hey, come on, try it, try it. Because you know, it was the new thing, they didn't want to get hurt to their other seasons, their club sports, and it took a little bit of trust. And then that first group did such a good job. They, for one, they had a lot of fun and they told everybody how much fun it was, and then two, uh, they performed well enough, and we got to go down and play at the Home Depot backyard, and the other girls in school started kind of seeing, okay, this is something here that maybe we want to be a part of. So um they but if without that first group really kind of trusting me and going with it, it wouldn't have jumped as quickly at Alatoona as it has. Um, because we were able to be pretty successful all the way through and had some good seasons up to this point.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

So yeah, and you kind of I guess you're kind of walking sort of a fine line there on on year one. You're talking girls to come out and play, and you want to give them a great experience to have them come back and tell their friends, uh, but you're also trying to kind of figure it out as you go.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, and so and that's the the other part of it. And that was I had me and um the other only other person in at Alatoona that stepped up to be an assistant coach was somebody that didn't have a big coaching background, and she was there and she helped me do a lot of the paperwork and get that kind of stuff done, and like that and everything, but um, neither one of us really had any background in flag. And so after we got into it a couple of years, uh one of our teachers in the building that was coaching basketball uh found out and just I had known him but didn't really know his background, and he started becoming more interested in it as well. But he played in college at um kit on the Kennesaw State club team, and he played with Zach Damirez. I don't do you know Demaris at Life University. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he played with Zach Demaris on those teams at Kennesaw State, and so he had more expertise and running offenses and everything else, and um started bringing him in a little bit more, and then that's when I really kind of like my understanding and everything of the game really kind of went to that next level. Uh because again, I I mean I knew enough to be able to put an offense together and everything else, but then he was able to help me get it to a situation where like I had kind of like little things. I was calling set plays, and yeah, like if we called a play and we get to the line of scrimmage, I didn't like it. It was hard. Like I didn't really have a good enough system at that time to adjust it to that. And so with uh Aaron Harrison, with Aaron's help, we were able to really kind of set something to where we called, like now, like we call most of our stuff line of scrimmage. We line up, we pick the formations we want, we're able to pinpoint matchups that we want to kind of look at. And that Aaron was a really big part of that process for me, and just through some of those guys that we both moved to uh mutually knew um that played flag, we kind of all started working together and just gonna like really kind of helped take us to that next level once we started adding and more coaches that kind of had more of a background in it.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Well, and you know, that's that's what the best coaches do is find people who know more than them and uh and and put them on the field, put them on the sideline. Uh that's great. So what when you when you started that that first year, which is you and one other coach, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Yes, just us two. And that's what it was for the first two years. So first two years. Yes, and then by the third year, that's when we started um branching out, and like I guess they realized we had more space, and like, and I think, and that's another thing too. Like, I mean, they were they didn't want to step on anybody's toes as new people, and they didn't like, no, listen, I'll I welcome the help. Like, you know, I'm all about that. I'm not I and that's what even that's all are girls. I remember even having that conversation. I was like, I'm not so prideful that I think I know everything where I can't bring somebody in that's gonna help make y'all better. I was like, that's what that's all I care about. It's like I want y'all to be successful. I don't care if it's because of something that I was able to create or somebody else. Like if somebody else is willing to step up and help us out, then and then the first year that Aaron came out with us is when we made the semifinals again and we lost to Milton and double overtime that time. So definitely made a big difference right away adding somebody in like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, just to just to help smooth and refine some of those nuances uh of the of the big picture game. Um what did what did your very first practice look like? How did you structure that? How did so the night before you're sitting there and you're you're going through, you know, maybe with your assistant coach and thinking about all right, what are we going to do tomorrow? What did that look like?

SPEAKER_00 16:06

The biggest thing is I wanted to make sure that these girls had some basic understanding of just football in general. So um not not quite as much as like, here's a football, this is what it looked like, but like more of like little things. So just talking about like um we started very defensive heavy very early on because I had the philosophy if we don't ever get scored on, it's really hard for us to lose. So I wanted to be very defensive heavy with our early practices, get them to understand like how important being able to like take correct angles, like the actual skill of flag pulling, like being able to close space between you and an offensive player and trying to get them comfortable playing in space. So that was more of it was like that very first practice we were. I mean, flag pulling drills, and we probably did flag pulling drills for over an hour. It's just trying to in different situations. We start out one-on-one straight on and in a space where they're trying to make a move around them and then move them to an angle. We're trying to teach how to go and take the angle, the correct angle as you close the space down and adjust them while you stay on that back hip and things like that. And so that very first practice was more of just staying as fundamental as possible without trying to overwhelm them with like all of this stuff. Like, hey, let's let's let's learn today, we're gonna learn how to pull flags, and we're gonna learn to be really good at it as and and that. And then tomorrow we'll worry about running pass routes and then we'll figure out quarterbacks and stuff that all that kind of stuff later. Because and that's where I I mean, as long as we can stop people on defense, we can figure out something on offense with as many athletes as we have. So that's kind of what my first practice was like let's let's go as fundamental on defense as possible and start with those little basic things because you had to figure out who actually could do what in what position as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

You were you knew those a lot of these players, 14 of these players. Uh, did you have sort of an idea of where they might slot in position wise, or was it just everybody get out there, we're gonna take some time and teach you the fundamentals, then we'll start kind of figuring out where these pieces go.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I mean, little things like quarterback, you kind of had an idea of you because you've seen people throw, you've seen so I had an idea of who I kind of wanted to fit in those kind of positions. But as far as everything else, I mean, you know, like receiver-wise, I mean, it's hard, it's so hard to tell what that's gonna be just from kind of just seeing it until you get them all together. And so um, yeah, and with little things like rushers, uh, like, and this is kind of that same mindset I even keep today when we're looking. So girls that are gonna rush for you, they've got to be aggressive. They can't be somebody that's gonna be like backup first kind of player. They've got to be aggressive, they've got to have some speed. They don't have to be the fastest player, but they have to have some speed. Um, but if they if they and they take good angles and that they're coachable and they understand kind of positioning around blockers, all that kind of stuff. So it takes some time to kind of figure out not just okay, you're fast and can pull flags. Well, can you do all the things I'm gonna need you to do? If you're always taking the wrong steps, wrong direction, or you're escaping backside and putting us in a bad spot, it doesn't matter how fast a reasonable flags. So yeah, so you're looking at all those kind of things and how it's all gonna fit together. And then obviously, when whenever you're putting like corners out or safeties out with linebackers, everything else, that mix. So yeah, it was always kind of tricky to figure that out, and then and and I hated it. The girl that we had starting the season out rushing that year um actually got hurt in our very first game, and I ended up having to move somebody else that I was playing at linebacker up to a rusher, and then that was uh she was a sophomore at that point in time, and then I would say that she went on to probably be one of the best rushers in the state the next three years, and she wasn't even somebody that I had starting out there. It's just kind of just kind of the way it worked together there, and so that also did a good job helping me kind of understand what I was gonna look for in those uh characteristics and those traits of those players as we moved forward because I saw what was successful with that first group who was able to do that as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yeah, so start with the fundamentals, just kind of the basics, movements, that sort of thing. At what point do you do you start to to bring in an install, either offensively or defensively, and actually talking about terminology that that might be confusing? How do you when do you start bringing that in and how do you introduce that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Well, and that's it, and so that's the thing. So and and even with and I'll even go into that with what we do now offensively, um, is terms of how we labor our receivers on the field. We try to keep it as simple as possible, just like like we have a wide receiver left, we have a wide receiver right. We have a slot left, we have a slot right. We're not getting into X, Y's and up because like we said, we they I don't I don't want to make it any more confusing for them, and so that they're able to come in right away. And that's one thing I did learn too, is that I might have tried to do a little too much on offense those first couple of years, and and they became too reliant on looking at a wristband of where they're supposed to be instead of understanding the fund, like, and okay, where I can break a route off a little bit shorter if the corner's bailing on this and things like that, and just a little and nope, I have to if it's on the if it's on the wristband, I have to run 10 yards this direction. And I like, and just to get them out of being little robots like that and more football players. So, yeah, I mean that was part of learning to do that. It took some time, like I might have done too much with that too early, tried to throw too much at them and maybe overconfuse them a little bit. So, yeah, it it definitely like I definitely learned to keep the more simple I can keep their responsibilities on any given play, normally the better the result is because they're able to just play a little bit more street.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

So yeah, play, play simple, play fast. Um so what uh how did the how did the girls how did they take all of that? They're learning a new sport, you're teaching it to them. They're kind of maybe being moved back and forth between positions as you're getting a look at it. At everybody. How are they taking that? Is it something they're jumping into? Are they, you know, they get frustrated or aggravated because they don't understand the game as well as they they might want to? Talk talk to me about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

No, I don't I think that like that was the one thing that I noticed right away, coaching girls versus coach's boy, coach boys, is that they every like I didn't have to repeat a whole bunch of stuff. Like I tell them how to do something one time in a lot of cases, and they're they're getting they're picking it up, and then you show them and like all right, hey no, you and on this, when that uh quarterback's rolling out to you and you're coming up to be the force man, make sure you're taking the angle to the outside, you're forcing them back inside instead of just running straight at them because then you're giving them that, and like you tell them one time, then like and like they do it perfect the next time. You're like, all right, I've like just little things about that, and it just translated really well. So that like they took the coaching really well, they they embraced that they were learning this from somebody new, and like I said, it I wasn't like I wasn't the biggest expert in black football in the world at the time when we first started out, but I had a pretty good understanding about like basics because that's one of those things that I think transfers from tackle really well is your learning to play in space and everything else. That's one of those, and so I had that understanding of how to coach that and teach that a little bit. And they they just they when you explained it in a way that they understood, and sometimes you say it one way, and then you have to kind of change, no, I meant like and then then but the second they got that they were willing to learn, they yeah, like they didn't really care that they didn't want, and then like you just said on the last thing, like to keep it simple and play fast. That's what I always that's one of my biggest things to say, especially on the defensive side um of the ball, is I need you to play as fast as you can and play as aggressive as you can. And if you did it wrong, I will tell you. I was like, if you sit there and question it and you you're like, do I step or no? I back up. I was like, if you're questioning what you're doing during the play, I can't really help you if I don't see you make a decision, you commit to what you're gonna do, and then I can I can fix that. And they and I that was kind of the philosophy I started with from day one with them. And like, do what you think you're supposed to do, and if it's wrong, I can coach that. Like, that's and they did a good job with that, and they were extremely coachable with it as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Uh, not not just not just in flag, but you know, in in in tackle football is make a decision now. If you're wrong, that's fine. We'll fix the wrong. Make a decision fast, just do something. I'm gonna give you the framework, but I want you to take risks with inside that framework. And I want, I want you to have the uh the ability to go and and make those decisions for yourself and not be formulaic about it, right? A lot of coaches, I'm I'm guilty of this as well. You do this, you do this, you do this, we score. But we know once that ball gets snapped, it's you know, the the battlefield has now changed. And so, uh, but I want, you know, I want I always want my athletes be willing to take risks, be willing to make fast decisions that you're not 100% on, because we can always go back and fix that.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Absolutely. Yeah. It's you that's one of those things that if you question, it gets you pulled off the field as fast as anything. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

What do you remember what your first game looked like?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Uh yes, we played McKeeturn, and Zach was coach Damares was coaching at McKeeturn at the time. And I knew that Zach knew what he was doing, and I was I like I said, had no expectation of being able to do anything. I just like, I I think we've got good athletes. I was like, I've never seen anybody else's flag football team because this is the first time we've ever done this. And I was like, but I was like, I think we have good athletes, I think we're gonna be able to match up uh pretty well, and I I do. I think we end up, I don't know, if we scored a couple of times, and I know that we shut them out. So I it was uh one of those that I was like, and then after we beat them, and I was like, okay, so I know McKeetrin's got athletes, and I know they've got a coach that knows what we're doing. I was like, maybe we have something here that night. And then uh it was, yeah, and like you said, learning a lot that very first game and uh realizing right away that scoring in the red zone was very, very hard. We were able to move the ball a little bit and got inside the red zone a few times and weren't able to, and so uh very quickly after that first night, um, was already kind of adjusting my coaching strategy because it was the first time anybody had done it, and we didn't there wasn't film on other people to watch a whole lot of and kind of make plans and everything else. So a lot of it was just coming up over the ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

So I tell you, I would I would be nervous uh just going in to the unknown like that. Um I'd I'd be really nervous, right? I don't want to, I don't want to let these girls down doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Yeah, we were nervous and but the thing was, like I said, I didn't I didn't really know how to set my expectations, um, other than like I thought we had a chance to be okay, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Interesting. So you you you didn't you weren't didn't know yet how to set those expectations. What's different now? What how how do you look at expectations for both yourself, your program, your girls?

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Well, and so that's the thing. So I as far as when I say set expectations, of I meant of like what on the field success was gonna look like. So I I did have expectations within like how we were gonna carry ourselves, how we were gonna play, we were gonna play hard, we were gonna be respectful, we weren't gonna run our mouths a whole lot, we weren't like those kind of like non-negotiables and things like that. And so I did have expectations of how we were gonna carry ourselves, but as far as expectations of what that would look like in terms of on-field success, that's what I was really not sure of at the time. But now, yeah, like you said, I mean, we still like those kind of things. And I like I said, with my toaching staff that we have, I I I'm not like I'm not gonna say very selective, but I've like, I'm not just gonna add people to our staff that if they're not gonna kind of fall in line with kind of like how we're gonna treat our players, how that we're gonna uh treat each other, how we're gonna interact, like just and carry ourselves in general. Um, that's kind of like one of those things because at the end of the day, yes, winning and everything else is great, but I mean, we're still high school coaches here, and we're trying to teach these girls be like what life is like beyond just high school. Because I mean, it's and we're still at a point now where even like professionally in flag football, like this isn't something that we're trying to make you make a living with. We're trying to teach you things that are gonna make you a successful person in life, like, and that's kind of what we do, and like we're trying to be good representatives to them as adults, is like we know how to handle ourselves and we can carry ourselves well. So that's what we're trying to just kind of show our players as well. So um, but that's kind of where it starts with our expectations. Like, we're gonna play a certain way, we're gonna carry ourselves a certain way, we're gonna practice a certain way. And then as far as that goes, we know that if our girls buy into what we're gonna do, we've got enough know-how with our coaching staff and everything else that we're going to be somewhat successful, regardless of what the other team has. Like, I mean, we execute our we execute our stuff, we're gonna be okay. If we make mistakes and we don't, then we're gonna get in some close games or lose some games that we might might not.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

You know, and that you know, the you only have control over yourself. And you don't have control, ultimately you do not have control over whether you win or lose a game. You have control over whether you do the things that put you in a place to win or lose a game, but there's so many things out there that you have zero control over. So using that as the metric or the yardstick is a little bit flawed uh because you don't have full, full control over that. Um yeah, absolutely. What so how would you how would you describe? I think you may have just done it, uh, your the the program culture. And is it are these things that you talked with your athletes about, like building that culture, and this is the way we want to act, and this is the way we want to hold ourselves, and this is the sort of the example we want to set. Is that something explicit within the culture?

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Okay, well, and that's and again, I I don't know that's more of a question like to ask my players what I'm about to say. Like, I don't know if it has anything to do with me specifically, or like, but like I said, I I I try to only have coaches out there that are gonna treat our players well, that we're gonna, and just like that's kind of like number one with me is like we're gonna treat each other well. You're might not, and I was like, you know what? I don't want y'all to like all have to be best friends on the weekend and hang out. I was like, it's good if y'all are hanging out and y'all are building that team chemistry and everything else outside of it. And we do a lot of team building stuff with that as well, and we want that to be important. I was like, but at the end of the day, whether you like each other or not, you're gonna treat each other well, and um and we want to set the example with that either, with that too. I mean, we don't want to like like these coaches, we're not gonna treat y'all poorly, we're gonna not gonna treat your parents poorly, we're not gonna interact with each other and treat each other poorly. And so I I don't know, like that's kind of what our philosophy is with that. And I and I feel like our culture, and if you ask our players from what I say, they every single one of them loves playing on our team, and and that's what I really kind of know that it's genuine, is because it's players that don't get to play a lot, it's players that they they come out to try out and they're okay as they junior or senior, knowing they're not gonna get on the field a whole lot. They still want to be a part of it, they still want to be so. I feel like we have a really good team culture. I feel like that's as that's as important as anything else to me, because that's the kind of thing that these girls are gonna take, like these memories that they're making, the fun that they're having, yes, it's cool to win. And yes, it like our the year that we played in Mercedes-Benz, that's an awesome memory for these girls. But as much as that kind of stuff plays, that stuff doesn't happen unless your culture's good. Like you're you're not winning at a high level, really, if your team is just so disjointed with that. So that's why culture is very important to me. And I think if you ask our players that they would be on board with saying that it's one of the better cultures that they play with on all their sports teams, and I'm hoping it is um with that, because I think that goes a long way with why we've been six as successful as we are.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Yeah, and I agree with you 100%. Culture, culture is the glue that holds everything together, right? The playbooks and the practice plans and the game routines, you know, that's all well and good, but something's got to hold everybody together for a common purpose. And you can't do anything without a common purpose. And whether that common purpose is let's win as many games as we can, or whether that common purpose is let's have as many girls here on this team participating as we can, whatever that is. Uh, but to me, culture is the glue that holds all that together and creates that common purpose. Um, and the best, you know, the the successful teams prioritize that, I think.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

I would agree. And that's and that's one of the things I see from other people and other coaches as well. That's kind of one of those that they the the good teams put an emphasis on that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah, and and and are intentional about it. Um, I coached linebackers at Parkview High School in uh in Lilburn last season, and the head coach over there, Adam Clack, who I think is one of the best coaches and football coaches in the entire state, you know, he says this all the time. Um you get the culture that you allow. So if you're not intentional about driving the culture, you don't know what you're gonna get. Could be good, could be bad. Uh he says that all the time, and and just being explicit about it and not not shying away from uh talking about things uh with the team that don't have anything to do with X's and O's. Yeah, absolutely. So let I want to uh kind of maybe shift gears a little bit from sort of the background and and and where Altuna started and where they are today, and really kind of get into some of the nuts and bolts of how you uh how you manage the program. So you'd mentioned um started out with one assistant and uh picked up another one in year three. Where are you at now on your coaching staff? How many you got on your staff?

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Uh last year we had four on our staff that were teachers, like high school teachers, everything. And then we have one of our former players who is going into uh teaching PE and coaching, who really kind of shadowed the program and and hoping in the next couple of years we'll be able to add in as a community coach and everything else to add her to our staff. But um, like it's so we'll go into it with four coaches again this year, and um it and they've it's one of those that they they all do a really good job um with that, and they're guys that I trust. And it's one of um since since I've added all those coaches, it's been able allowed me to kind of change my responsibilities a little bit because then like I said, now with Aaron Harrison there, we might be my offensive coordinator, and he's somebody I trust. And he's also like and we think very like, and that's another reason it's worked out, is we think very like-minded about how we like to attack defenses and everything. And we and a lot of times I'll look at him and say, hey, let's let's do this, and and there's never been any friction there with that at all, uh, with me trying to step into call a play every once in a while. But uh, but like I said, I trust him to do that, and he does a great job with it. And then this last year was the first year. So when we first got in here, and I took over and I was calling the defense and more of just kind of like game management stuff, and letting him like he'd meet with quarterbacks and receivers on the sideline while I'm calling defense or anything else. And this last year, it was more of I added somebody else to help run our defense as well, and I got to kind of take another step back and just be on uh more of the game management side where I can kind of and obviously I'm enduring games, I'm involved in everything I can be. Um as far as schematics, whatever else I need to be. If I if I don't like it, something whatever I have, but I it was important to have those guys that I trust, uh, that you kind of see things the same way, and and if they and if but also add a different perspective uh to it as well. So um I I actually gave up like uh calling offense and defense last year for the first time, and um by having those guys around me that I trust.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Was that a big adjustment for you?

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yes, and no, um, but like I said, I anytime in our relationship is so good that if I wanted something done that I was seeing, that nobody was ever upset, and nobody was ever upset for me or like in their feelings about me coming over saying, Hey, this is what I think we need to do right here. Hey, let's change this up. Or and they had no problem that they asked, like, hey, what do you think about this? Like, absolutely, let's go with that. I love that idea. And so, yes, it was a little bit, but again, I built a relationship with those guys enough to where there was enough trust there that it wasn't it didn't scare me at all after I got to that point because I trusted them enough to be able to take those roles in that. And and like I said, Aaron has more flag experience than I do, and then the guy that I was uh Centron that ran our defense last year has way more tackle experience than I did at a higher level as well. So I had no problems like leaning on these guys because they they proved themselves as they were like valuable assets there.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

So I mean so you you have uh you have an offensive coach, defensive coach, you're the head coach, and you've kind of got your toes in both of those waters. And then your fourth coach, what does the fourth coach where where does that coach fit in?

SPEAKER_00 37:30

As far and that's the and and uh coach Russell, he's more he had a baseball background. Uh, but one of the things that he that we really like with him, he's a lot of our mechanics with our quarterbacks and throwing fundamentals, and and so he's he's our what I would say is our guy that because he's teaching girls a lot of times that have no background throwing at all, especially overhand throwing, if they weren't um a softball player or anything else like that. Like, I mean, he's we're dealing with a lot of soccer girls, lacrosse girls, and things like that. So he's teaching them uh girls that we think can do that, and he's doing a great job, like I mean, being kind of our quarterback guru in terms of being able to get like the fundamentals of that, or if they got like their arm hurts because they they just threw 70 passes in one day and they've never thrown a football before that day. And wow, things that they could do to teach them how to take care of their arm and like because he works with pitchers and everything else. So um, and just one of those guys that like, I mean, he's and he is one of he played some flag in college too. So offensively, he's got ideas that he'll share uh with us, and defensively, he's he's a he does a great job of helping whatever sides on the field looking at for certain things. There will be like, hey, Russ, look at look at the corners on this place, watch what they're doing because I'm watching the rushers or things like that. So he's just another set of eyes that knows what he's doing, is a very reliable guy with that kind of stuff, and um just can kind of fit in wherever we kind of need him to do. But again, he's one of those guys that he too he loves the the girls that he's falls in line right in line with what we talk about, that he treats people well, good guy to be around, and just kind of fits in there with that and just helps part of that culture and everything with it as well. But he um doesn't he's not a coordinator on the side of the ball, but definitely definitely is invaluable to having another one out there with us.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

I I I can see how that would be huge. I mean, quarterbacks are so important in the game, and it's gotta be big, or at least give you confidence to have someone who's mechanically competent to work with your quarterbacks. I know if that were me, I would be terrified of working with quarterbacks because I'm afraid I'd blow their arm out. Um that's gotta be really big and help you sleep a little bit at night with your uh with your athletes. Um yeah, absolutely. What so let's let's let's so you got the a four-person staff. Walk me through a practice. What is what is your practice to pick a practice, either it's already happened or it's gonna happen in the future. What what what does a typical practice look like for the program?

SPEAKER_00 40:10

It's well a lot of that depends. So sometimes when we practice, we do practice in the mornings, um, just to make sure that we're doing that for field space and everything else. So if we get a morning practice, uh we typically start at 6 15. That's what time they need to be out there, we're warming up, cleats on everything, 6 15. And with high school girls, that's sometimes difficult. But they a lot of them, and I'm sure we'll we'll probably talk about the multi-sport athletes and everything in a minute, but uh a lot of them that are the multi-sport athletes that still play their club soccer or club lacrosse or whatever during our season, they love the morning practices because then they get to go home after school, they get to eat dinner, and there's no like stress getting to their afternoon, their evening practices. So um morning practice, it is starts out 615. We're we're stretching, warming up, all that kind of stuff there. And then we're getting into we have a pretty consistent warm-up that we do where we're the coaches, uh, we get them in lines and then we're we're doing the different things. We're doing like a straight on, throw, passing the ball to them. Uh, then we make them high point it, and then we're making them go both directions, catching it on the run, just to kind of warm up our hands every day and teaching fundamentals of catching. And just that's something we try to get to every single day as part of our warm-up. And then we'll break out if uh that's the other thing, all four of our coaches. A lot, they're they're also coaching other things. So sometimes we don't have them if they're at another sport or something like that. So on a day that we have all four coaches there, we do try to break out into different groups. And uh, we have so many players that play offense and defense that um we normally kind of hit offensive day versus defensive day. So if this is if it's a defensive day, we're breaking out, we'll put the rushers in one group and we're working rushers with blockers. And normally our quarterbacks will go with that group because we try to get our quarterbacks used to being able to step around a rush, using your blocker, things like that. So we find ways to work that in there, even on a defensive day. So we'll split our rushers in one group. We'll put our linebackers in one group, and we'll put our corners and safeties in another group, and we'll kind of go from there. And whatever it is that we feel like we need to work on that day, whether it's um like whatever type of coverage, passing things off as linebackers, uh being able to come up and taking angles and run support if we're playing option teams with linebackers. So things like that, whatever it is, but we'll we'll try to break out into those individual groups, um, if all four of us are there, and then we'll kind of come in together. Uh, if it's early season still, before we get into games, we're still hitting a lot of fundamentals with full team defense, talking about like angle drills, like we're we're like run, actually have an option run in one direction and having the defense flow and what the responsibilities are with that, and then going back the other way. But then as we that's kind of what we'll do in that time. And then uh as we get more into the season, we get into spit specific game planning. And that time, instead of kind of going full team of just like fundamentals, we'll do full team of like walk through what the other team does. This is what they do, and like walk through some of their plays, some of their things that they're doing. And then um, after that, we'll go into a scrimmage time with that at each practice. So that's typically kind of how each practice looks. We try to do our warm-up, get into some kind of individual group time with that, and then come together with a little bit of team, either fundamental drills, full team, like we said early season, or more specific to game plan later in the season, and then kind of scrimmage a little bit. We do try to scrimmage most practices. I mean, that's live reps, live reps, yeah, as many as you can get, is one of those biggest things.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Yeah, so and you know, all that sounds All well and and logical the way you you break out that practice on the scrimmage part, I gotta think. I mean, how often do you have a full squad for scrimmage and and how do you deal with that with not having a full squad?

SPEAKER_00 44:14

Well, now we do because we typically eat 35 to 40 players between our varsity and JV. And since it's we only have our coaching staff, our our coaches do both. Like we coach varsity and JV. So it makes it a lot. I know there's a lot of other guys out there uh that they will have a separate JV coaching staff and guys that do that and they're not having to deal with it. Um, so it is a lot on our coaching staff, and that makes me appreciate them even more than because we schedule all those JV game nights that we go to as well as all the varsity stuff too. So we we always typically have a full, have no problem doing that uh as far as that goes. So if it's an offensive day, what we'll typically do is we'll have the the varsity first team offense running live, and then we're rotating those second team players in with them in the scrimmage. And any of our uh starting varsity players on defense that aren't on offense are the ones that we're scrimmaging against with that. And we try to fill that group as much as possible. And then uh we'll even do it where because we'll start like in midfield, like around the 15-40 yard line, and then face opposite directions. We'll have varsity team kind of in a huddle on this side, running against that on that side, and then they'll run the play that we turn around to not have it stand around the second that team's going back to the huddle. JV's already running the play on the other side. So um, that way we're getting lots of live reps for lots of girls without us because standing around is not good, and and as much as possible anyway. And so we're trying to get it running like that as much as on those days that we can where we're trying to get as many reps back and forth on both sides of the field there as we can.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

So yeah, Coach Clack up at Parkview, he calls that uh two-spot. So he said we're gonna do two spot today, we're gonna our varsity on this side, JV on this spot. They run the same thing back and forth. Um, and and he actually, I learned something uh from him last season uh that I hadn't thought of before for for whatever reason. When we were doing that two spot, uh, we always had a dedicated coach on each side of the field who was the ball spotter. And so there was no time between that ball hitting the deck and the next snap coming was probably five seconds because that coach is out there, got the ball, spots it, boom, we're ready to go. Um that that helped that got us very, very efficient. Um how do you how do you run your scout? How do you run your scout, uh, your scout team and who calls those plays and how do they call it?

SPEAKER_00 46:42

And that's and so that's one of the brilliant things with how we do our um coaching staff. I would say brilliant, but one of the ways it works out. But for us is that when I have those coordinators that are doing that, they're calling the defense and everything. Um, I kind of let them take the responsibility of running the scout against the other team, and I help, and that allows me to be the extra I so they so are Centron with defense. You're watching, even when we're doing scout team defense against our offense, you're helping coach that group because again, he's also looking at girls stepping up, making plays in those situations that he could see translating to playing for our own, running our own defense, everything else. So I let him kind of do that. I'll say, hey, this is what they're doing. Can you cycle through running these defenses against us? And then that way I'm in the huddle with Coach Harrison. I'm listening to what he's calling, and that way I'm looking at specific things, and he's watching like so. He'll watch the quarterback and their reads, and I can watch the receivers and their routes, and like so it kind of helps with that. And then uh Coach Russ will normally help the other side that I'm not helping and help sub in that as well. So that's kind of how we handle our scout with how we do that. Uh, we'll get I normally um for the um offense, we'll kind of make sure and looking at the defenses and make sure that they have that kind of set up so I know what the looks that we want to see against it. Uh, I mean, you you've seen this too with flag. It's sure I'm sure at this point, there's only so many looks you can do defensively. There's not so and that's why we try to always prepare for one of the unexpected things, or if I look at their personnel, like this is what I would do if I had that personnel because they might make that switch on us and just try to make sure that we're prepared for it, and they're not going to do anything that we're not really expecting. So um I handle that. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

I like that approach. That that uh let me take a look at their all uh at their side of the ball. And what would I do if I had those athletes? And if they're not doing that, maybe I should have that in the back of my head.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

Yeah, so that's um as far as defense goes, though, um scouting the other teams' offense, Centron did a great job with getting in film, and he he knew how to coming from football, he knew how to use all the huddle tools a lot better than I did. So he could build all that stuff and huddle and he'd have it printed out, and he'd even make the reports for all of us of like this is their formation, they do it this percentage of the time. So yeah, he and this when they're in this formation, this plays the most so Centron took the lead on that one, especially. And so um, I kind of would just help out and kind of look and make sure that the offense kind of runs, but then Coach Harrison would run their offense against it. And if they had quarterbacks or whatever, they could do things that our quarterbacks didn't normally do. Harrison would kind of run the quarterback for the scout team in that situation.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

So are your are the are your players in Huddle? Are they they use Huddle?

SPEAKER_00 49:40

They do use Huddle. They um uh and that's that's one of those things. I wish that they we don't we don't set a set expectation of you should watch this much film a week, but but we can definitely see the ones that are watching it, the ones that are in it, and um and we try to tell the others like this is making a difference, like we see who's doing it, and when they come to practice, they're they're looking more prepared. This is one of those advantages you can give yourself for sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

And I think, and I know this is this is true on the on the boy spot side, especially sort of on the the the younger uh players, so like maybe eighth grade freshman level, a lot of times they don't know how to watch film or they don't know how to use the huddle tool. And so, you know, we have to actually teach them this is what you're not watching it like you're watching a game on Saturday afternoon. This is what you're watching for, and this is how you're watching it. Um I found that just doing that, just having a 20, 30 minute session with the with uh a bunch of players and showing them how I, as a coach, watch film uh translated down the road and and them becoming more um apt to watch it uh themselves.

SPEAKER_00 50:52

Oh yeah, that's and that's early in the season. We definitely have to do that. And that's one of those things that having those upperclassmen that have done it for a couple of years, they they typically are the ones that will watch more film on their own because they've gotten used to it and they know what they're looking for. So, yeah, that is one of those things early in the season. We tried to do that. Like you just remember, we're not watching a movie. This is an entertainment, this is we're trying to get better. We're not wasting our time doing this. Like, we're and so yes, I I agree 100% that yeah, you have you definitely have to teach them how to watch film. It's yeah, that's that's another coaching aspect of that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 51:29

Which is something I actually I would I would love, I want to do an episode um with and and have a couple coaches come on and and show us how you watch film. Uh, because again, back to my hypothesis that there are a lot of potential coaches out there who you know are maybe a little bit hesitant to get in. If we give them those tools and give them some confidence, maybe they will they'll go and and pick up the whistle. So uh I'd love to do that. Um so what about so on that sort of um talking about film and and that sort of thing, what is your what is your game prep look like? So, you know, throughout the week or or before a game, how are you how are you diagnosing the other team? Who has you know those responsibilities? What do you do with that information? How do you put it into play? Uh, how do you leave leading up to game day, what does the prep look like?

SPEAKER_00 52:17

Uh so if it's somebody that we've seen before, we kind of know what to expect. Um we go back, we look a lot of our old film against them to kind of see what they did against us in the past. So that's one of those. Uh otherwise, we're trying, I mean, with Huddle, that's one of the great things about Huddle is that it's so easy to share film on other people. So you're you're out there, you're trading films, you're trying to get everything you can about other people. Uh, you're you're looking for it on NFHS network and everything else that's out there. Yeah. Uh, if there's not, yeah. I mean, you we try to find the the little things like that. And then uh as we're getting into it, you kind of just uh start drawing up what the other teams are running, things like that from my perspective. Uh, looking when we're preparing for other people, things like that. It's um you're going through as much film as you can find, and you're trying to get it in huddle, and you try to make notes about it to kind of tell those girls what like this is what I want you to watch this play. This is something that like your position on the field specifically. This is something that you need to be looking for when this girl lines up in this spot. So uh we're trying to go through it enough in advance to where we're trying to give them that stuff with enough time to practice and lead up to it. Um, with our season the way that it is, though, a lot of that stuff has to happen in like a 24-hour period as well, to where you're trying to prepare because there's so much turnaround time between games, and it's from processing the end of our game, watching our own film, and being able to kind of look at what we did versus trying to like move right into that next game. There's a lot that goes into that with those quick turnarounds sometimes. So uh it's it's it it can sometimes mean that I spend uh a whole a lot of one night watching it in the early morning the next morning trying to get it ready for the next day, kind of stuff. And sometimes it means that we don't even have a chance to really show film on somebody else to our players until you're talking about like game day process preparing, like like pre-game meal. Well, it's one of those times that hey, we didn't have time to actually run through this last night. I didn't get my hands on this. So during our pregame meal, sometimes we'll throw film up there of like this is what we were talking about. This is like reiterating kind of the things that we were looking at.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

So um but you have with our schedule being the practice plan, right? You you had like as you're practicing between games, you as the as the coach, you have an idea of of what the game planning tells you you need to be working on, but maybe maybe you just don't have uh the the time in that space to to share that completely the way you'd love to, right?

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, like if it's not time, if we don't have time to actually get together to watch the film on it, we'll definitely work it into game planning. And like we said, like I mean, once you get to a certain point in the year, um yeah, you can relate it back to a lot of previous game plans because you're gonna play teams that have similar styles to something that you've already seen. And so you can kind of say, hey, do you remember when we played this team? This this is what we did against them, and your responsibilities against them. So like you just kind of go back and you just kind of brush up on what you did to kind of like just reiterate like this is similar to what we saw here kind of thing. It's just gonna be the athletes are a little bit different, but in terms of the plays that they're running things, they're just so it gets like that. And it's very rare that you get to um a point where you're finding teams that are doing something completely different, and if they and if you are, yes, you obviously you dedicate some practice time to it and try to show that on film to them as well.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

So yeah, so then I guess it comes down to you preparing for athletes that that you're gonna face. Um and that that that probably takes on some out outsized importance then.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

Oh, yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 56:06

In the in the region that you guys play in, are there s or uh is there anybody anybody on the teams that you play that that has a truly scary player?

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Well, that's I don't I mean if you go back to look at our schedule last year, I try to be very intentional about non-region schedules, everything else. I want to play the best teams in the state out there. That's what I want to do. And then go back to like even Milton last year. Milton had the two receivers that were just both of them just next level. And uh a couple of times, I mean, we I think we ended up losing by one score to them, whatever. But it's just like we knew they were gonna throw the ball down the field to them. We knew it just, and you can do a lot of things right sometimes, and it just doesn't matter when they have players that are like that um if they get the right matchups on us. I mean, because there's I mean, two two special players, like they had it in their receivers. Um yeah, like we played McKeeturn in the spring. We knew that they were gonna try to get the ball to their two really good receivers as well. I mean, that's little things like that. But when once we get into our region, that's one of the things that I'll give Kevin Oak a lot of credit for this last year, is that his other teams that he had uh when they won state, like even the year they beat us in the finals, we knew they had their two players. Like these are the two. They're gonna force the ball to these two and they're gonna be good. And we knew that going into it, we had to stop those. That's why I'll say Kevin this last year did such a good job at Polk is that they like they didn't have that like one dominant player looking out, and like they he did a good job coaching those girls up uh throughout the year. That they, I mean, like they all ended up being pretty solid players. And so I'll I'll give him credit. I don't know if you talk to him about that or not, if he how he feels about it, but I think he did a great job coaching them up this last year, uh, and even leaning into them for this year. I mean, I he's got his system, and I think it works well with what they're doing. And so um, as far as that goes, yeah, I mean, they they were tough this year, and they're always gonna be tough because of what they do and how efficient they get with it. Um, but even outside of that, I mean, yeah, there's some individual players out there that you're starting to see every year that um there's not there's not really any easy wins anymore. We'll just say that. There's no, yeah, there, there's enough, there's enough people out there and there's enough film out there that people have kind of gotten into and kind of see. And every every team seems to have one or two girls that can just they can go get the ball and they can play.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

So and your your your girls, your athletes, they they want that, they want to compete against that, or they they're competitive.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like, I mean, and like it it goes to and that's the thing. If you go out there and you compete with good teams, even if you're losing games and you're losing tight games, if you're competing with the best teams that are out there, I mean, I think that of our well, I think we lost four games last year. I think of our four losses, I mean, two or three of them were teams that were in the finals or that won state championships, you know. So it's it is what it is. I mean, that's what you're wanting to see, is that you can compete at that level. And if you're playing those teams and you're not playing close, well, what do we need to do? What are adjustments do we need to make to be able to get there? When you are playing close and you're you're losing, what are the one or one of the one or two things that we just need to do a little bit better to get over the hump? You know, so um it teaches you when you play good teams, it teaches you a lot about yourself, one way or the other. You're either gonna get beat bad, or you're if you win and you're winning a close game, you're like, what are you doing that you can come back on in those playoff games to rely on when things are gonna get tight?

SPEAKER_01 59:51

So yeah, learn something from it, right? I mean, that what's the saying? Losing is learning. Always tag on to that. Losing is learning, but it's also losing. Uh, but you should you should get something out of losing. I mean, there's there's value in that, and it's a great way to to uh to give you some humility. So talk to me about uh any of your players that are playing multi-sports and and how you how you handle that and how you handle their availability and their development in the flag game.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:19

Okay, that that is probably the biggest issue that we have to deal with. Um we because I mean if you're wanting to be successful, you're gonna want to have the best athletes in your school playing. And so uh working it out. We've had to deal with softball players and volleyball players that come to us late uh every year where they're not having to get it. So that's why I try to make it when we start, especially now that we get the spring practice and everything else. I try to make it them understand that's how summer is vitally important to you because a lot of the things that we're gonna put in, a lot of our install, but a lot of like those basics, especially for the new players that have never played before. Like you need to be at our summer practices if you're going to be playing uh like softball or volleyball, especially, because you're you're gonna miss a lot already coming back. And then um, and then we still try to have some meetings and stuff like in the mornings and stuff that some of them can come to and they can kind of learn everything with that as well. But um, so with with those that are in season at Alatuna, that's one of the hard things that you have to deal with softball and volleyball. And we just try to make it work the best we can. Um we just we know that they're gonna be limited with their availability until a certain point, and then we just kind of try to make it to where they don't feel like we're just adding people to the team. That's why that we go back to the culture and the team building and stuff. We want them a part of all that because we want those girls to to know them and everything when they start getting added back into the mix. As far as like our club players and everything else, that's another sticking point. And then it it's we just try to be understanding and we try to have our players work with us and just be like just communicate. That's the biggest thing that we try to do. Uh, and try to tell them it's like you just got to communicate with us on the front end of that. Like, if you've ever got to leave, practice early. Like, don't but don't tell me that at 5 30 and say, hey, coach, I gotta leave early today. Like, let's let's have the conversation ahead of time so that we can prepare for that. Like, I can't just have a mass ex innocent girls at 5 30 unexpectedly. Like, I mean, that's just one of those things. Like, and we try to work around, and I and it's tough. Um, but like I said, I don't think it's hurt our culture or anything at this point. I think a lot of our girls like the fact that we're willing to work with them on that. Oh, yeah. And that and and it doesn't, and like the ones that are there that aren't missing, I don't think that it's done anything to kind of really like damage any relationships with that or anything. So it's tough. That's the the tricky line that we have to walk right now. And I I just it is what it is. Um and just communication is the biggest part of that. They've got to be, they've got to communicate up front and they gotta know. And and yes, if I could be the hard line coach of no, you gotta be at every single thing we do, and you're gonna have to be at all the practices. You gotta, but I would end up losing players that might otherwise love the game. And especially with our underclassmen, uh, your freshmen and sophomores, I think it's really important to work with those girls. Um, because they so a lot of them end up having a blast, and we've even had it by their senior year, they don't play their club sport anymore, and they're just all in on flag. And so if if you give them that good experience early on and work with them, it it normally tends to work out for us later.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

That just seems sort of like one of the defining characteristics of this sport across the country. Of everyone I've talked to is um this is not sort of a problem for this program or a problem for that program. It's a problem for all programs across the country, uh, just from what I've seen. And so that is a characteristic of the of the of the sport. And I think that people who fight that characteristic are gonna have a harder time than people that just accept it and figure out how to work through it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:14

Well, it just and it helps. Like, and some of the leadership that we had from our seniors last year, like we had a girl that is committed to play softball at Texas AM, so very high-level players going to play SEC softball, but she loved playing flag and she wanted to be and just was just up front all the time about like, hey coach, I've got this tonight, and like, and it was good for the girls to see the the level that she played at, like, um, while she was with us, like she was locked in the time that it wasn't like she knew she was leaving early, or she knew she had to miss a practice or whatever else. But when she was with us, she was as locked in as she could be. And it was important just sitting those girls to see, like, like, yeah, she's all about this and she wants to be here and she's going at it as hard as she can. And there's no wasted breaths with her, there's no wasted energy, there's no, there's no like downtime. Like, she's she's see her, she's like if we're in film, man, she's studying film with us, she's all in on it with us. And it was good for those younger players that kind of are in that same boat of wanting, like they're still trying to play their other sports and everything else to see and have that example of man, you can do both, and there's a way to really do both. And yeah, and yeah, and she ended up having to miss a couple of our games this year and things like that because she had opportunities with USA softball and everything else. And I and I fully get that, and I want to support that as much as possible. But like, like I said, if you if if she would have been somebody that had to miss like that, and then while she's there, she's not there, and it's like, hey, hey, get back with us, and we're having to constantly do that, then that's the point where it's not really worth it to work with those kids. But when they're there and they want to be there and they're locked in when they are there, I mean, that. And it was good to have that example that for these younger players to see that as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

Yeah. And so you can make it work, but you have to make it work. So you have to actually put some effort into making a setup like this work. It can't you can't just show up like it's any other practice. If you miss three other practices, you have to do a little bit more of this practice, I think. As we finish up, um, you know, you're you're going on several years, many years. What six? This will be your sixth year coaching flag coming up. Um what are you what what advice do you have? What's your best advice for for new coaches getting into the game and how they can be the most effective with their girls as possible?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

The biggest thing, and I've seen this from other coaches and other programs, the coaches in the programs that seem to have a coach in place that cares about wanting to be good and and not just and being good doesn't mean wins losses. They they care about wanting to be good, they care about the product they're putting on the field, they're doing things the right way. If you're just if you just invest in it, and like you said, and use these resources that are out there, I've seen teams go from year one, uh they were struggling figuring it out, to year two were seriously competitive and became problems for other people, you know. So if if you're if you as a coach invest the energy the right way in it, you're gonna you're gonna have a chance to be successful. And on top of that, make it something um that the girls enjoy and that the girls have fun doing. Um, but also one other thing, like coach Russ, he's like I was talking about, he's he's our guy of wisdom. He says it, and and I took this from him. You you as a coach and you as a player, every time you show up, you have to you have to show that what you are doing has value. If what if if you can't even pretend that what you're doing is valuable, then your girls aren't gonna buy into it, your players aren't gonna buy into it at all, and it's it's not gonna be valuable. You're wasting your time. And so if you're just showing up because it's a I have to because it's the paycheck that I'm getting, and they needed somebody to coach flag, and then you're probably not gonna get a whole lot out of it because your girls aren't gonna see the value in it. So it starts with the coach. If you can find that value in every single thing that you're doing, because if it's not valuable, then why are you doing it? That's what he says. Like, if it's not valuable, then why are we here? So we're here because it's valuable, like there is meaningful things that we are doing. So just try to strive for that. Find the value in what you're doing, try to find the that like fun for the girls in it, those things that work and the things that are gonna get them to keep coming back. And then, like I said, and if you're confused, if you don't know what you're doing, find the film. Look at what look at what the other best teams out there are doing. That's what I we regularly do. The teams that are beating us, like when I'm going back and watching film, like I look at it all the time. Like, I really like what they just did there, and that's something that we've tried to incorporate. And and have conversations with those coaches. If you if you're if because I mean, dude, like the the top guys in the state, like you said, Brandon uh BT, Jake at McKeacher, Kevin at Poe. Um, like these are like guys that are like our biggest competitors and rivals that we've had, and they're all fantastic dudes. I would I hate losing to them, I hate not beating them, and I I I desperately want to be, but they are all good guys that will sit down with you and like they'll come up with a game plan with you. Like they like just reach out to these guys that are the best guys in the state um out there, and they they they really will. They they care about the sport of flag football and they care about seeing it grow, and they they definitely will sit down with you to to help make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

Well, and and I think we're extremely lucky in the state of Georgia to have that that uh the coaching dynamic that we have. There isn't a coach that I've met that hasn't been willing to pick up the phone and talk about flag anytime I wanted to talk about flag. And I'm not even I don't even coach the game right now. So the the the the connectedness of the coaches in Georgia is like something I haven't seen. Uh, and I think that that that really, I mean, you can see Georgia is is doing, you know, is is progressing the game as fast as they it possibly can. I think because of the coaching infrastructure that's here and and you guys working together and collaborating and that sort of thing, it's just that's how you that's how you put some you know jet fuel into this engine here. Um and I'm encourage you know our listeners out there in in other states, um take a look at what the Georgia coaches are doing, you know, with the Georgia Coaches Association and that collaboration. Um that's that's a really way to enhance the game all across the country. Um, but I I think it's a great point. Starts with the coaches. Uh you got to care and you got to be doing it for a reason. Um that's that's really good. So um, well, coach, I I do I want to let you get out of here. Uh I really appreciate you coming on. Um, I think this is really helpful. I got a ton of notes here of like very tangible, real things that that can be taken away. So um I know I've learned a lot, and I know that the the listeners are going to learn a ton from this as well. So I thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:14

All right. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Keep the game growing for sure.