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Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!
Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!
#112 - Years 1 & 2 coaching football at a small high school: Jeremy Fendley and Dan Douglas
Discover the secrets to transforming a high school sports team from average to exceptional with insights from two seasoned coaches. As we welcome Coach Fendley and Coach Dan Douglas to our Coaching Minds podcast, they share their unique perspectives on instilling a winning mentality in athletes, drawing from military experiences and honoring the legacy of the late Coach George Gilbert. The wisdom imparted in this episode promises to equip you with the strategies to navigate the nuances of coaching, particularly when taking the helm mid-season.
Technology can be both a blessing and a curse in the world of school athletics, and we're breaking down that duality. Hear firsthand from our guests about how they tackle the challenges of engaging the digital generation in the timeless lessons of sportsmanship and discipline. The introduction of 'pride pins' and the cultivation of character in our young athletes underscores an approach that transcends the scoreboard, focusing on the development of individuals poised to impact the world positively.
As the conversation unfolds, listen to stories of unexpected head coach appointments and the critical nature of trust in creating a cohesive team. The off-season isn't just downtime; it's a crucial period for growth and preparation. Our guests underscore the importance of professional development for coaches, as well as establishing a team identity rooted in accountability and strength. This episode isn't just about plays and drills—it's about fostering resilience and potential in every player, and in doing so, redefining the very essence of victory.
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Hey you welcome to the coaching minds podcast, your go-to resource, brought to you by mental training plan. Our mission is to empower coaches with the tools and insights to Develop the mental side of their game and their athletes, both on and off the field. We believe in deliberate planning and execution, because just hoping you're gonna be at your best when it matters the most is Simply not enough. On this show, we're gonna dive into proven strategies and techniques that high-performing athletes used to excel, whether you're on the field, the gym or leading in the boardrooms podcast is designed to help you and your athletes perform at their best. Today We've got two very special guests, and the first one you guys are gonna recognize all the way back in February of 2020. That was before COVID coach. That was wow. That was a long time ago. That seems like like another lifetime.
Speaker 1:So back in 2020, that February Season 2 episode 3 we had coach Finley on. Who was? He was talking about coaching lessons that he learned in the military and if you have not had a chance to listen to that episode, I would highly recommend you go back and listen to it. Some some real-life stuff that's incredibly powerful. And then, in October of 2022, he found out that a good friend of his, a mentor of his, what a former coach of his was, was gonna be passing away in the in the near future and got some some unfortunate Medical news. And coach Finley reached out and just asked me hey, this man, he's a Hall of Fame high school coach. He changed my life for the better and we had coach George Gilbert on the show. So, gentlemen, was was very sorry to hear about his passing. Sorry if you guys lost coach Finley. Fantastic to have you back on the show. Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me back. Always a good time to to sit down and catch up and just talk about Lessons learned and and how to bake, make myself a better coach and hopefully help someone out there along the way as well.
Speaker 1:And I'm gonna I'm gonna have you introduce coach Douglas, because I literally just met him about three minutes ago. So the the second coach that's gonna be joining us, or I guess the third coach that'll be joining us today, coach Douglas, tell us a little bit about him.
Speaker 2:So again, just as you had said is coach Gilbert, coach Douglas is is the other coach who was absolutely impacted me in my life. Coach Douglas is the one and only position coach I ever had when I played Played football. So when I started off at middle school he was becoming on as a coach, kind of transitioned every year with my class to where it it culminated with him being the defensive coordinator as we transitioned Into varsity football and then since then have just been become great friends, mentor. I've had the opportunity to coach one of his sons my first year at Clinton Central and then I've really had an opportunity to kind of mentor one of his other sons who has recently joined the military. So yeah, so coach Dan Douglas is the other coach I've been coaching 32 years, a huge, long stint, clinton Central and then is also coached at Attica High school and is also a wrestling and a softball coach Awesome and coach.
Speaker 1:Douglas, would you mind just giving us a quick fly by of some of the different stops that you've had throughout your career, just so people kind of understand where you've been coaching.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So first of all, thanks for the opportunity to be here and be a part of this. As far as my career goes, it's it's really been. The majority of my Coaching career was at Clinton Central. I I literally went from Clinton Central to Attica but I continue to coach. I coach some football in Frankfurt Not at the high school level, but I did coach some in Frankfurt during that period of time. But I've been a member of the Indiana football coaches association for for over 30 years. But all my varsity experience has been at those two high schools, both Clinton Central and Attica and Class size just for for the audience.
Speaker 1:Members maybe not from Indiana, not familiar with those names. Help us out there.
Speaker 3:So Clinton Central is a is a single-a school, and if you can imagine Clinton Central being a single-a school, attica is even smaller than that. The last year that I coached varsity football at Attica, our whole enrollment for grades nine through twelve, I believe, was a hundred and seventy nine. So that was all for freshman through Twelfth grade, and so very, very small. We were the second smallest school in the state of Indiana that still had 11 man football, and so when we say small, small school mentality, that that's really what it is.
Speaker 1:And I'm so glad you guys have joined us, because that's that's kind of exactly what I was, what I was hoping to touch on in this episode. You know we're gonna in the future we're gonna have another coach that coach Finley and I both coached with who's that, one of the larger schools in the state In Indiana, 1a is the smallest, 6a is the largest. I know in some other states like Ohio that's, that's flip-flopped. But you know, today we're gonna be, we're gonna be looking at and kind of diving into Building a program and setting up that initial program with a younger coach. Because, coach Finley, this is this is year two, but really kind of a year one and a half. Is that fair to say? As, as a head coach, help me out where we at timeline wise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm in year two of coaching, but really like this is my first year of being able to Implement the program. Like I took over like literally two days for the season started. So like I was just trying to you know. So I equate it to Like you're trying to learn how to fly a plane and then one day you're on a commercial flight and someone comes to you and says, hey, that we need you to take over the pilot just passed out. So like you're a kind of in the air and you're trying to figure out how to, how to get this thing through to the destinations safely. So, yeah, so like Calendar wise it's closer to my second year, but really like this is my first clinic season, my off season, getting to talk with my coach. It's kind of establish some of the things we want. So for me I'm really like in my mind it's year one fair enough.
Speaker 1:And so you know, as you guys are, as you guys are looking at Implementing this program, building this program, starting this program, you know you're not, you're not starting from scratch. You've got some roots, you got some foundation there in place, but there's there's some challenges that you guys are facing. Also, what are, what are some of those things that stand out in your minds at a, at a smaller school, some of the difficulties that you're having to face?
Speaker 2:Well, so, coming out of the gate, its numbers, we had 18 eligible kids when we went to the sectionals.
Speaker 2:So you know, and for me personally, coming from a A 6a school, you know I had more position players at at that school than I had on my entire roster At Clinton Central when we started. So it's, how do you increase the numbers? How do you then turn that into community buy-in? You know, how do you, how do you get quality coaches that want to come and be a part of what you're doing? So, like those are the, and then, along with that is like you can't just do your standard, we'll just come play football, you know. So, like you've got to, there's a lot of give-and-take and a lot of negotiating, not only with kids but with parents, with other programs, to try to make your vision start. Like I'm hoping now that that there's a clear vision, we have a clear mission statement, Everybody understands what we're trying to do. That that will in fact Help Help our numbers and then kind of help get this going in the right direction you know, I can add to that a little bit.
Speaker 3:You said something about you got roots in the ground, and I think what we have is we have vision, right, because what I can tell you From where I sit, being a longtime bulldog, graduated from there in high school, played there, coached there for a long time. But everybody wants to, everybody thinks that you have to fix the branches and leaves. They don't worry about the roots. And to me you have this proverbial beautiful flower and the roots dead. And so one of the reasons why I went back to Clinton Central when I was approached and told them that the only way that I would come back is if I could bring somebody with me that somebody just happened to be Coach Finley was because I know that to repair what is broken at a small school and it's not just Clinton Central, it's statewide, I'm guessing nationwide, I don't know but to repair that you've got to work on the root, and so we have started fertilizing.
Speaker 3:I think we planted the seeds during that first season together. The kids are getting to know us, the parents are getting to know us. They understand that, especially with Coach Finley. He says what he means, he means what he says, and I think that's been lost a lot in today's world, especially as an old coach who's probably on the backside of his career. But we're going to get there. But to your point, I think what we're doing is trying to reestablish those roots so that we can now start growing again.
Speaker 1:That's fair and, coach, I'd love to hear your insight too. On last episode, we were talking about some of the differences, some of the challenges, just in this climate and this culture of football. I mean looking at college football where, with all the NIL stuff, with the transfer portal, with, oh, I don't like this, this isn't comfortable for me, this isn't a good situation for me. I'm just gonna leave, I'm just gonna go somewhere else. How much change have you seen throughout the years, even in how you can coach kids? Maybe the what does this generation of kids look like compared to maybe what coach in high school football was like 32 years ago?
Speaker 3:I'm happy to answer that question with a disclaimer of it's just not good. I don't know how else to say it, and I'll just start with high school. One of the worst things that ever happened to our country and to our world is technology. Now, you cannot go forward in life without technology, and I get that. We wouldn't have had a podcast 30 years ago, right, and so there's good in all of it. But the reality is, is we become reliant on it?
Speaker 3:I see parents who rely on technology as babysitters. I see kids who become addicted to technology the same as they do substances we tell them not to put in their body, and I think it makes kids apathetic. It has made the learning environment apathetic, and so one of our greatest accomplishments ever is to be able to create technology that helps us advance as a society. But it also retracts us in a lot of other areas.
Speaker 3:And the athletes for the most part in a small school, it's probably just the same 20% of kids that are apathetic because they would rather play video games or whatever it is that they wanna do, than go play football or wrestle, or play softball or swim, whatever it may be, because they can do all of that with their hands and they never have to move a muscle within their body, whereas if you're in a 6A program and you have 5,000 kids that attend your school, it's probably the same 20%, but you don't miss them. And so technology, in my opinion, has killed the small school athletically, and you still have your kids. I mean, back in the 90s I knew Coach Finley was one of those kids that if I needed to crawl up inside of him and really get after him a little bit, I could do that. There were other kids that I couldn't have because they would have shrunk up right. So you still have to figure out who those kids are. Those kids still exist, but they're fewer and far between.
Speaker 1:And Coach Finley, I know how you feel about excuses and I know you're uninterested in them and I know you've got a mission in mind and you're going to complete that. So here we are. You've got these challenges. You've got the numbers. How do we increase the numbers? You've got we gotta raise community buy-in. You've gotta bring quality coaches into the program. You've got a learning environment and cultural environment where things are challenging. So we can either sit around and complain about it or we can take that next action step and get to work. Where do you start?
Speaker 2:Well, so the first thing we did as a staff, you know, after kind of everything happened, we sat down and it was like well, what's our vision, what's our mission statement Like, what do we want this experience to be for a Clinton Central football player? So once we established kind of what our mission was like, what we wanted it to look like, now it was consistency, like we gotta get the message out.
Speaker 1:Can I ask what that is? You mind sharing that with us?
Speaker 2:So our mission statement is we wanna make the athletes' experience to be one of the greatest of their life, while helping them achieve and understand, and to understand the potential they have and help them develop great character. Is our mission statement right? So, we want it to be a great experience and help them understand their true potential. So through that, then comes the setting of the standards. Right, and then so like. Then you just clearly and decisively, as you can, outline your standards, like your practice standards or attendance standards in classrooms. So do you remember what we did? The pride pins with Jake? Yes, sir. So I brought the pride pin to Clinton Central, you know. So just pride for us as an acronym Immutable Responsibility and Daily Effort. Right, so like. And then I tied all the same things. It was classroom attendance, practice attendance, huddle time, behavior at home, grades.
Speaker 2:So we brought all of these factors in and then, honestly, like, the start of it is is just the consistency in your message and being non-wavering. And sometimes the kids don't like your message and they are going to fight you tooth and nail. Mom and dad are gonna fight you tooth and nail, but the minute you show any type of weakness or any type of withdrawal, then it's like blood in the water. So like we've had some pretty rough conversations with some student athletes and some parents that ultimately have led to those kids and the families being successful not only on the football field but in the classroom as well, like so I guess, like where we started was just making sure that we had a clear vision and a clear mission statement and we really wanted the kids to understand that we were not there to coach football. So everybody thinks that we are there to help develop great men of character. Like we want kids that are going to go out in the world and be change makers, like they're gonna go out and they're gonna create the change that they wanna see in the world. We just happen to use football as a platform to really help generate those skill sets.
Speaker 2:So once the kids realized that we were bought in, you know, like that, like we got some great coaches the majority, well, every coach that's on the staff now, with the exception of two, played at Clinton. Central Majority of us played under George. Two coaches that are on staff played for me at Sheridan. So they played for the legendary coach, bud Wright. So you know, like you can't get much better than that when it comes to being coaches, so like they can feel the family environment right. So, like I said, we either played together, we're teammates or coached by, or so that was another thing was just to let them see that we're like we just don't have this fly by night staff, that there was some thought process into it and really developing a group of men who are gonna help guide them. Ultimately, our goal is to have success on the football field but, more importantly, like we want those guys to be able to be developed, like I said, of good men, of character.
Speaker 1:And Dan, from an assistant coach standpoint. You know you've been, you've seen a lot of head coach changes. You've been in a lot of you know those different first day meetings where the coach comes in and is gonna, you know, lay out some vision, submission things like that From your perspective, what was different or what stood out or what did you guys do really well as you were going through this process.
Speaker 3:So I believe what we're best at is we understand each other. Like we all have one vision, even though it may not have been spoken because we're all made by George Gilbert. I mean for lack of a better way to put it we know what Clinton Central Bulldog football is supposed to look like. Like we understand that and that is our vision. You know, I'm I'm lucky as an assistant coach. I've been an assistant coach my entire career, always thought that I wanted to be a head coach until I got about halfway through and then realized I'm not really head coaching material, but I'm a really good assistant coach. But I'm really lucky because I've actually been mentored by two hall of fame coaches. George Gilbert was a hall of fame football coach and Dean Brandstutter is a hall of fame wrestling coach, and I was assistant to both of them.
Speaker 3:And so when I look at Coach Finley and then I see the other members of the staff with his leadership and vision and his passion for the sport, with one common goal we're going to get to where it is that we're headed. We just got to find the soldiers that are willing to go to battle with us. And so you know we went. We will go to battle with, with who we have, but I think the longer we continue to deliver this message, the more that kids are going to understand. I think this is a real thing, like I think they are actually going to do what they said they were going to do and they'll get excited about it.
Speaker 1:Jeremy, how much of that were you able to kind of sit down, think through, deliver, you know, to the team, and how much of it was sort of just feeling like you were rushing. I mean the analogy you used was literally taken over a plane mid-flight. So I mean, talk to me about, like what was that experience? Like trying to set this up the week before, I mean right before the season starts, not just the before the season starts, not necessarily having that entire off season to outline that, Do you do you feel like you guys accomplished that throughout the season? Do you feel like you're kind of starting over now in the off season? What? What was that initial? Like that initial, I don't know month like Well, I will tell you.
Speaker 2:So it, I mean it happened really fast. Like I got a call from the athletic director and he was you know. The question was like how far are you from from the school? And I was like you mean geographically, like I mean I'm not. He's like how fast can you be in my office? I'm like I could be there in 15 minutes. He's like get here and I'm like no idea what's going on. Like, so I show up and he's like X, y and Z, because of that, you're now the head coach.
Speaker 2:So, and you got to realize, you got to remember it wasn't but a few months before that I'm an assistant coach at Westfield. No intentions of ever like like I'd always thought about being a head coach, but like I just you know the reality of it is, you know, like I dedicated my life to the military. So like a lot of guys that were transitioning into head coaching positions were guys that were my age but when it came to experience, like they had two decades on me, right, um, so like that was never. Like I had always kind of thought, you know, if I could be a defensive coordinator, um, special teams coordinator, something on a Friday night, like that would kind of be. But again, I was fortunate enough, you know, to. You know, when I first started this whole thing it was under coach Gilbert riding. Coach Douglas had their mentorship and tutelage as a player, well, and then when I kind of got back into the coaching game, it was, um, I was at West point, you know so, um, jeff Munkin, it was taken over the program. Um, so just kind of seeing, like I think some of the the things I seen there, like how he came in and was very precise with his words, how he just kind of exuded this level of confidence and it was just, hey, we boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and then just kind of got things going, um, and then, you know, then came back and coach for Isaac Sturges, who, who you were familiar with, we coached with at West field, and then went and worked for bud for a couple of years and then transitioned to working for Jake.
Speaker 2:Um, now, why is all that important? To your question? Because I have seen great head coaches. So I knew what a great head coach looked like. Now, whether or not I'll ever be able to execute, it to be determined, but I knew what right looked like, and that's what's really important in this game right, as long as, as a player, as a coach, if you know what right looks like, then you should be able to emulate that. Um. So once that happened, I called coach Douglas I'm actually, I think my first call was to coach Gilbert Um, cause, like, his next question was well, what are you going to do now? And I was like, well, I was hoping you would tell me. And then he was like well, but then I called coach. I was like hey, they did it. Um, we're official. Um.
Speaker 2:So, and then now goes into how do you take that information to the team? First of all, that this coach is no longer a part of the program. This is where we're at now. Um, because there was still kind of some uncertainty at first, kind of how everything was going to play out. Um, so, just trying to set the groundwork, but not really try to put the cart in front of the horse, because what we didn't want to do coming out of the gate was come in gang busting and then a week later some things kind of go back and then you know, and then it's awkward, and so we we tried to set the conditions of hey, this is kind of where we're at, this is where we want to be. But so then we kind of just started to decide it, like we did our, our priorities, like you know, of order right, so like what, what's the first thing we want to do, what's the second thing we want to do? And then it's like, well, how do we implement that?
Speaker 3:For me when we, when we set about doing this, I I was literally out of the country when all of this kind of went down. So I come back and it's like, oh hey, by the way, I mean, I knew before then, but it certainly seemed like that's what you were walking into. But I think that the biggest thing that we had to do was create an environment of trust with the kids. So many of these kids, um, we were the third set of coaches, third or fourth head coach anyway that some of these kids had had, um, and so when there's no continuity, there's no leadership. I don't care what it is, I don't care if it's running a school, running a business or running a household If there's no continuity, there's no leadership. And so we had to, we had to develop some continuity amongst us coaches, delivering a common message.
Speaker 3:Uh, at the leadership of of coach Finley, um, we all knew what his kind of thoughts were, um, and where he wanted this thing to go, and I felt like that. It was a work in progress from week one all the way up until, uh, week nine, um, but I also thought it was consistent and I think, by the time you got to the end of the season. Those kids trusted us. Um, and you're not always going to make everybody happy, and I get that, I don't care, that's me, it's athletics but I think for the most part the team understood that these guys have our back. They want us to be successful, not to make them look good, because they want us to feel good. And and I don't care what anybody says healing comes through winning, or winning can heal a lot of wounds, and so it kind of just started to snowball from there and and I think that consistency, the building of trust, I think, is really kind of laid the groundwork for where we're trying to go.
Speaker 1:So we've got the vision, the mission has been put in place. We've got the standards have been set. We've got the priorities of order are worked out. We're we're moving in the same direction. Coach, you were saying that Jeremy was, was leading consistently. You guys were building trust. What adversity came up through that first season, when you had, you know, you guys took over mid-flight. What were some of the, what was some of the turbulence you went through?
Speaker 2:Well. So, again coming out of the gate when we had had set the, the order of merit, if you will like. So, like we initially said, like hey, we need to streamline our offense, that was kind of like schematically anyway, like that was like the top priority. So again, the good news was, like I had been installing and working the defense since February because I had come on board to be the defense of coordinator. Okay, so the defense was set. For the most part, we had structured enough special teams to where, if we needed to, we could have, we could have executed, um, but just, we really felt as a staff that just the way the offense was implemented, the way it was installed, like it was just that there was way more confusion than there was efficiency. So, um, like we just got to sit down and by we I mean Dan and more of the offensive staff, um, and then they just kind of paired this thing down to where, like, okay, um, we can't change in totality, like we can't change a lot of the, some of the verbiage, um, some of this stuff, because like we're just too, we're too far down the hole now, right, but what can we peel off? You know, like an episode of the A team, right? So, like, we're in a bunker now and we've got all these extra parts. Now, how do you turn this into a tank? How do you turn this into something that's a functionable offense?
Speaker 2:Well, to us that seems pretty simple, because we're football guys. Well, now all these kids are like, now we're trying to dump unnecessary data. Well then it's confusion, where kids are used to, or we're trying to get used to, having four or five different calls within one offensive call. Now, it's very simple. We're simplifying it. Um, having to move some people around. You know, like we had to move our starting quarterback based off one system to tie it in, because we were weaker on the offensive line, so we needed to have some bigger body up front.
Speaker 2:So then how does that conversation go? And then you're putting a kid back there now who can move a little bit better, but maybe he's not necessarily got the arm strength, or so there's these personnel conversations that are happening to be had, and then it's not just with the athlete, it's with the parents, um, to have these conversations. Um, so initially, I think, like when we're talking football, um, I think our first hurdle that we had to get over was the offense Like. What a like. What offense did we want to run, based off of what was already installed? Um, and how can we simplify it to where we can get our kids to execute uh, efficiently on Friday nights?
Speaker 3:And the I mean the personnel part, I think was probably the biggest snow coach ever wants to have to go to a kid and say, hey, I'm going to get a kid to do that. Okay, I mean, I know you, you really want to do this, but we need you to do that. And then having those kids have to process that and then be accepting of that role that's the hardest thing for any athlete in any sport to do is to be accepting of their role unless they're the, the guy right. I mean everybody's accepting of being that guy but all of his teammates um around him, um, and being that support person Like that. Our team did a fantastic job with all of that.
Speaker 3:And then you know 18 guys going into a sectional game. Well, injury, I mean we we had our starting linebacker who got injured before week one doing a non-contact drill inside, and so here you've got a team of 20 dudes that's running around trying to play high school football on Friday night and you lose who in their mind at that time? Because they hadn't been to war yet. I mean it was like they felt like their team had just stopped because this guy's not going to be in a lineup. And fixing that mentality of next man up. That's just life, fellas, and that's what's awesome about the game of football, right? That's what we know, that, um, but a lot of these kids don't know that, and so I felt like those were the two big things personnel and being accepting of roles and determining what those were, and then dealing with injury, like any team has to.
Speaker 1:And I know it's one thing you know, as, as a coach, it's easy to say next man up. As a coach, it's easy to say, oh well, you know, just hop in there and do what the other guy was doing. From a from a teenager perspective, that's not always quite so easy. How'd you guys, how did you guys get them to a buy into some of these changes? Be believe that the team still had what it takes to be successful? I mean, how did you approach that conversation with some of those guys of either we're going to move you because it's best for the team, or, communicating to the entire team, we're still going to be okay? What was the messaging behind that?
Speaker 2:So I think, like, I think there's a little more data that you need when it comes to this, so like, we keep throwing this number 18 and 20 around. But let me tell you what that really was One senior for juniors, the rest were freshmen and sophomores. There was one point in our year we had two kids who had driver's license. So now, now you take that information and now you're, now you really see kind of what, what we're looking at, right, so like, and now we're asking kids who, by all sense of the terms, are Saturday or Monday players, to come. My starting will linebacker, six months before I put him on the varsity football field, was playing eighth grade football at Clinton Central. You know what I mean. So like, um, so that was the next, the next challenge, right? So these conversations that we're having, um, so, coach Douglas alluded to it.
Speaker 2:We, our kids, are great, right, but, but but again, I don't know if it's because we're great salesmen or if they were just looking to buy something, but, like you know, we've talked about this, you've been in education. Like, kids have a BS factor, right, like they can, they can tell when you're being sincere, not like we look. Sometimes we like to think that we're outsmarting those kids and we may be worldwide, like, like, we may have more experience, but, like, those kids are growing up in a generation where they can read individuals Right Like, more so because, like, they've got to pick up on that through a lot less social interaction. Right so, like, and I just, I think they could tell the sincerity of the staff and our goals and what we had in line for them. Um so they were very accepting. I think they trust us. They trusted us to know that that we were putting them in the best situation to be successful, but always, always, maintaining the team is the ultimate goal here is, like, what can we do to make the team better?
Speaker 2:Um, so that those conversations though that were tough sometimes, um, you know, and then just, and I felt like if we were very deliberate and very precise in, in, in talking to parents, right so, like, parents are investing in their kids and their future, and so when your son plays quarterback his whole life and you're investing in this through camps and clinics, and then you're, then he's asked by his high school football coach, after going all off season through the summer as the starting quarterback, literally one week into the season, like hey, we need to do like a complete shift with you, um, and have you now become this, this H, tight in tight, um, and here's why Um like, because we were able to articulate that vision and show him like look, this is what we're wanting to do, this is why we need, we're looking to move you instead of just saying cause we could have very easily just said Player, you're going to, you're going to play tight in no conversation.
Speaker 3:And and I think that was you treat him like men. Now, when you think about what he just said, most of these kids that we had were literally 15 years old, but you treat them like men and and I've told the kids from the beginning you leave my mother out of the conversation. You can say or tell me whatever it is you think you need to get off your chest. That's a mutual respect. But you need to understand. I'm going to say and tell you even things you don't want to hear, because our job is to make you a man of good character. Well, what do men of good character do? They tell the truth. They're honest, sometimes to a fault, Okay, and then they learn a delivery.
Speaker 3:So we brought them in, we set them down like two men in a corporate world. You may be 25 years old and have MBAs from Harvard, Doesn't matter. I'm going to tell you both exactly how this is going to work, because I'm supposed to run this company, and so you bring your players in and you treat them the same way and you try to teach them life, along with the game of football. And they were both very accepting of that and it didn't. There were certain weeks that we had to flip it back because of the game plan and so we had a lack of continuity, but we were building continuity as we did it if that makes any sense at all and they have an understanding that there are moving parts that have to move together because gears won't turn unless somebody has the teeth dug in, and that's just the way that it works, and so I felt like it was really good.
Speaker 1:So here we are. You know we're heading into off seasons, just getting up and rolling where, where, where. Next, where are we going to next? What are you doing next? What are the next priorities? What are the next steps you're taking to get ready for this next season?
Speaker 2:Well, so we clearly defined well in my mind. I clearly defined, like what we needed to do. We need to get bigger, stronger and faster. So priority one right now is getting in the weight room. Like we are, we are in the weight room three days a week Well, actually, in the weight room five days a week, but we have, we have a middle school plan and then a high school plan. So like we're our high school teams in the weight room three days a week in the morning and then our middle school two days a week, and then just relentless, relentless pressing of the goals. Right. So, like right now, like we're just accountability.
Speaker 2:So we have now got and you know you've been coaching a long time so like we, we have the right now. We have 37 on our roster If, if we can get 25 by the time we get to the season. Like we're trending in the right direction. So, but that's where we're at right now. Right now it's. I just need you to focus on getting stronger, like horse power. First, we can deal with speed If all we get is three yards and a smoke, or what's the saying? Three yards and a Cloud of dust.
Speaker 2:Cloud of dust. Yeah, so be it. Right, Like, if that's what we're gonna be known for, then by God, let's get strong and let's be known for it. Right Like we're not gonna be the spread offense and just gunsling and throw the ball everywhere. Right, Like we're gonna be just that we're gonna be a run offense. You know, and I think you said the day, if we're 80, 20, then that's probably about where we wanna be, which is what I'm very familiar with. Right, when you look at the service academies, you look at Sheridan Clinton Central. Now Westfield is a little bit different, but hey, that's okay. Right, I'm not on the offensive side of the ball, but then you know that's for the players.
Speaker 2:I've been very clear with the coaches. You know, like this is clinic season. I'm not asking you to give up every weekend, but like, if we're expecting our boys and our players to be doing everything, then we need to be getting improving as coaches. You know, Like we went over and looked at our team camp this morning and on the way back one of my assistant coaches was riding with me and he's like, are you really going to all those clinics that are on the calendar? And I was like, absolutely starting next weekend for like the next six weeks, I am Like that's my time to work on myself, Like I'm gonna go learn how to be a better coach.
Speaker 2:Like I've tracked all of these where you sit down like table talks with new head coaches. So that's absolutely what I'm gonna do, and I expect my coaches to make it to a couple clinics and work on themselves as coaches. So this is kind of coaches becoming better coaches. Like that's the priority for the staff and then for the players. It's just like I just teach your butt to be consistent and get in the weight room. Like we're gonna set the standard now and we need to get stronger.
Speaker 1:Love that, all right. Well, as we start to wrap up, one of the questions I always like asking my guests is no one what you know now. If you could go back and tell yourself something just that first year that you were starting off coaching, what would you say? And, coach Douglas, I'll start with you.
Speaker 3:I know it gets said a lot, but you don't wanna blink. As I sit and I reflect back on my career, I wish I could have told my younger self to be a little bit more consistent, pay a little bit more attention, slow down, don't put so much emphasis on wins and losses. It took me a long time, and through the tutelage of really fantastic head coaches, to understand winning takes care of itself. I mean, you will win when you're supposed to win, and if you haven't put the work in, you don't deserve to win. Coach Brandstetter, who I alluded to earlier, has told me for years that your only job is to make the team that you have that year as good as that team can be.
Speaker 3:The most challenging part of that of any coach is that might be a one and eight season, but they still may have been as good as that team can be. And so I think, as I reflect back, I wish I would have learned that at a younger age and maybe not been quite as high-strung as what I was. But I also have a lot more gray hair or less hair since then, so it's a little easier to deal with that stuff. But that's the one thing that I wish that I would have understood is it's not about winning. That's why we do it. We go and compete to win, but you don't coach to win. You coach to create men.
Speaker 2:You know, to be honest with you, I just finished my 11th year.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I to be honest with you, I don't know what I like I felt I feel like I've kind of fallen into the right place at the right time, like with everything, like just even from my assignment being assigned to West, you know, to West Point, my first coaching career back at Clinton Central Like I've had all those phenomenal head coaches that have pushed me to be the best, maybe kind of goes along with everything, like enjoy the ride, like I do know, like this is the part that they don't tell you when you become a head coach, right, so it's like I spend more time now, like I was telling him at this point in the year I've got hundreds of hours of huddle time and like just watching. You know, now I spend more time with vendors or administration, right, trying to figure out. So like, like I think if you have aspirations of being a head coach someday, I think that you enjoy the moment, right, but you really don't take advantage of that one-on-one time you get with your players because even though you have a great relationship in totality with your team like I think I've got a great relationship with my team, the personal relationships I got just being a position coach, like I'm gonna miss that just to where I could, you know, sit down with a Tyler Dijkus or a Nick Bernal or a Tanner Swindle and just know that on a Friday night like it's just me and those guys right Like me and my boys just out there. You know, now it's this huge team effort, which is great. I love it, but just kind of that micro part of the game is like something I think don't take that for granted.
Speaker 2:If you're a position coach or just coming out, like I love those initial phases of team building and those relationships you're building.
Speaker 1:Well, dan and Jeremy, thank you guys so much for joining us on the show today. It's been awesome to just get a chance to listen to you guys' story and your perspective and what you're going through. We will certainly be following along keeping an eye on the Bulldogs this year. Best of luck to you both as you head into this off season.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you Thanks for having me.
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