Coaching Management 17.10 by Momentummedia

Coaching Management VOL. XVII NO. 10

FOOTBALL ■

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POSTSEASON

EDITION

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$7.00

2009

Making Practice Perfect Strongman Competitions

By Leaps & bounDs Rebuilding a down program

Circle No. 100

Circle No. 101

CONTENTS

Coaching Management Football Edition Postseason 2009 Vol. XVII, No. 10

COVER STORY

LOCKER ROOM

Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

By Leaps & Bounds

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

New study shows hazing is widespread in high school and college sports… Coaches all a-Twitter over new way to communicate … High school rivals meet again to replay tie game from 1993 … European players making mark in college football … Coach turned sports psychologist helps the James Madison squad.

Coaches who have revived down programs say it requires getting players to believe—in themselves, their teammates, and you.

Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Strongman events don’t just give players a break from the routine of weightroom lifting. They can also help turn a group of individuals into a team.

Terry Metcalf, Renton (Wash.) High School

MENTAL TRAINING

Best Practices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Successful practices are built on focused players. Here’s how to make it happen.

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

Tough Competition

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18 29 37

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONS

ADVERTISER DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 OVERTIME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Second Chances

On the cover: Dexter McCluster helped the University of Mississippi go from 3-9 in 2007 to a top-15 ranking in 2008 under first-year Head Coach Houston Nutt. Story begins on page 18.

TEAM EQUIPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 POWER RACKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Strength TRAINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A coach recovered from cancer and a team that won only twice the year before combined to win a state title by avenging their only loss of the regular season.

Football FacilitIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 MORE PRODUCTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

COVER PHOTO: Jim Brown/US PRESSWIRE

Publisher Mark Goldberg Editor-in-Chief Eleanor Frankel Associate Editors Dennis Read, Greg Scholand Assistant Editors R.J. Anderson, Kenny Berkowitz, Abigail Funk, Kyle Garratt, Mike Phelps

Marketing Director Sheryl Shaffer Business Manager Pennie Small Administrative Assistant Sharon Barbell Special Projects Dave Wohlhueter Circulation Director Dave Dubin Circulation Manager John Callaghan

Art Director Pamela Crawford Production Director Maria Bise Assistant Production Director Jim Harper Prepress Manager Neal Betts Production Assistant Natalie Couch Ad Materials Coordinator Mike Townsend

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The Coaching Management Football edition is pub lished in November and April by MAG, Inc. and is distributed free to college and high school coaches in the United States and Canada.

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD New Study Shows Hazing’s Reach It’s easy to assume hazing is not an issue on your team— until something goes very wrong. That was the case late last year at Robertson High School in Las Vegas, N.M., when a hazing scandal allegedly involving the sodomizing of younger football players rocked the community. Two of the six players charged with assault reached plea deals earlier this year, and the other four are awaiting a trial date. Three of the team’s coaches, along with the athletic director and superintendent, faced misdemeanor charges of not reporting child abuse or neglect that were eventually dropped. While the incident at Robertson is extreme, hazing is a common athletic experience. A 2008 study—“Hazing in View: College Students at Risk,” published by University of Maine Professors Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden— found that more than 70 percent of college students had, at some point, been hazed in order to join or maintain their status on an athletic team or school club. And almost half of the college students surveyed first experienced hazing as a member of an athletic team in high school. The findings prompted Allan and Madden to send out a second round of surveys, asking the same group for more information, the results of which were released earlier this year. This time, 47 percent of respondents indicated they were hazed as a member of a high school sports team. The

statistic suggests that little has changed since the last major high school hazing study in 2000, which found 48 percent of the students surveyed were hazed. Another major finding of the Maine study is that students do not understand what constitutes hazing, which Allan and Madden defined as “any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person’s willingness to participate.” When asked whether they participated in specific activities that researchers classified as hazing, about 55 percent of students answered yes to at least one. However, when asked if they had been hazed, nine out of 10 said no. “There was a tendency to see hazing on a continuum,” Allan says. “They talked about lowlevel hazing, with students more likely to intervene only when it reached a higher level. “People ask: What’s the big deal if it’s all in good fun, it’s just some antics, and everyone has a good time?” she continues. “The problem is that it’s likely the low-level behaviors will turn into high-risk activities over time.” So what can coaches do? The consensus among experts is that prevention must involve a concerted, strategic plan. Creating an anti-hazing policy with tough consequences for being involved in an incident is a great start. But simply handing it out while holding a brief discussion doesn’t typically have lasting power. Madden suggests a preseason team meeting that allows for

SHari VIALPANDO/AP PHOTO

The hazing research study conducted by University of Maine professors Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden can be viewed at: www.hazingstudy.org.

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A recent study found that 70 percent of college students have been hazed, and almost half said they were first hazed as part of a high school athletic team. Experts suggest that organized team-building activities, including ropes courses, can satisfy the needs athletes may otherwise try to fill through hazing. discussion time. “You need to do more than give them a straight definition,” she says. “There needs to be an opportunity for an athlete to say, ‘What about this specific type of incident? Is this hazing?’” Along with discussion, role playing can be meaningful for student-athletes. “Have your players watch or act out scenarios demonstrating ways to intervene in a hazing incident,” Allan says. “High school students espe-

cially don’t understand the power dynamics and coercion involved in hazing. Role playing can bring that out.” Another prevention strategy is to schedule alternative activities for players to do together as a team. “Ropes courses or other adventure activities are great options,” Allan says. “Choose things that involve risk, challenge, and bonding, which are all needs students are trying to fill through hazing activities.”

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD One more idea is to ask team leaders to step up to the plate. “For example, all the team captains could come together to make an antihazing pledge and have their photo taken, then post it on their team Facebook pages,” Allan says. “You could even post video of student-athletes saying, ‘No, I will not participate in hazing and here’s why.’”

Jumping on the Twitter Train

The Maine study revealed that 25 percent of coaches or student organization advisors were aware of their group’s hazing behaviors. “One longtime athlete belief is that new team members must earn their place,” says Adam Goldstein, Associate Dean of Students at Florida State University. “Coaches need to take on any sign of negative traditions like that directly, or they’re continuing to support a landscape of hazing. They should point to that tradition and say, ‘That’s not okay. The only people who determine if an athlete has a spot on this team are the coaches. Your job is to support each other so you can become a better team.’”

“I thought, ‘Wait, I’m telling everybody that I’m not going to be in my house for the next week,’” he says. “So I have steered away from posting personal stuff. Instead, I use it to let people know what is going on in our football program.”

Twitter, the latest social networking craze to hit the internet, wants its users to tell the world what they are doing in 140 characters or less. David Elson, Head Coach at Western Kentucky University, was set to oblige as he and his wife prepared for a week-long trip to Phoenix. But then he stopped.

The service allows users to send and receive short mes-

sages using a computer or mobile phone. People can “follow” other users and receive their posts, called “tweets,” automatically. While Twitter is often mocked for allowing people to post about their mundane dayto-day activities, Elson is certainly not alone in finding a way to use it for the benefit of his program. Coaches, especially at high-profile Division I schools, have taken to their keyboards and phones to inform the world about their team one tweet at a time. But that wasn’t the reason Elson began tweeting. “I originally thought it would be a great way to communicate with recruits,” he says. “We certainly use it to get informa-

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Other coaches follow a similar model of using Twitter as a way to communicate with fans. “We want to reward our fans with information they may not get in other places and keep it fun,” says Tim Brewster, Head Coach at the University of Minnesota. “We take advantage of any opportunity to sell the Gophers in a very positive manner and get some thoughts out about the team, the University of Minnesota, and the Twin Cities. The biggest thing about Twitter is it’s fun. It doesn’t have to be rocket science.”

David Elson, Head Coach at Western Kentucky University, provides fans with an inside look at his program through posts on the social networking site Twitter.com. But he draws the line at divulging personal information.

In terms of recruiting, the NCAA treats Twitter contact like e-mails, so coaches can use Twitter’s direct message function to contact only recruits, rather than sending a tweet anyone can see. Still, coaches are bound by NCAA restrictions on commenting publicly about specific recruits in any medium. The University of Tennessee self-reported a secondary violation during the summer after a recruit was improperly mentioned by name on Head Coach Lane Kiffin’s Twitter page. But, as long as coaches avoid similar mis-

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AP PHOTO/GAIL BURTON

“Then I realized how many fans want updates,” Elson continues. “More than anything, it’s turned into a way to spread the word about everything positive in our program.”

Brewster rewarded followers by announcing team captains on his page, and he tries to post daily team and personal status updates, as well as university events. University of Southern California Head Coach Pete Carroll tweets every few hours to update followers on everything from music to how fired up he is for practice. Louisiana State University Head Coach Les Miles tweets before games, at halftime, and after games.

Page Cotton, Athletic Director at DePauw University, uses his own coaching experience as an example. “I didn’t address hazing for a long time when I was coaching,” says Cotton, who served as DePauw’s Head Men’s Soccer Coach for almost 40 years until 2007. “But when hazing came into the spotlight, I realized that my tradition of having the first-year players move the goals was a form of hazing. I, as the coach, was hazing our freshmen. “So from then on, everyone helped to move the goals,” he continues. “That’s a very small thing a coach can do, but addressing those little things can be helpful. Anything that singles out a group like that is hazing, and we as adults need to get that concept through our heads.”

tion to potential recruits, and it’s a great sign that a player is interested in us if he chooses to follow me on Twitter.

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD takes, they can reap Twitter’s recruiting benefits. “High school kids communicate through text messages and Twitter mimics that style,” says Dan Tudor, Head Coach at Shafter (Calif.) High School and founder of Selling for Coaches, a program that helps coaches improve recruiting and communication. “It’s great for pulling back the veil and letting these kids see who you are as a person, and that’s important to this generation. “Every program has impressive facilities, a big campus, and plays in a great conference,” he continues. “Most of the time, those things are a tie in a recruit’s mind, and they look for a tie-breaker. Coaches need to allow kids to get to know them on a personal level. That is really important to a player when he’s trying to figure out if he would enjoy playing for a coach.” But there is a fine line between connecting on a personal level and making pitches. “The only time you hear from some coaches is when they are promoting something, like a camp,” says Tudor. “Those kind of random sales messages are not helpful because there is usually nothing relevant for the recruit. It’s ineffective when it’s all about the coach and nothing about the person.” Although he uses Twitter for his business, Tudor believes high school coaches have less incentive to join Twitter because they typically have more frequent contact

Fifteen years after playing to a 7-7 tie, players from the 1993 teams at Phillipsburg (N.J.) and Easton (Pa.) high schools met again in April. Phillipsburg quarterback Keith Kullman helped his team to a 27-12 win in front of 15,000 fans in the full-contact game. with players, parents, and the community. He also says that despite the current buzz, Twitter is only the latest step in the evolution of technology. “Three years ago, we weren’t talking about web-enabled phones, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube,” says Tudor. “And three years from now there will be another new way to communicate. That’s why I encourage coaches to keep up with emerging technology, because if they don’t, it’s going to be harder and harder to reach this generation of athletes.”

Finding Them

STEVE BOYLE

To follow the coaches mentioned in this story, go to: Twitter.com/ and enter the user name after the backslash. Tim Brewster, University of Minnesota: play4brew David Elson, Western Kentucky University: coachdavidelson Dan Tudor, Shafter High School, Selling for Coaches: dantudor Pete Carroll, University of Southern California: petecarroll Les Miles, Louisianna State University: LSUcoachmiles

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Going Back In Time What if you had the chance, 15 years later, to replay a tie game against your longtime rival? Former players would reunite, train together, and suit up for a full-contact four-quarter game. Crazy as it sounds, that scenario became reality for Easton (Pa.) Area High School and Phillipsburg (N.J.) High School this past spring. As part of a marketing campaign, Gatorade created the concept of revisiting a great rivalry with a score to settle. Since Easton and Phillipsburg have been playing each other on Thanksgiving Day for more than 100 years, including a 77 tie in 1993, the two teams more than fit the bill. “Gatorade thought they would just bring these guys back, have them practice and condition a little, and then open the stadium to anybody who

wanted to watch,” Easton Athletic Director Jim Pokrivsak says. “We said, ‘Wait a minute—we sell all 15,000 tickets for our Thanksgiving Day game by August. Do you realize the number of people who will come to this game?’ We helped them realize how monumental putting this game together would be.” And it was. Easton and Phillipsburg each sold 5,000 tickets in 90 minutes a couple of weeks before the April 26 game. Lafayette College played host, as it has for the past 102 Thanksgiving Day contests, and its 15,000-seat stadium was packed. The event was particularly special for Easton Head Coach Steve Shiffert, who was in his first season as head coach at the school in 1993. “It was a pretty unique experience,” Shiffert says. “You don’t often get the chance to work with players as student-athletes and then again as adults. It was fun Coaching Management

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD to see how they’ve matured and how successful they’ve become in their lives.” Although the game, which Phillipsburg won 27-12, won’t change the official record books, players and coaches took it very seriously. Shiffert estimates the teams, made up of 30 players each, practiced about 12 times, beginning with a bonding weekend in February that included five practices. “I tried to make practice as familiar as possible,” he says. “We used the same progressions—first teaching individual skills in small groups then progressing to full-team activities.” The teams had one practice at the Philadelphia Eagles training facility, where they met Head Coach Andy Reid and running back Brian Westbrook. In addition, three times a week they did conditioning work at a local training facility, and Gatorade paid for extra insurance for the players.

RICHARD ORR SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

“My biggest concern was for the safety and well-being of the participants, because I knew they would go out there and play their hearts out and it would be a very physical game,” Shiffert says. “There’s no doubt it felt like a real game. The night before, I had butterflies, couldn’t sleep, the whole works.” During the game, Shiffert had some extra help on the sideline from NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, whose brother, Eli, roamed the Phillipsburg sideline. “I can’t say enough about how well they worked with everybody here,” Shiffert says. “Peyton blended in like he was one of the guys. He was very supportive, patting guys on the back and all that stuff. He even gave us a play or two to use.” Having the Mannings at the game is just one reason Shiffert believes Gatorade’s organization and attention to detail— combined with the passion of the citizens of Easton and Phil-

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lipsburg—made the event a success. “They didn’t cut any corners,” Shiffert says. “They had top-notch people here to work with us. We came off the practice field one day to find they had flown in the Cincinnati Bengals dietician to talk to our guys. They brought in the University of Pittsburgh head athletic trainer to talk to the teams. Our guys realized what kind of effort they were putting into it, so they figured they’d better reciprocate with an equally large effort.”

“Our experience with overseas players has been all positive,” says AIC Offensive Coordinator Dave Beaudin, who recruited Kaminski. “They’ve come here, busted their butts, and worked as hard as anybody else to be part of the team. That’s the beauty of football. You can bring in players from all different backgrounds, and

al amateur football. In the past three years at Kimball Union Academy, in Meriden, N.H., Head Coach John Lyons has coached four Germans (including Kaminiski), two Danes, and one Australian. All were initially referred by USA Football’s International Student Program (ISP), and three have since moved to the college ranks, playing for AIC,

While the game was all about reliving the past, its effects will be felt in the future. Despite 15 seasons as head coach, Shiffert says he learned a lot from the experience that he can use going forward. “We’re definitely going to change the way we warm up players for games,” he says. “We’re also going to change our stretching procedures, and I’m sure we’re going to look at hydration a little differently. It was 120 degrees on the turf that day. On our sideline, we had athletic training staff from the University of Pittsburgh, Lafayette College, and Gatorade, in addition to our own. I saw how those people approached hydration. We thought we emphasized it, but not anywhere near the way they emphasize it.”

Spanning the Globe Defensive lineman Tim Kaminski, a 6-foot 3-inch, 293-pound son of a professional body builder, started playing club football as a teenager in Keil, Germany. Kicker Marek Pryzbylek, who grew up in Olsztyn, Poland, had never even seen a football before coming to the United States on a college soccer scholarship. But by last season, both had made the team at American International College (AIC), which posted a 9-2 record and won the Northeast10 conference championship.

Marek Pryzbylek, a kicker for American International College, is one of several Europeans playing college football. Many of these athletes, including one at Pace College and one at the University of New Hampshire, first competed in the United States at the prep school level through USA Football’s International Student Program. no matter their differences, everyone works toward a common goal.” Kaminski and Pryzbylek are part of a small but growing trend of international student-athletes playing football in the U.S., spearheaded by the NFL-sponsored nonprofit USA Football, which fosters the development of youth, high school, and internation-

Pace University, and the University of New Hampshire. “We were very fortunate to get involved with USA Football,” says John Lyons, Head Coach at Kimball Union. “These kids were very different in terms of their background in football, but they were all serious about playing the game. They were very receptive to coaching, and

Coaching Management

LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD they really appreciated the opportunity to come here, get a good education, and compete at the prep school level.” Founded in 2006, ISP accepts five or six student-athletes into its program each year, who then apply for admission to a handful of participating East Coast prep schools. Those who matriculate join their prep school teams as juniors, and like high school athletes everywhere, need to adapt to new positions, playbooks, and practice schedules. But moving to a new country and living away from home means their greatest challenges lie off the field. “Coming to prep school is a big adjustment academically, and it takes a term for them to get used to the workload,” says Lyons, a former head coach at Dartmouth College and in the now-defunct NFL Europe. “When they first get here, they’re ready for preseason practices, but as soon as classes start, they need help to keep heading in the right direction.”

ski could show a different side of himself. “It was a chance for Tim to be in his element,” says Beaudin. “He took control, talked about things on the menu that we might like, and gave us a chance to see him in a different light.” With Pryzbylek already on campus to play with the soccer team, it was much easier for Beaudin to make an effective evaluation. Pryzbylek still needed to learn about the basics of the game, but proved to be a quick study. After working with him and Kaminski, Beaudin is ready to consider bringing in other athletes from overseas, even ones who’ve never played in the States. “Recruiting overseas athletes may take a little more legwork, but it’s definitely worth it,” says Beaudin. “There’s talent every-

where, and as coaches looking for ways to make our program more competitive, we need to stay open-minded.”

give him credit for playing a pivotal role in that victory. I’m totally convinced we couldn’t have done it without him.”

Trailing Appalachian State University 21-0 at halftime last season, Mickey Matthews, Head Coach at James Madison University, knew he had to do something to get his team back on track. So he turned to former Head Coach Challace McMillin to help right the ship.

McMillin is far more than a former coach brought in to offer a rousing speech. After stepping down in 1984 as head coach of the program he founded 12 years earlier, McMillin earned his doctorate in sport psychology in 1990 and taught at the school until retiring in 2003. He’s since served as a consultant in the JMU sport psychology department, working closely with the football team.

“A lot of our players were shell-shocked, because we’d never been behind like that before,” says Matthews. “I watched him walk around the locker room, meet one-on-one with student-athletes, and help them re-focus their thought processes. We came back to win that game 35-32, and I

But not everyone has a former coach turned sport psychologist on campus. And many coaches may balk at turning their players over to “shrinks.” Still, the kind of mental training sports psychologists provide can be the difference between winning and losing. Just ask Matthews.

Psychologists Help JMU Get Ahead

By the time they reach college two years later, there are fewer adjustment issues. For added social support, Beaudin directs overseas athletes to AIC’s international student organization and makes sure to touch base with them often, especially during school breaks, when their teammates are far away. “It helps to check in with them every once in a while,” says Beaudin. “And when I do, I’m sure to focus on the human side. I take a break from football to ask how they’re doing. A little personal attention can go a long way.”

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Coaching Coaching Management Management

Players from James Madison University celebrate after a come-from-behind 35-32 victory over Appalachian State University in 2008. JMU Head Coach Mickey Matthews gives much of the credit for the win to former Head Coach turned sports psychologist Challace McMillin, who works closely with the team and talked with many of the players at halftime.

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CATHY KUSHNER

Just as he does with all players, Beaudin insists on having overseas recruits spend time with their prospective teammates. But during Kaminski’s visit, Beaudin came up with a way to turn the recruiting process around, leaving his own comfort zone to eat at a German restaurant, where Kamin-

“To put it mildly, I’ve been enlightened,” says Matthews, who had never worked with sport psychologists before coming to JMU 10 years ago. “As coaches, we can reach a point with players where we’re in over our heads. We need outside help, and I discovered that sport psychologists are much better equipped than I am to deal with those problems. It’s what they’re trained to do, and I feel very fortunate to have their help.”

By the end of the first week of classes, McMillin’s studentathletes compile a calendar of tasks for the entire semester, which they update every night. Over the course of the season, he gives them mental exercises as homework to fine-tune concentration, build confidence, and monitor self-talk. “Everyone seems to understand that the mental aspect of sport is very important,” says McMillin. “But in most cases, student-athletes don’t approach it systematically. Mental training isn’t just a pep talk. It’s about setting reasonable goals, managing your time, and taking the day-to-day steps to develop the mental toughness that enables you to play your best.”

McMillin begins his work with the football team during the preseason, when he talks about concentration, time management, and goalsetting. Once the season starts, he sends weekly e-mails to the team, meets individually with players in his office, regularly attends practices and travels with the team with to road games.

n ig er s e y D La n d al o Pa du cti e ip H ith ot w Pr

The sport psychology department also has two clinical psychologists, who work with student-athletes and coaches

To help athletes avoid the stigma that some associate with seeing a psychologist, McMillin emphasizes the importance of mental training as part of performance enhancement. “Sport psychology is a very positive thing,” says McMillin. “Meeting with a sport psychologist doesn’t mean athletes are having problems. It means they’re working on their mental skills to get better at everything they do on and off the field.”

That’s why Matthews gives him free rein to work with the team however he chooses, and coming off a 10-1 regular season, Matthews is very confident in the sport psychology staff. “I’ve discovered sport psychologists have the same objectives we do,” he says. “They’re trying to help student-athletes succeed both on and off the field, and they’ve proven to be a huge asset to our program.”

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to help develop mental toughness, create a winning environment, and improve team unity, chemistry, and leadership. The department also has a liaison to the campus Counseling and Student Development Center, which provides psychology services to all JMU students.

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Q&A

Terry Metcalf

Renton (Wash.) High School

During six seasons in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Redskins, Terry Metcalf could hurt opponents in many ways. As a three-time Pro Bowler, he ran for more than 3,400 yards, caught 245 passes for nearly 2,500 yards, and was one of the top kick returners in the game. He even threw a pair of touchdown passes. Nearly 30 years after retiring from professional football, Metcalf is still making a difference on the field— only this time from the sidelines as the Head Coach at Renton (Wash.) High School, where he also serves as a member of the security staff. He arrived in 2002, after 10 years

CM: How has your NFL experience helped you as a high school coach? Metcalf: The first thing is that it helps me get through to players who start thinking they’re really good. I’ll ask them, “Have you made all-state? Have you made AllAmerican? Have you made all-pro? I’ve been there. You ain’t been there yet. I know what it takes to get there. So you need to listen to me.” I also worked with some excellent coaches in the pros—Don Coryell, Joe Gibbs, Jim Hanifan, Dan Henning, Rod Dowhower, and Ray Willsey. They always made sure we were totally prepared for every game, and I try to do the same here at Renton. If I prepare my players in every way, and they give me everything they’ve got and we still don’t win, at least we know we played our best. But if I don’t prepare them, the blame lies with me.

as an assistant at his alma mater, Franklin High School in Seattle, and two years as an assistant at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Va., where his son, NFL Pro Bowler Eric Metcalf, attended school. In the elder Metcalf’s first year at Renton, there were barely enough players to field a team. In the years since, he’s continued to raise expectations, qualifying for postseason play the last three seasons and sharing a league title in 2007. Along the way, he’s established a tradition of academics, discipline, and hard work. In this interview, Metcalf talks about sharing the lessons he learned in the NFL, teaching discipline, and using his experience as a kindergarten teacher to become a better coach.

years, dropped out of it for a while, and started again when I moved to Seattle and a friend asked me to help coach at Franklin High School. What was the hardest part of switching from playing to coaching? I’m a workaholic, and most of my players are not, so I can’t expect them to do what I would do. When I was growing up, if the coach said, “Run,” I ran. Nowadays, when I say, “Run,” they say, “Why?” They don’t understand that running isn’t punishment, it’s preparation.

Is it hard for high-level athletes to coach players who aren’t as skilled? No. Even at the highest level, there are things athletes can’t do. You have running backs who can’t catch. Does that make them bad running backs? Of course not. At every level of the game, everybody brings something different to the table. As a coach, my job is to figure out what each of my athletes can do well. Do your experiences in track and field help you coach football? Back in high school, I was a long jumper,

Did you always want to be a coach? I have to admit I wasn’t a very good student of the game when I first reached the NFL. My natural ability carried me, but I wasn’t very good at reading the defense, because I was never expected to do that in college or high school. I didn’t do very well my rookie year in St. Louis, so I made a point of becoming a diligent student to Joe Gibbs, who was my offensive backfield coach, and mastering my knowledge of the game. When I retired, I asked if there was a coaching spot on the Redskins, and there wasn’t. Instead, my son Eric and his classmates asked me to help coach their high school team, so I did. I coached for two

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With former NFL All-Pro Terry Metcalf as Head Coach, Renton (Wash.) High School has gone from having barely enough players to field a team to regularly competing for league titles and qualifying for the playoffs.

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triple jumper, and ran the first leg of the 4x100 relay, all because I had an outstanding coach. He was a technician and started me on the path of taking a very technical approach to athletics. By enhancing what I could do in track, he gave me a gift that carried over to every other sport I played.

didn’t really know anybody in the school. It helps that I work in security, so I’m always in the building talking to students and helping kids get to class. I started getting involved with athletes in other sports and holding study halls for athletes from any team, because if they’re going to remain eligible, they need to focus on academics.

This is the gang era, so I try to turn that mentality around. I tell them, “This team is the only gang we’ve got, and it’s a positive gang.” By gang, I mean a group of young men caring for one another with a single goal in mind, which is to be successful in all aspects of life. We call ourselves thugs, where T stands for trust, H for honor, U for unity, and G for guts.

I’m not going to lie: I want to win football games. But even more, I want these young men to graduate from high school. I want them to be winners as individuals, and I want them to go on to the next level and be the best at everything they do.

I don’t just say we have a football team, because we’re about more than just winning games. We’re about winning in life. That’s the kind of positive thugs we are.

“This is the gang era, so I try to turn that mentality around. I tell them, ‘This team is the only gang we’ve got, and it’s a positive gang.’” I tell my players they could be the greatest athletes in the world, but when the game is on the line and they’re feeling tired and beat down, they need proper technique to carry them through. How did you turn things around when you got to Renton? By building relationships. My first year, I

What are the biggest challenges you face at Renton? Renton is a predominantly black, lowincome school, and there are more than 50 languages spoken in our district, so have a lot of diversity. We have people of all cultures on our team, and our goal is for everyone to trust one another, treat each other with respect, and come together for a common purpose.

In 2008, Renton had a game that ended in a double forfeit after a bench-clearing brawl with 35 ejections. How did you use it as a teaching moment? I told them we can’t control what other people do, but we can control what we do. I always tell them, “Whatever you do affects other people. There’s a choice, a decision, and a consequence. So before you make your decision, think about the consequence. You can play as hard as you want, but if you don’t stay within the rules of the game, you’re going to hurt the whole team.” Some of us didn’t

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Q&A respond the correct way, and it affected the entire team. I don’t think we ever rebounded from that game. We played a couple of games well, but they were against teams we would have beaten anyway. And when it came time for the playoffs, there was doubt, insecurity, and a couple of players who weren’t able to play. That hurt us. How do you teach discipline? Discipline is not about screaming, it’s about correcting, and it starts with the little things. For example, a linebacker has to take his read step. Before he does anything else, he has to read the guard, because that’s the basis for what he’s going to do next. That’s being disciplined—taking care of the details. If he does that first thing first, then the next and the next, everything else will come into play the right way. Before coming to Renton, you spent seven years as a kindergarten teacher. How has that experience helped you as a coach? That’s a time in children’s lives when you can really swing them one way or another

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academically, and I chose to make them think they were the smartest people on the earth. I didn’t let those kids say, “I can’t do this.” That was almost like a cuss word, because I would train them to say, “Yes I can.”

my defensive coordinator to either make it work or change my mind. I’ve also learned that my philosophy has to be dictated by my personnel, and that I have to keep adapting based on the people I have around me.

Just like in sports, my goal was to get them to a point where they didn’t need me anymore. If they came to me and said, “I don’t know how to do this,” I would say, “What’s the first thing you do?” They would tell me. I’d say, “What’s the next thing you do?” They would tell me. “What’s the last thing you do?” And I’d say, “You didn’t need me at all, did you?”

What’s your next goal? I want to win the state championship. And whenever I’m ready to stop coaching, I want to leave a program that’s successful, so the next coach just keeps rolling. I want to leave a legacy that young men can apply to their lives so they can be successful no matter what they choose to do.

Just by taking them through the steps, it reinforced that they knew what they were doing. That’s how I taught in kindergarten and that’s how I teach football.

My high school coach saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself. When I was in the 10th grade he said, “I’m going to see you on TV on Sundays.” And I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, because I wasn’t looking down the road like that. But he was. He saw the big picture, just like I try to do with my athletes. I see success in each one of them. This year, my first player graduated from college. He didn’t get drafted into the NFL, but he got his degree. To me, that’s success.

What do you wish you’d known about coaching when you started? I’ve learned that coaching is not all about me. I have the vision, but I need people around me to buy into the vision, and I need to appreciate all the things they bring to the table, too. I may want to run a particular defense, but it’s up to

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One year after going winless in the SEC, Dexter McCluster and the University of Mississippi earned a top-15 national ranking in 2008 for first-year Head Coach Houston Nutt.

COVER STORY

BY LEAPS & BOUNDS Coaches who have turned programs around say it has little to do with systems and schemes and everything to do with getting players to believe— in themselves, in their teammates, and in you. BY MIKE PHELPS o say Head Coach Mike Bonavia took over a struggling program at Albert Einstein High School would be an understatement. In the 10 years prior to Bonavia’s arrival in 2006, the Kensington, Md., school managed five wins against 95 losses, including an 0-40 mark in the previous four seasons. “Back then, other schools in the area didn’t mind playing Einstein,” says Bonavia, who previously coached at Richard Montgomery High School in nearby Rockville. “A lot of teams looked right past Einstein toward the next game on their schedule.” Since taking over the program, however, Bonavia has made sure opponents

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won’t take Einstein so lightly. The Titans improved immediately upon his arrival, finishing 3-7 in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, Einstein made another leap forward, winning five games for an even .500 record, matching the program’s win total for the decade prior to Bonavia taking over. “When I was first offered the job here, I didn’t want it,” Bonavia says. “But my principal at Richard Montgomery had moved to Einstein and wanted to bring me along to rebuild the program. I resisted for a while, but he said he would give me the administrative support I needed to rebuild the program and the team’s culture, so I went for it.” The key to the transformation, Bonavia says, didn’t lie in drills, new plays, or the

Xs and Os. Turning around a program is more about attitude—on the field and off. “This team had good players, and it was competitive, but just never won,” Bonavia explains. “The difference was attitude and commitment. Those were the first things I tried to change and the areas I’m still working on.” Attitude Adjustment Bonavia arrived at Einstein in February 2006 and went straight to work changing the culture surrounding the team. The task was by no means easy, but it helped that he was enthusiastic about Mike Phelps is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management. He can be reached at: mp@MomentumMedia.com.

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COVER STORY

the job—perhaps more enthusiastic than any of the players. “The fact that I would leave the school I taught at, come down here three times a week during the winter to meet in the weightroom, and give them grade sheets showed I was willing to put in the time, and that was something they weren’t used to,” Bonavia says. “They saw I was serious about this program and realized if they weren’t going to have that same

their expectations. Coaching staff members physically checked three times a week to make sure players were in class. They also set up an off-season reading program that required team members to work with elementary school and kindergarten students. Attendance, as one might expect, was mandatory. “We put a premium on volunteerism through humility,” Land says. “Our players are required to find volunteer opportunities, and we track their progress through weekly meetings with coaches. You can’t just say you want your players to take their school work and community work seriously, you have to put some teeth in it.” The team’s off-field achievements mirrored its success on the field. In Land’s first season, Trine’s team GPA increased to 2.28, and the squad won two games. The following year, the Thunder won six times and finished with a 2.64 mark. Last year, as the team increased its GPA to 2.79, it also finished the regular season 10-0 and advanced to the NCAA Division III Playoffs. “GPA is a great indicator of personal accountability,” Land says. “It takes the same discipline to study as it does to go to football practice or lift weights.”

“The fact that I would leave the school I taught at, come down here three times a week during the winter to meet in the weightroom, and give them grade sheets showed I was willing to put in the time.” intensity and dedication, they weren’t going to be on the team. When you allow people to miss practices yet still start on Friday nights, you don’t get what you need from those guys when it comes time to play.” Shedding players who don’t fit with the new regime is difficult for any coach, but it’s often a necessary part of rebuilding. When Matt Land took over at Trine University four years ago, he inherited a program that was 2-28 the three previous seasons. Even worse, the team had a collective 2.1 GPA and there had been several negative off-field incidents. One of Land’s first steps was to clean house, and by the time spring arrived, only 29 players remained. “Ultimately, the real test is whether you are willing to get rid of good football players,” Land says. “But if a player isn’t a good person and you’re trying to get the point across that character and work ethic are important, he has to go. Sure, it was tough to start with only 29 kids, but if you fail to keep your word even once, the kids don’t think you’re serious about it and you lose them.” Land’s student-athletes quickly realized he and his staff were serious about 20

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Lead The Way Few teams in any sport can succeed without leaders, and when a football program is struggling, there is often a lack of guidance. Between the 2007 and 2008 seasons at Trine, Land and his staff instituted a program designed to teach leadership skills. Coaches divided the roster into 14 smaller teams and appointed one player to head up each group. Then, from the first day of the spring semester until the last day of preseason camp, coaches handed out and took away points for each group based on behavior. For example, if a member of a team was caught wearing a hat in the football building, they lost one point. If a player scored an ‘A’ on a test, the team received five points. “We keep track of the points, and it is the captain’s job to set a good example

and remind the other members of their responsibilities,” Land says. “On the last day of camp, the winning team gets a steak dinner, while the losing team has to dress up in shirts and ties and serve them while the remaining squads get hot dogs and hamburgers. Through this program, players are given different levels of responsibility and put in different situations.” The season prior to instituting the program, Trine lost three games by four points or less and finished 6-4. The following year, they went undefeated in the regular season. “That was the numberone reason we went from 6-4 to 10-0,” Land says. “We had four games that could have gone the other way if we didn’t have sound leadership.” Team Work Most of the recent football history at the University at Buffalo hasn’t been good. After moving to Division I in 1993, the Bulls enjoyed just one winning season before third-year Head Coach Turner Gill led them to an 8-6 mark in 2008. More importantly, the 2008 team won the Mid-American Conference title for the first time and made the squad’s first appearance in a postseason game. One of Gill’s first steps in turning around Buffalo’s fortunes was to build stronger relationships among players and coaches. Gill has each player on the Bulls’ roster stand up in front of his teammates and talk about the most influential person in their life. It’s a ritual Gill created when he arrived at Buffalo and has continued ever since. “We didn’t need to talk a lot about Xs and Os,” Gill says. “We needed to get to know each other. We had to build chemistry. The exercise allowed our players and staff to learn some deeper details about each other. If players only hear general statements about where somebody is from or what kind of area they grew up in, they automatically look at the differences. This allowed everyone to see we all have a lot in common. “The most important thing for us was to learn how to stick together as a team,” he continues. “I’m trying to teach these young men life strategies and skills so they are able to focus and not let outside people or circumstances dictate their behavior.” Houston Nutt, Head Coach at the University of Mississippi, experienced a similar phenomenon when he left CoachesNetwork.com

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Southeastern Conference rival University of Arkansas to take the reins of the Rebels last year. When Nutt arrived in Oxford, he quickly found he had inherited a group of individual players—not a team. At the end of two-a-days, Nutt did something to change that: He took the team bowling. “Nobody knew what to expect, because I didn’t tell them where we were going,” he says. “When we got off the bus at a bowling alley, a lot of the players said, ‘What are we doing here?’ But by the end of the trip, everybody was laughing and having a great time. A couple of seniors came up to me and said it was the first time they had done something together and enjoyed it. That was the start for us.” But even after the bowling trip, Ole

don’t play like it.’” The next week, the Rebels traveled to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the Florida Gators, the team that would eventually win the BCS National Championship. Ole Miss shocked the nation with a 31-30 victory. “The locker room after that game said everything,” Nutt says. “There was so much celebration and nobody cared who got the credit. Sometimes it takes a win like that to really spark a team. It brought us together.” Individualism began to show through six games into Land’s first year at Trine, when his team was still without a win. Team chemistry was hurting and players were pointing fingers, so Land decided to make each member of the team spend a day in another’s shoes. For one practice, Trine’s offensive linemen played quarterback, running back, and wide receiver. The running backs played offensive line, the defensive backs became defensive linemen, and so on. Land and his staff then led the team through an entire practice, exactly as it was scripted—including a scrimmage. “A lot of the players were very surprised and weren’t sure about what I was doing,” Land says. “The offensive linemen were excited because they never get to touch the ball. But then the scrimmage started. The running backs couldn’t block, and the linemen were getting whacked the second they touched the ball. That’s when everybody started to figure it out.” In Trine’s next game, the Thunder played Olivet College, which was undefeated in the conference at the time. Trine came away with a 21-7 victory. “That practice was the most important thing we did that first year,” Land says. “It gave the kids an understanding of what their teammates have to go through. Playing running back isn’t easy. Blocking isn’t easy. This taught them to do their own job and trust the person next to them to do his.”

“I asked the team to go play together for one game, not commit foolish penalties, hang on to the ball, and just see what happened. I told them, ‘We have a good team, but you don’t believe it and you don’t play like it.’” Miss was a long way from bowling when it really matters—January. In the Rebels’ fourth game, they dropped a 23-17 decision at home to Vanderbilt University. During the game, Ole Miss turned the ball over six times and had multiple personal foul penalties for illegal or late hits. Following the loss, Nutt sat his team down and showed them tape of six examples when all 11 players on the field played the right way, and six others when only a handful of people did the right thing, resulting in turnovers. “I asked the team to go play together for one game, not commit foolish penalties, hang on to the ball, and just see what happened,” Nutt says. “I told them, ‘We have a good team, but you don’t believe it and you 22

Coaching Management

From The Top As much as players need to believe in each other, they also need to believe in the coaching staff. For any group of

players who have become accustomed to losing, change is unlikely to come from within. Coaches have to initiate the change, but that can be hard to do when everybody is new to each other. “It takes a lot of work and genuine time with the players to gain their trust,” Nutt says. “That’s why I meet with every player one-on-one and make it a point to visit them at their dorm. It’s time consuming, but it’s important they see me away from the desk and the weightroom. They need to know they can approach me. As the old saying goes, ‘They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’” Head Coach Bill Cubit had a similar experience when he took over at Western Michigan University. One of the first things he did was schedule appointments with each player on the team to discuss their experiences in the program. In the meetings, Cubit focused on one thing: listening. “I didn’t tell them what my plan was, because I didn’t want them to simply tell me what I wanted to hear,” he says. “I asked what they thought the issues were and let them talk. After the initial meeting, I had a second meeting with each player where I outlined my vision for the program, using some of the things they had already told me. I let players have some ownership of the process, so they left the meetings knowing their vision was the same as mine.” Cubit’s initial resurrection of the Western Michigan program was aided by a trio of sound leaders, including his son, Ryan, and a pair of future NFL players, Greg Jennings and Tony Scheffler. “They were just dying to win, because they had not had a winning season since they’d been there,” Cubit says. “These guys would do anything they had to, and since they were such strong personalities, other players looked up to them.” But after going from one win to seven and playing in the International Bowl in his second season in Kalamazoo, Cubit’s Broncos finished a disappointing 5-7 in 2007. The main culprit was a lack of leadership, so during the off-season, the team regularly attended classes with the university leadership council on how to become more effective leaders. In 2008, Western Michigan won nine games for the third time in program history and its fourth bowl game—the second in Cubit’s tenure. CoachesNetwork.com

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“The kids saw that if we don’t work and don’t do the right things, we’ll lose,” Cubit says. “It’s impossible to bounce back if you don’t have leaders. During the summer, coaches aren’t around players, so somebody has to take charge. If you don’t have leaders, you’ve wasted three months.” Confidence Builders No matter how clear the vision or how strong the plan, few coaches will be able to transition a program from cellardweller to champion overnight. That’s why it’s important to set reasonable goals each season. Land’s original goal was to finish with a 5-5 record and in the top half of the conference standings. Once the team achieved that, he set the goal of winning the conference title. Now that both of those have been achieved, the next step is winning a playoff game. “If I had come in here the first year and said our goal was to go undefeated and win the conference, I would have lost all credibility,” Land says. “You have to set

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goals that are attainable and then adjust as they’re attained.” Along the way, coaches should point out achievements within their teams, even if they don’t show in the win column. Harry Miles, Head Coach at North Cobb Christian School in Kennesaw, Ga., previously served as Head Coach at Sol C. Johnson High School in Savannah, Ga., where he took a team that had lost 25 straight games and led them to a berth in the state playoffs during his second year on the job. Miles’ first season at Johnson High put his will to the test, as the Atomsmashers finished 0-10. “Throughout the season, we’d watch the film, and I’d point out plays where we hit a runner in the backfield, but missed the tackle,” he says. “We were getting to the right spots and doing the right things, but not going all the way. It was important to give players a clear path to success and let them know specifically what they needed to accomplish to get there. “At the same time, I always celebrated minor successes, no matter what they

were,” Miles continues. “If the players see that they’re succeeding at small things, it will lead to bigger successes.” By using successes as the foundation, coaches can overcome the doubts that accompany a history of losing. But doing so can be a matter of two steps forward followed by one step back. To help build on their accomplishments, Gill frequently talks to his players about visualizing success. He has coaches make DVDs of positive plays for players to watch whenever they need a little confidence boost. “When something doesn’t go right, you’ll often see a young man drop his head and be down in the dumps,” Gill says. “My job is to get that player to respond and perform to the best of his ability. You have to help get a kid to overcome the negative because they may not know how to do so themselves. Having that DVD gives him an easy way to refer back to a time he did it correctly and had great technique.” For Nutt, the best way to help players maintain confidence is simply to maintain confidence in himself. “Coaches

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have to be dealers of hope,” he says. “Players know whether you believe in them, so you need to have that look in your eyes that says you do. If you think for a moment you’re not going to be successful, they’ll pick up on that.” Maintain Success As difficult as it is to rebuild a program, many coaches agree maintaining that success is even more difficult. After taking the SEC by storm in 2008, Ole Miss began the 2009 season ranked in the Top 10 nationally. “It’s much more difficult where we are now,” Nutt says. “Last year, we were the hunter, and now other teams are looking for us. But we didn’t believe the experts last year when they picked us towards the bottom, so we can’t believe them this year either.” When Miles helped Johnson High snap its 25-game losing streak, he immediately told his team not to get too wrapped up in the win. “We preached a lot about the fact that we still had a long way to come back,” he says. “We talked

about how hard we worked to get to that point. Now we have to push even harder. Once they start winning, you want it to have a snowball effect, where they work harder and harder to make sure they keep winning.” To Gill, sustaining success is the true challenge for a coach. “When you’ve shown you can do something over a long period of time, that’s excellence, and that’s where we are now,” he says. “This is the harder thing to do, but I’d much rather be here than where we were three years ago. “After the success we had in 2008, I started asking players, ‘What are you doing more of than you did last year?’” he says. “That’s how you continue to

get better. If you’re not doing more, then you’re not handling prosperity. You’re just doing what you did last year

“Coaches have to be dealers of hope. Players know whether you believe in them, so you need to have that look in your eyes that says you do. If you think for a moment you’re not going to be successful, they’ll pick up on that.” because it was good enough last year. If each individual player—and the collective team—does more than they did last year, we’ll be in position to win another championship.” n

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MENTAL TRAINING

BEST PRACTICES AP PHOTO/TRAVIS MORISSE

Successful teams are built one practice at a time. And successful practices are built on focused players. Here’s how to make it happen.

BY BRIAN M. CAIN

very coach has his own way of doing things. Some love to focus on game strategy, and others place more importance on team cohesiveness. Some coaches are strict disciplinarians, while others like to keep their players loose. But one thing all coaches agree on is the importance of quality practice as a necessity for their team’s improvement. Whether you do a lot of drill work or concentrate more on situational scrim-

maging, every coach wants to get the most of every minute of practice. In this article, I’ll share some techniques that have been successfully used to improve the quality of practices. They are based on the latest trends in mental training and have proven effective for a variety of teams. Clearing The Water Many student-athletes arrive at practice with what I call cloudy minds. They are thinking about schoolwork, social

Brian M. Cain is a former high school football coach and athletic director. He currently runs Brian Cain Peak Performance and works with high school and college football teams across the country on developing their mental skills through peak performance and sport psychology training. He can be reached at: brian@briancain.com. CoachesNetwork.com

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MENTAL TRAINING

issues, or the latest tunes they want to download. But for the next two hours of practice you don’t want them thinking about the past or the future, just the present. How can you help them find this focus in less than two minutes? You can use a drill called “clearing the water,” which provides a visual image for quieting the mind. To start, ask athletes to shut their eyes and imagine their minds as a glass of water fresh from the tap, cloudy with air bubbles. Next, they are instructed to inhale deeply through their nose, drawing air into their belly. They then exhale slowly through the nose, imagining that with each exhale their minds become clearer and clearer, just like the glass of water does as the air bubbles disperse. This process takes just 45 seconds to two minutes and pays large dividends in improving the quality of practice. It’s a short exercise that encourages players and coaches to focus on the here and now. Player Of The Day A tool you can use to help increase motivation is the Jolly Rancher Player of the Day Award. After every practice and game, the coach stands in front of the team and announces who he feels

deserves the award (along with giving the athlete one Jolly Rancher candy). At the end-of-the-year banquet the coach tallies the number of daily awards and gives out a Jolly Rancher Player of The Year Award. The criteria for winning the award can change daily, vary periodically, or remain consistent the entire season. Possible criteria are hustle, attitude, effort, leadership, responding to adversity, or performance. It often works well to vary the criteria based on what you want to emphasize for a particular day or week. Recognizing athletes’ efforts on a daily basis is extremely important. An athlete’s season and career are really a sum of his “todays.” Using this kind of reward emphasizes that there is no factor more important in determining if we will have a successful season than the quality of practice every day. Drill Purpose Cards Do you ever watch a drill and wonder why the players don’t seem to be giving their all, or why they are not particularly focused? It may be because they don’t know the purpose of the drill. When athletes do not know the reason behind a drill, they are more apt to just go through the motions.

If you want to give your athletes the best chance to succeed, then you should place more emphasis on the process than the end result. If your athletes play well on a consistent basis, winning takes care of itself. You can’t control winning, you can only control how well you play the game. Winning is a by-product of playing well. A great way to emphasize the importance of the process is to give your athletes “Process Performance Cards” after a practice or competition. These cards get the athletes to think about how they played and what elements are within their control. They also open the door for productive communication about performance between the coach and the athlete. If a player is being too hard or too easy on himself, it will show on the cards.

Coaching Management

One way to address this problem is through “drill purpose cards.” If a practice was not going well, we would stop, hand out index cards, and give our athletes a short written quiz that asks them to identify the purpose of the drills we were doing. Sometimes, we were very surprised at their answers and realized that we needed to better communicate the whys of a drill before we explained the hows. One Tape Many coaches show their teams videos of elite athletes to provide an example of how to do something “the right way.” Why not use videotape in another way: to boost athletes’ self confidence. You can develop personal highlight tapes from practices or games that show the players having success. This gives them positive images that boost their self esteem. Many times when a player is in a slump or struggling with a certain area of their game, and you ask them to picture themselves performing well, they can’t get a clear image. But if they can look at a video of themselves performing well, they can more easily regain their earlier form. For example, let’s say a long snapper is having a hard time aiming their snaps

Here is an example of a Process Performance Card for a quarterback. If a player can grade himself highly on these questions, he is giving himself the best chance to perform successfully.

NAME:

DATE:

Please grade yourself on a scale of 1 - 10. (1 = Worst, 10 = Best.) n

How in control of your passes were you today?

How would you grade your commitment to each pass that you threw today?

How would you grade the clarity of your plan for each play?

How would you grade your leadership today?

How would you grade your awareness and recognition of the defense?

How would you rate the quality of your decisions today?

How would you rate the overall quality of your preparation today?

How would you rate your overall performance today?

FOCUS ON PROCESS CoachesNetwork.com

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on place kicks. Take video clips from when they were successful in making that snap, play those video clips over and over, and at different speeds if possible. You may want to add cue words to the video such as “follow though.” You can also add the favorite music of the athlete in the background so that they hear and see themselves in a way which gets them feeling good and excited to play. By watching themselves succeed in making

chains, put time on the clock, use situational simulation, and have rewards for the winning squad. But you can also teach athletes how to overcome adversity by “throwing in the monkeys.” There will always be adversity and unfair calls in games, and this way the players learn how to deal with them during practice. By making them fail, they can practice reacting to it. They can choose to respond by pointing fingers

Beethoven?” You can tell them, “The same way I expect you to focus when we are in double overtime and you are dog tired, when you come off the bench for the first time in the game, or when all the fans are cheering for our opponent.” Measurement Matters If you want your athletes to continually practice with high intensity, they must constantly set goals and work to

Recognizing athletes’ efforts on a daily basis is extremely important. An athlete’s season and career are really a sum of his “todays.” Using this kind of reward emphasizes that there is no factor more important in determining if we will have a successful season than the quality of practice every day. the snap, their confidence will improve and so will their chances of being able to make that play on a consistent basis. Throw In Some Monkeys There are a lot of ways to prepare athletes for the intensity of game situations. Many teams use the down and distance

and losing focus, or by coming together and succeeding in spite of the adversity. Another way to “throw in the monkeys” is to play soft or classical music during practices, which can make a person feel mellow, relaxed, or sleepy. Athletes may say, “How can you expect us to focus during practice when you play

reach those goals. Thus, a good way to encourage and monitor improvement is to measure and record their efforts during drills and exercises. An athlete’s best effort while running sprints is very subjective and instructing them to run “allout” provides zero context and minimal motivation. On the other hand, trying

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to beat a personal-best record of 5.0 seconds for a 40-yard sprint is very objective and motivating. You can measure times of agility runs, velocity of a medicine ball thrown with a radar gun, or number of plays made successfully in a row. I know what you are thinking: “How do I have the time to keep track of all that?” One solution is to have student managers and injured athletes measure and keep track of the data. Sometimes, these players and managers don’t feel

like a part of the team, especially if they don’t have that much to do. But if you place emphasis on data collection and measurement, it gives them important and tangible reasons to show up every day and be a part of the team. Give Me Twenty Having a group of athletes who give their undivided attention at all times is a coach’s dream. But it doesn’t have to be just a dream. When you feel athletes

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are not giving you their full attention, I suggest using the “20-second drill.” If you sense a lapse in focus, ask the athletes to give 20 seconds of totally undivided attention. At the word “go,” the athletes “lock in” and become consciously focused on what the coach is saying. Afterward, ask each player what he did to turn it around. Also ask them to notice how the energy level in the group changed from what it was 20 seconds ago. Then you can explain that this is what quality practice is all about: Catching yourself when you drift, and returning your focus to the present moment. Blue Angel Debrief After the U.S. Navy Blue Angel pilots fly an exhibition and entertainment show, they hold a debriefing. Spending two or three times the amount of time it took them to fly, they critique everything from the way they marched to the planes to the nuance of each aerial maneuver. And when they debrief, it is not only pilots who share their input, but also Blue Angel staff members who sit in the crowd watching the show. The Blues are wide open to criticism and constructive feedback because they know that it is the only way to improve. You can do the same thing. Ask the players, “What is one thing you learned today that can help you get better?” From that evaluation, you decide what to focus on in the next practice session. A lot of coaches review their practices, but far fewer ask for input from their athletes. Including players in practice planning gives them more ownership of the program and lets them know their opinions matter. Athletes understand that the quality of their practices determines the quality of their game performances, and they often have good ideas on what can be improved. They also may have suggestions on how to make things more fun. Mental skills training is often a large piece of the puzzle missing from a quality practice. But you don’t have to be an expert in the field to use its techniques. Try some of the above ideas, and you’ll realize that just a little attention to the mental aspect of training can go a long way to building success. n A version of this article appeared in our sister magazine, Athletic Management, as well as other sport-specific editions of Coaching Management.

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING Players at East Carolina University perform strongman exercises, such as tractor tire flipping, every Friday during their summer training cycle.

Strongman events do more than just give players a break from the routine of weightroom lifting.

Tough Competition They can also help turn a group of individuals into a team.

ECU MEDIA RELATIONS

BY KYLE GARRATT

or some people, strongman competition conjures up images of bulging-veined Europeans on late-night cable TV, lifting giant rocks onto pedestals or using a body harness to pull a car across a field. Amazing feats of strength to be sure, but not very practical for training athletes. In the college and high school settings, however, strongman competitions can take on a much different flavor. They’re a way to break the monotony of the CoachesNetwork.com

weightroom, build and measure strength, promote teamwork, and keep athletes motivated. Some programs have even used strongman events to raise money for charity and help their local communities. Whether it’s old-fashioned tire flipping and keg tossing or some creative new activity using whatever happens to be handy and heavy, strongman work can add a new dimension to your strengthtraining program. “It’s like game day every time we do it,” says Ken Mannie, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach

at Michigan State University. “It puts pressure on the players and forces them into truly competitive situations—more than weightroom sessions and scripted workouts ever could.” Strong Incentives Coaches who use strongman competitions swear by their many benefits, both Kyle Garratt is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management. He can be reached at: kg@MomentumMedia.com.

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

physical and psychological. “Our kids will tell you flat out, that even though it’s the hardest day, it’s also the most fun day,” says Mike Golden, Director of Strength and Conditioning at East Carolina University. “The athletes plan for it, work together, and strategize once we assign them to their teams. “And the physical benefits are beyond reason,” continues Golden. “To me, it’s the best way to train for football. It’s irregular lifting, which makes it closer to football movement than ordinary weight training.

It makes the body perform when it’s not in a perfect line, so tendons and joints get stronger. And just like in football, a player is forced to use his whole body.” Ben Tonon, Strength and Condi tioning Coach for wrestling and football and Assistant Football Coach at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, N.J., agrees that strongman work provides unique football-specific benefits that are hard to achieve in the weightroom. “I think it helps linemen most, because when a tire is moving every which way,

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they have to adapt their body to it like they would to an opponent, and it is extremely heavy,” he says. “With the sled pull, their bodies are at a 45-degree angle and that teaches the number-one lesson in football: Stay low. If you don’t stay low in the sled pull, the sled won’tmove. “The key is making sure every strong man exercise transfers to the game in some way,” Tonon continues. “For exam ple, the sled events help develop speed. The keg toss builds explosive strength. And the tire flip strengthens a player’s back and keeps him low.” Beyond the physical benefits, anyone who has seen a group of athletes compete in strongman events can attest to their team-building and motivational value. “You get a chance to develop leadership and all the intangibles you need on a team,” says Paul Longo, Head Football Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Cincinnati. “Players have to suck it up and perform when they’re tired. You get a good idea of how your players compete. We don’t want to wait until game day to learn whether they’re true competitors or not.” In fact, building mental toughness, competitive desire, and team chemis try are top priorities for most strength coaches who run strongman competi tions. “I care more about improving those qualities, because we can do other things for the physical side of training,” says Mickey Marotti, Director of Strength and Conditioning at the University of Florida. “I value the chemistry and camaraderie that we build doing these events as a team, because it’s rare to have that opportunity during traditional weightroom training.” Strong Structure Unlike many traditional strength and conditioning regimens, a strongman competition is a blank canvas. While there is the standard strongman fare used almost everywhere, there’s also plenty of room for creativity when designing events and structuring contests. The most common formula is an off-season program in which athletes perform strongman events as weekly training, and then end the training cycle with a one-day competition. Some pro grams make the strongman activities an ongoing competition, while others use just one competitive session as a fun way to end their off-season lifting program.

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o coach wants to lose a star player because he dropped a keg or large stone on his foot. Some front-end research and common-sense planning can help protect your players from injury in strongman competitions.

“In the five years we have held strongman events, we’ve never had a kid get hurt, but I think a lot of coaches are afraid of that,” says Ben Tonon, Strength and Conditioning Coach for wrestling and football and Assistant Football Coach at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, N.J. “We always start with the lightest weight, and we go over proper technique before each event. When we’re doing the strongman events, we’re correcting the guys’ form each week. A lot of younger athletes are immature and don’t always pay attention, so it’s smart to choose events where one wrong move won’t jeopardize their safety.” The Atlas Stones—a classic strongman event in which competitors lift a series of heavy, round stones and place them on pedestals—is usually avoided by coaches, though some simply

alter it by using safer objects such as sandbags in place of actual stones. Common sense typically eliminates anything else that involves obvious danger. Many coaches count on increased reps to ensure athletes are challenged without the need for extremely heavy weight. “We’re not giving a kid a 900-pound tire and saying, ‘Go flip it.’” says Mike Golden, Director of Strength and Conditioning at East Carolina University. “We might give him a 300-pound tire that we know he can move and say, ‘You have to flip this for five minutes.’ We want maximum effort, not maximum weight.” But nothing can replace a watchful eye. “Each one of our strongman stations is coached and supervised,” says Rick Court, who conducted strongman competitions at Bowling Green State University before becoming Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Toledo. “We go over strict guidelines as a staff and then as a team. Coaches always have the ability to end a set. If I see a guy struggling with an exercise and I deem it unsafe, I’ll stop it right away.”

STRONGMAN SAFETY

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Still other programs use the events only as a training tool and scrap the competition aspect altogether. Golden typically puts his football team through strongman events every Friday as part of the summer training cycle. The events include military presses with steel logs, sled pulls, farmer’s walks, keg tosses, and several others, including a stacking event in which athletes lift sand bags onto pedestals. At the end of the summer, he splits the players into 10 teams of 10 and each person participates in one event for points. Blackbeard’s Challenge is the final event of the day’s competition, in which one player from each squad performs a series of running and carrying exercises including a crab walk, tire flip, sled push, and agility cones course. When Mannie assigns players to teams, he mixes the groups up to increase team cohesion and build camaraderie. “Everything in football pits the offense against the defense,” he says. “This is a great way to bring offensive and defensive players together, so I make sure each group has a nice mixture of players from different positions who normally wouldn’t work together in competitive situations. I think the players gain a lot of respect for each other when they train in this fashion. “For example, defensive linemen are usually butting heads with the offensive linemen—now they’re working on the same side,” Mannie continues. “They’re encouraging each other, and they start to develop a bond. That unity factor— that oneness—permeates throughout the entire program.” Mannie uses relay events to keep the competitions fresh and challenging. He runs something called the “Junkyard Relay,” in which he builds huge end zone piles of barbells, weight plates, tackling dummies, tires, and anything else big and heavy that he can get his hands on. The athletes have to run from the opposite end zone to pick up the implements, then run them back. As the weeks pass, the piles get larger and Mannie adds extra lengths of the field to the relay. Other coaches have found their own ways to get creative with strongman work. When he was at Bowling Green State University, Rick Court, now the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Toledo, searched for CoachesNetwork.com

unique tools and objects to keep things interesting. One of his creations was a barbell with car tires that his teams use for military presses. Tonon, meanwhile, has an attachment that allows his players to push his Chevy Tahoe up an incline. “Even strongman competitions can be boring if you make them boring,” says Tonon. “That’s why we’re always looking to try new events.” A constant challenge with strongman work is making it progressive from

one session to the next. This can be achieved by adding a few twists to basic activities. “As time goes on, you might start using heavier and more awkward implements, or having athletes run farther on relays,” says Mannie. “We also piggyback the activities so the sequences get more and more difficult. We might start out with a heavy farmer’s walk the length of the field, and then a tire flip on the return. Then the athlete has to jump through the tire and sprint to the goal line.”

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

When choosing which strongman events to use, remember the ultimate purpose is to improve athletic performance. “Every year we have a new group of athletes, so we have to be flexible and alter our competition accordingly,”

field. Some programs partner with charities or open their competitions to all comers to capitalize on their popularity. A couple of years ago, the University of Florida football team worked with six charities to make its annual strongman competition into a campus rally. Each charity had a booth for dona“They’re encouraging each tions set up in the stadium, and about 1,800 fans watched players other, and they start to compete under the lights at “The develop a bond. That unity Swamp.” The effort raised $6,000. factor—that oneness— “We’d held strongman competitions before as part of our permeates throughout the training, but that year the players entire program.” wanted to do something unique,” Marotti says. “Doing it as a charity Golden says. “For example, if a team event made it special.” needs more speed, we’ll do more events The Gators split into six teams, each that focus on quick movements.” representing a charity, and donned shirts to show off their affiliation. Players Strong Showings competed in a tire flip, sled push, and Strongman competitions are often various obstacle courses. the most anticipated strength events “Our players went a lot harder with all on the calendar for athletes, and their the people in the stands and knowing they impact can extend beyond the practice were representing charities,” Marotti says.

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Tonon has even conducted a National High School Strongman Competition, open to high school athletes nationwide with as many as 50 athletes participating. “Once summer hits, all these guys think about is the competition,” Tonon says. “When a player is on stage, flipping a tire in front of 40 other kids, you’d be surprised how much he steps up.” With so many potential positives, it’s easy to see why coaches find the extra effort and planning that go into a strongman competition so worthwhile. “Our profession is 50 percent science and 50 percent art,” says Longo. “Strongman training falls into the art part of it, but it’s really just another means to an end. We’re all trying to get our guys bigger, faster, stronger, and more resistant to injury, and to have them become better at their position every year.” n A version of this article appeared in our sister magazine, Training & Conditioning. To access more articles from T&C, please visit: www.Training-Conditioning.com.

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Focus on Training After Lower-Back Injuries With Jason Gallucci, MS, SCCC, Director of Strength and Conditioning, Princeton University What is the most important consideration when training an athlete who has suffered a lower-back injury? First and foremost, it’s essential to understand the individual injury. The lower back can get hurt in several different ways, ranging from muscle strains to serious structural problems. Any time I am working with an athlete who has injured his back, I first consult with our athletic trainers and learn as much as I can about the injury and how I can tailor the athlete’s training program to work within any limitations he may have. A common back injury among football players is a herniated or bulging disc. How do you approach training an athlete after that particular injury? For athletes who are coming back from a disc problem, it’s essential to redevelop core strength and flexibility. Those two areas are usually affected quite severely by a herniated disc, and it’s important to address them because they’re essential for stabilizing practically every movement an athlete makes. Flexibility issues and the disc injury itself create a sort of chicken-or-the-egg scenario, since it’s not always clear which one caused the other. But in almost all cases, flexibility needs to improve after this type of lower-back injury. The key is finding ways to develop these areas and add resistance without re-aggravating the injury site. What specific exercises do you use to increase core strength and flexibility? For core strength, we focus on stabilization exercises, such as four-way isometric plank work. That involves the athlete holding a push-up position, side planks on both the right and left, and a back bridge. These exercises require keeping the spine in line. There’s no movement involved so there isn’t any flexion of the trunk, which helps with stabilization and keeps the athlete from experiencing pain. With a disc injury, spinal flexion essentially causes the affected discs to be pushed back out. We want to avoid that as much as possible, especially in the early stages of an athlete’s return to activity.

For flexibility, we take a comprehensive approach, hitting all the muscles that control movement in the hip and lower-back region, again being careful to avoid pulling the athlete into flexion of the trunk. Hamstring flexibility is extremely important to an athlete after a lower-back injury, so we focus on that area with hamstring stretches and other exercises that relieve tightness. Once an athlete is healthy enough for weightroom work after a disc injury, how do you help them build strength without risking re-injury? They key is to modify any activity that puts unwanted stress on the lower back. These athletes can still train hard, but we sometimes need to substitute certain activities for others to keep them safe. For example, an athlete with a previous disc injury will not perform free weight squats, free weight overhead lifts, or Olympic movements. Instead, we’ll have them do a ball squat in which we place a physio ball behind their lower back, and they squat on a very slow count—it might be an eight-count down and a four-count back up. This allows them to focus on staying nice and tall, while the physio ball (which is up against a wall) lends support to the spine. We’ll use dumbbells for resistance, and since we use such a slow count, the athlete gets a good amount of muscle firing with this movement. It’s a great way to train for strength while keeping stress off the spine. No matter what lift or exercise the athlete does, the back must always be supported. We’ll make sure they’re on a bench, in a seat, or in some other supported position. If they do something overhead, like a military press, they’ll do it seated and always on a slow count, which allows them to focus on posture and make sure they don’t break down or do anything else that will add stress to the lower back.

HAMMER STRENGTH CLINICS TAKE YOUR TEAM TO THE NEXT LEVEL Attend a power-packed two day clinic designed to improve your program.

2010 CLINICS

SEATTLE, WA

CHICAGO, IL SAN JOSE, CA

MONTCLAIR, NJ

ATLANTA, GA SAN ANTONIO, TX

MIAMI, FL

STAY INFORMED For the most up-to-date information on schedules, speakers and topics, visit www.HammerStrengthClinics.com

Circle No. 131

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONS

SECOND CHANCES BOB ZELLAR/BILLINGS GAZETTE

A coach recovered from cancer and a team that won only twice the year before combined to claim a state title by avenging their only loss of the regular season.

BY KYLE GARRATT

Coaching Management

CoachesNetwork.com

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONS Even a screenwriter penning a storybook ending couldn’t top the scene after the 2008 Montana Class A State Champ ionship. Brothers and opposing head coaches Dan and Jim Stanton shook hands at midfield after a hard fought game in which younger brother Dan’s Custer County High School team topped Billings Central Catholic High School 20-7. The author would play on the big brother-little brother dynamic by making Billings Central the defending state champs riding a 23-game winning streak, which it was. The writer might spice up the story by making this a rematch of the game that determined the conference champion, which it was. While this has all the ingredients of the classic underdog-makes-good scene, the real story is even more touching. Custer County won the state title one year after going 2-7 while their coach sat out the season, recovering from surgery for brain cancer. “I was so happy for our kids,” says Dan Stanton. “You kind of hate that your brother has to lose. But it’s nice to be in the same league as his team, to do the same thing they had done, and beat a quality team like that.”

sacked four times. Based on what he saw in the teams’ first meeting, Stanton changed the alignment of his linebackers, assigning one to just read and pursue the ball at all times. The Cowboys tweaked their offensive plan as well. “We put in a couple of different plays that we thought could attack their defense,” says Stanton. “We didn’t turn the ball over and we were able to throw the ball. Those were the biggest differences.” Custer County quarterback Jordan Bryant completed only four passes, but made them count. A 59-yard pass went for the team’s first touchdown, while completions of 21 and 18 yards fueled a second quarter drive that Bryant finished with a four-yard run. The defense didn’t allow a point until 3:53 remained, allowing the team to

School: Custer County High School, Miles City, Montana Head Coach: Dan Stanton 2008 Season: 12-1, Class A State Champions Assistant Coaches: Aaron Essex, Jeff Regan, Kevin McAuliffe, Trevor Nueman, Steven Sanchez, Jeremy Schniedt, John Tooke.

Billings came into the game averaging 300 yards per game on the ground with its Wing-T offense, but Custer County held the Rams to a season-low 92 yards rushing, and just 166 yards total. Stanton attributes the solid defense to experience gained and adjustments made after Billings beat his team 14-8 one month earlier. “It’s a different kind of offense to prepare for, but facing it at full speed and then having time to come back and prepare for it was a huge advantage,” he says. “I was a little surprised by what we were able to do, but we tried to force them into throwing situations and that worked for us.” The two Rams quarterbacks completed just nine of 20 passes and were

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tion to football anymore,” he says. “The biggest challenge was making sure I had the intensity and energy to continue doing a good job. “Health-wise, I’m pretty stable right now,” continues Stanton. “I’m enjoying going 100 miles an hour and as long as they’ll have me, I’m going to keep coaching. I enjoy being with the kids and love what I’m doing.” Stanton’s battle with cancer helped him realize the feeling was mutual. “I learned that kids care a lot more than people realize,” he says. “They were really empathetic and we came together as a team because we used those experiences to unify us. Everyone had gone through a tough year, so just going out and having fun helped a lot.” The tough season also served as a lesson for the players about working through hard times. “I hope they learned about the need to stay positive in overcoming obstacles,” says Stanton. “They’re going to run into struggles in life and hopefully they can look back on the experiences they had, or that I had, and realize some problems in life

Notes: Custer County rebounded from a 2007 season in

which Stanton did not coach because he was recover ing from surgery for brain cancer and the team went 2-7 . . . The Cowboys’ championship game win snapped a 23-game winning streak for Billings and denied them a chance to repeat as state champions . . . The state title was Custer County’s first since 1996.

successfully cap its long journey from a 2-7 record the year before. “The previous year was a struggle,” says Stanton. “We knew we were better than the record showed, and we came into the 2008 season with the attitude that we were going to win our first game and every one after that. Once we got our confidence rolling, the comeback took care of itself. “The players had a genuine appreciation for what they had accomplished,” he continues. “It ended up being a great experience and taught me more about life than football.” Stanton credits his family, faith, and the community for his successful return to the field. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to give my full atten-

that seem important at first are really pretty minor.” Having to replace 20 players from a state title team would probably qualify as one of those minor problems, but Stanton knows he can rely on the strengthened bonds created by the emotional waves of the past two seasons. “We consider ourselves a family,” he says. “The feeling of togetherness is hard to explain, but the kids felt it, and the staff felt it. That whole concept built into enjoying the game, having fun, and savoring the time we get to spend doing what we love.” Kyle Garratt is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management. He can be reached at: kg@MomentumMedia.com.

Coaching Management

TE AM EQUIPMENT

Everything You Need

Smooth Moves

Protection with Air

The Volt ankle brace is engineered to include the latest carbon-fiber technology. The polypropylene shell is reinforced with carbon fiber—the same high-performance material used in racing cars and bicycles. It also features a molded bearing-design performance hinge for smoother range of motion, strengthening ribs for a thinner profile, and fabric-backed EVA foam pads for durability and comfort. Active Ankle Systems, Inc. 800-800-2896 • www.activeankle.com Circle No. 500

X2 Air moisture-management shoulder pads by Gear 2000 are 20 percent lighter than conventional pads to add comfort and greater mobility for athletes. The X2 Air’s Air Release foam controls impact energy by releasing air at the seams. The pads quickly rebound to be ready for the next impact. Additional features include molded-in vent holes for increased cooling and antimicrobial arch fabric that reduces odor and dries in four hours. Gear 2000, Ltd. 785-625-6060 • www.gear2000.com Circle No. 504

Because Time Matters Without proper care, a knocked-out tooth begins to die in 15 minutes. The Save-ATooth emergency tooth preserving system utilizes Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) to not only preserve, but also reconstitute many of the degenerated cells. The patented basket and net container are designed to protect tooth root cells. This is the only system that keeps tooth cells alive for up to 24 hours. Save-A-Tooth® 888-788-6684 • www.save-a-tooth.com Circle No. 501

Kick Into This

Coach’s Best Friend

In five short years, Prep Gear Headwear has become a national leader in factorydirect headwear products for high schools and institutions. At Prep Gear, each hat is assembled from scratch using the highestquality materials and expert craftsmanship. In today’s economy, why pay an extra mark-up when you can buy premium products direct from the factory? Call or go online for more information. Prep Gear Headwear • 800-279-7060 www.prepgear.com Circle No. 506

The new Snap Attack football machine does it all. This elevated passing stand allows the throwing head to pivot instantly in any direction, accurately throwing passes, punts, and kickoffs to any location on the field. In a lowered position at ground level, it snaps the ball to any depth in shotgun and pistol formations, extra points, and punts. Changing from left-handed to righthanded spirals and from spirals to end-overend is easy and quick. No tools or additional parts are required. Sports Attack 800-717-4251 • www.sportsattack.com Circle No. 502

Better than Eye Black Mueller’s patented No Glare Premium strips have been proven to reduce the amount of light entering the peripheral area of the eye by 12.3 percent, due to the extra coverage on the bridge of the nose. An independent study demonstrated that No Glare Premium strips are more than 10 percent more effective than grease. The pressure-sensitive strips are easy to use and remove, and will not smear or sweat off, even when the face is dried with a towel. Mueller Sports Medicine • 800-356-9522 www.muellersportsmed.com Circle No. 503 48

Coaching Management

Wizard Sports offers a great portable football kicking cage. The new and improved Wizard Pro Kicking and Punting Cage is lightweight and stable, ships via UPS, sets up quickly, and breaks down to fit into a very small but durable carrying case. It’s used by top pro and college teams. Wizard Sports Equipment, Inc. • 888-964-5425 www.wizardsports.com Circle No. 505

Factory-Direct Value

A Tackle Twill Pioneer Since 1996, Pro Look has developed awardwinning uniforms for title-chasing athletes. The company is proud of its innovation and attention to detail. Its garments work with athletes when they need it most. Pro Look fabrics and construction methods stand up to abuse, season after season. The patented “Soft” tackle twill technology creates tackle twill that is soft to the touch and stretches with the jersey, all the while maintaining traditional tackle twill strength and longevity. Combine stretch tackle twill with stretch-fit jersey fabrics, and make your players virtually unstoppable. Pro Look Sports • 800-776-5665 www.prolooksports.com Circle No. 507 CoachesNetwork.com

Everything You Need Better Fit, Less Impact The new Xenith X1 football helmet features Xenith Adaptive Head Protection. The X1 adapts to impact by responding in a smarter and more optimized manner, thereby combating the effects of every hit. Xenith Adaptive Head Protection encompasses three components: AwareFlow shock absorbers provide a more optimized response at a variety of energy levels; the Shock Bonnet creates a suspension system that adapts to impact direction; and Fit Seeker adapts to head size and shape to provide a superior fit. The X1 has shown outstanding performance when tested against today’s standards. It is smarter, tougher, and built to last. Xenith • 866-888-2322 www.xenith.com Circle No. 508

Know the Play The 197 Triple Playmaker Wrist Coach is made with C-FLEX™, Cutters Gloves’ exclusive “fits like a glove” technology, for optimal comfort and fit. It includes three windows for easy reference, allowing you to

www.wizardsports.com

TE AM EQUIPMENT

store up to 300 plays at once. It’s available in 11 team colors. Visit the Downloads section of the Cutters Gloves Web site for free blank play card templates. Cutters Gloves 800-821-0231 • www.cuttersgloves.com Circle No. 509

New for 2010 Stromgren Athletics has introduced its Flex Pad II dual-layer integrated football girdle system. The 1585 girdle is a fivepad compression girdle with moisturewicking hip, tail, and thigh pads. The 25-percent 280 denier lycra/75-percent 70 denier nylon fabric is treated with the new Negative Ion treatment to enhance its antimicrobial, moisture-wicking, and anti-odor properties. The unique and patent-pending feature of the 1585 is its double-layer hip pad design. All Flex Pad II girdles have closed-cell EVA foam pads both inside and outside the waistband, providing the athlete with dual-layer protection to the iliac crest. Stromgren Athletics • 800-527-1988 • www. stromgren.com Circle No. 510

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With a GearNet from EZnet Organizer you can store and tote your athletic equipment for less than $25! For a special offer for athletic teams visit www.eznetorganizer.com/teamsports

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Wizard Sports, Orange, CA

1-888-964-5425 Circle No. 132 CoachesNetwork.com

Circle No. 133 Coaching Management

TE AM EQUIPMENT

Everything You Need

For Monster Players

Wear what the Pros Wear

The Adams Monster Man multi-sport girdle is available in black or white in sizes S through 3XL. This girdle is equipped with sewn-in High Rise hip pads, a spine pad, and thigh pads. Adams thigh pads are recommended for high school football players. This product is designed to maximize range of motion and constructed with lightweight moisture-management material for speed and comfort. Adams USA 800-251-6857 • www.adamsusa.com Circle No. 511

Z-Cool shoulder pads have features that are beneficial to the athlete, including a moisture transfer system that moves sweat away from the body to accelerate evaporation and cooling. Z-Cool pads are 35 percent lighter than conventional pads to increase comfort and mobility. The pads dry in just two hours after use, which reduces odor, and the arch fabric is made from antimicrobial material. Z-Cool pads are used by pro players, including Pittsburgh Steelers all-pro James Harrison. They’re also worn by top-50 NCAA Division I college programs and high school state championship teams. Gear 2000, Ltd. • 785-625-6060 www.gear2000.com Circle No. 515

Stretch It Out Pro Look’s football uniforms offer the newest in stretch-fit materials, including stretch mesh that makes your players virtually unstoppable. As one of the first companies to offer soft tackle twill, Pro Look now brings you a stretch tackle twill that conforms to the jersey. Pro Look’s “One Price Promise” includes fully customizable uniforms in the newest designs—you get unlimited embroidery, unlimited tackle twill, and unlimited design options. Pro Look Sports • 800-776-5665 www.prolooksports.com Circle No. 512

Simple Stability The Active Ankle Power Lacer is designed for the athlete who desires added support in a lace-up style ankle brace. It features distinctive Y-shaped vertical stabilization straps for control of the forefoot and heel, dual spring stays for ankle support, and a neoprene nylon shell for comfort. The unique “pull and play” design allows for easy use by athletes. Active Ankle Systems, Inc. 800-800-2896 • www.activeankle.com Circle No. 513

Take Control Sold separately, Sports Attack offers a remote control for the new Snap Attack football machine. It feeds the ball instantly or on a delay, allowing the coach to control the tempo of practice. The ball is snapped, passed, or kicked on the coach’s command. The remote control also allows punters and extra-point kickers and holders to work alone. Ball delivery can be changed from remote control to hand-feed in seconds. Sports Attack • 800-717-4251 www.sportsattack.com Circle No. 514

Coaching Management

All-Day Comfort The MAX Knee Strap is a lightweight and comfortable support for the relief of pain associated with soreness, stiffness, and arthritis. Compression tubes target above, below, and on both sides of the knee. This lightweight and comfortable support provides targeted compression without reducing mobility. Upper and side compression tubes target misalignment and help improve patellar tracking. Breathable mesh fabric allows for an all-day comfortable fit. Mueller Sports Medicine • 800-356-9522 www.muellersportsmed.com Circle No. 516

Fingertip Catches GreatCatch teaches players how to properly catch a football by putting all the focus on their fingertips. The palms and heels of the hands cause bobbles and drops—with Cutters’ GreatCatch, the fingertips do all the work for proper catching technique. As a result, players develop soft, reliable hands and fingertip control, resulting in fewer bobbles and drops. Cutters Gloves • 800-821-0231 www.cuttersgloves.com Circle No. 517

Three-Pad Compression The Flex Pad II dual-layer integrated football girdle system includes the 1583 girdle. This is a three-pad compression girdle with moisture-wicking hip and tail pads. Its 25-percent 280 denier lycra/75-percent 70 denier nylon fabric

CoachesNetwork.com

Everything You Need

TE AM EQUIPMENT

is treated with the new Negative Ion treatment to enhance its antimicrobial, moisture-managing, and anti-odor properties. The unique and patent-pending feature of the 1583 is a new doublelayer hip pad design. All Flex Pad II girdles have closed-cell EVA foam pads both inside and outside the waistband, providing the athlete with dual-layer protection to the iliac crest for better hip pointer protection. Stromgren Athletics • 800-527-1988 www.stromgren.com Circle No. 518

Tradition Meets Performance Adams Gel chinstraps are made with a polycarbonate plastic hard cup, a gel liner, and nylon straps. The gel liner reduces slippage, even when wet. The closed-cell gel will not absorb sweat, making it easy to clean and sanitize. The cup is available in 12 bold colors: maroon, cardinal, scarlet, orange, light gold, white, kelly green, dark green, purple, royal, navy, and black. Three sizes are available: Gel-25, Gel-50 and Gel-100. Adams USA • 800-251-6857 www.adamsusa.com Circle No. 519

Set Up a Screen The biggest problem facing presenters is finding a blank wall for PowerPoint and other presentations. You don’t want to rent hotel screens at outrageous prices or lug heavy screens through airports. The answer is Screen2Go—the world’s only truly portable projection screen. Screen2Go collapses to 18 inches for travel, weighs just six pounds, opens to 75 inches for presentations, and sets up in minutes. For travel, the Screen2Go briefcase holds your Screen2Go, laptop, and LCD projector. Screen2Go • 630-237-4278 • www.screen2go.com Circle No. 520

Expandable and Reliable HME’s DX300 expandable wireless headset system provides secure, hands-free two-way communication with superior digital sound clarity for sports, live events, and broadcasting. It offers easy setup and is portable from location to location with no frequency coordination or license required. The DX300 expands for up to 20 users and features the industry’s lightest belt pack. HME has been innovating for more than 35 years. HME • 888-760-7836 • www.hme.com Circle No. 521

Stretching Toward Comfort While aiding in physical mobility and flexibility, the Stretch EZ’s cradle design encompasses the foot to allow for a comfortable stretch to the foot, heel, Achilles tendon, hamstring, quadriceps, inner/outer thigh, and calf. This unique stretching aide assists in the treatment of plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, and calf, thigh, hip, and low back strains and injuries. For more information or to request a free catalog, call OPTP or go online. OPTP 800-367-7393 • www.optp.com Circle No. 522

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Company news

High School Sports Technology Alliance Formed

A new alliance of industry-leading companies has been formed to bring high school sports video to the next level. For the first time, the High School Sports Alliance will integrate game breakdown technology, video upload capability, and Internet distribution to local communities and the media, reaching millions of teens, parents, and fans. The companies involved in the alliance are Schedule Star, CoachComm, Video For Athletes, and Game Plan. In total, the alliance members account for relationships with more than 16,000 high schools and nearly every football coach in the nation. “What’s been missing has been a pushbutton simple way for coaches to package and send high school sports video where teens, parents, and fans can view it,” says David McPherson, who heads up HighSchoolSports.net, Schedule Star’s consumer Web site. Initially, the collaboration will allow video to be repurposed for publicity and for use by the players themselves. Game Plan developed the QuickEdit EZ software that Schedule Star and CoachComm will market, and Video For Athletes aggregates and licenses the video in its leading game-film exchange. In total, more than two million still photographic images and nearly 100,000 video highlights are available, including full-game video for nearly 30,000 athletic contests. The alliance looks forward to working with high school coaches and administrators across the country as the technology platform grows and expands.

Schedule Star 1145 Market St. Wheeling, WV 26003 800-258-8550 Fax: 304-217-2525 sales@schedulestar.com www.schedulestar.com

Coaching Management

Power R acks

Built to Succeed

Wide Base Monster Rack

Double Power Station

The Wide Base Monster Rack features a specially designed nonslip diamond plate covering to protect the athlete’s feet. An extrawide base increases versatility by allowing for stretching and rowing movements. Special Features: This rack features 3” x 3” 11-gauge steel tube construction, selflocking jumbo steel pins and “J” hooks, a front deep knurled chinning bar and sidemount chinning bar, and white powder coating. There are 33 inches of space between the front and rear posts. New York Barbells • 800-446-1833 www.newyorkbarbells.com Circle No. 530

The Samson Double Power Station features an adjustable bench, a double-sided rack, and a tongue-and-groove oak platform with your logo. Samson custom builds to your needs. Special Features: This product features the industry’s thickest steel on all framework, an oak platform with a custom logo and basketball finish, a chin-up bar, an adjustable bench from 0 to 90 degrees, spotter bars, plate storage, and a lifetime warranty. Samson Equipment • 800-4 SAMSON www.samsonequipment.com Circle No. 533

Combo Power Rack

Heavy-Duty Power Rack

The Power Lift Combo Power Rack is a unique lifting rack providing two lifters with identical exercises. The inside of the rack is large enough to accommodate two spotters when two “Lever Action” benches are used in the rack. Special Features: Two pairs of safety spot bars, two pairs of “Rhino Hook” bar catches, weight storage, bumper plate storage, dualgrip chin-up bars, vertical bar storage, and a cross brace are standard. Power Lift • 800-872-1543 • www.power-lift.com Circle No. 531

The rugged new Hammer Strength Heavy-Duty Power Rack is ideal for athletic fitness facilities looking to take strength training to the next level. Special Features: These racks come in eight- and nine-foot systems constructed of sturdy 3” x 3” seven-gauge steel tubing that’s pre-treated against rust for long-lasting durability. HD Power Rack systems also feature the Dock ‘N Lock bench-locking system to help properly align the bench in relation to the rack so exercisers can perform at their highest levels. Hammer Strength HD Power Racks are the answer for fitness facilities looking for high-performance equipment. Hammer Strength • 800-634-8637 www.hammerstrength.com Circle No. 534

Brute Rack System™ Rogers Athletic’s Brute Rack System™ is one of the most innovative, multi-purpose power racks on the market. With the Brute Rack System, your athletes will experience a closed-chain free weight training experience. Special Features: The Brute Rack System, combined with the revolutionary Monster Arms™ attachments, allows an unrestricted range of motion to help athletes develop specific muscle groups utilized in athletics. Rogers Athletic Co. • 800-457-5337 • www.rogersathletic.com Circle No. 532

Pro-Series Double-Sided Half Cage This is the perfect strength development package, and it maintains optimum floor space utilization for your weightroom or facility. Train your athletes at the greatest intensity and efficiency. Power Systems, Inc. • 800-321-6975 www.power-systems.com Circle No. 535

Power Racks Specifications Chin-Up Bar

Plate Storage

Adjustable Bench Available ✔

Logos & Team Colors

Customizing Options

Company

Rack

Height x Width x Depth Tubing Size

Hammer Strength

Heavy-Duty Power Rack

76.5" x 66" x 98"

3" x 3", 7 ga.

✔

New York Barbells

Wide Base Monster Rack

84" or 96" x 84" x 76"

3" x 3", 11 ga.

✔

Power Lift

Combo Power Rack

96" or 108" x 96" x 72"

4" x 3", 7 ga.

✔

Logos & Team Colors

Power Systems

Pro-Series DoubleSided Half Cage

99" x 64" x 110"

3" x 3", 11 ga.

✔

Team Colors

Rogers Athletic Co.

Brute Rack System™

114" x 98" x 84"

3/16" thick, 11 ga.

✔

105" x 44" x 96"

3" x 3", 7 ga.

✔

Samson Equipment Double Power Station

Coaching Management

Logos & Team Colors

CoachesNetwork.com

Build a Better Athlete

STRENGTH TR A INING

Push and Pull

Two Ways to Cycle

The CL-96090 Titan Push/Pull Thruster features 2” x 4” steel tube construction with each Swing Arm mounted on two industrial-grade pillow block bearings. There are five Olympic plate holders and four position handles. This unit features heavy-duty recoil rubber stops and push/ pull front and rear action. The size is 74”W x 53”D x 95”H, and the weight is 250 pounds. New York Barbells of Elmira, Inc. • 800-446-1833 www.newyorkbarbells.com Circle No. 540

The Power Lift Indoor Cycling Bike is available in both chain- and belt-driven versions. The belt-driven version allows a user to pedal backward with resistance. Standard features for both bikes include dual-sided pedals with a clipless system on one side and toe cages on the other, adjustable positions for the seat height and forward/back position, and adjustable positions for the handlebar height and forward/back positions. Power Lift 800-872-1543 • www.power-lift.com Circle No. 542

High-Tech Treadmill

The Look and Feel

The Elevation™ Engage treadmill features a sleek, sophisticated design with Life Fitness’s latest entertainment and motivational technologies. Part of the new Elevation Series, this treadmill with an Engage console features a 15-inch LCD touch screen with integrated TV, seamless iPod integration, USB connectivity, a virtual trainer, and vibrant Workout Landscape™ perspectives. Life Fitness 800-634-8637 • www.lifefitness.com Circle No. 541

Elite Urethane Dumbbells are new rubber-encased solid steel dumbbells that offer low maintenance and superior quality. They have a comfortable ergonomic knurled grip that feels great and looks even better. The standard sizes and shape will fit all standard dumbbell racks and will certainly improve the looks of your weightroom or facility. Power Systems, Inc. • 800-321-6975 www.power-systems.com Circle No. 543

800,000 Teeth are Knocked Out Each Year During Sports! Protect Your Athletes!

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Shoulder rotator strengthening Agility and strength training Vertical leaps Quadriceps, gluteus and shoulders toning

Save-A-Tooth gives you time to treat more serious injuries and get athletes to a dentist or emergency room. Call (888) 788-6684 or visit www.Save-A-Tooth.com for more information Circle No. 134 CoachesNetwork.com

Quick reaction and multiple-direction drills Order today! Call 800.886.6621 or visit turfcordz.com now.

Made in USA

Circle No. 135 Coaching Management

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STRENGTH TR AINING

Build a Better Athlete

Resistance Works Professional sports teams and international Olympians train and condition with TurfCordz to increase speed, endurance, and flexibility through explosive start drills, footwork exercises, and simulated play action. Developed by NZ Mfg., a leader in resistance training and physical rehabilitation products, TurfCordz provide maximum function and comfort while withstanding the rigorous demands of team, clinic, and personal use. NZ Mfg. also engineers StrechCordz and MediCordz resistance products. NZ Manufacturing, LLC • 800-886-6621 • www.nzmfg.com Circle No. 544

School Sticks With a Trusted, Proven Name With a new outdoor stadium on the horizon at Iowa’s Pella Christian High School, Superintendent Darryl DeRuiter needed a new scoreboard that could effectively display information for three different sports. Having purchased baseball, softball, and basketball scoreboards from Fair-Play in recent years, DeRuiter bought a football model from the manufacturer he was most comfortable with. “We have built an entirely new campus, so we needed five new scoreboards in all, and we’ve been very happy with the previous ones we bought for other sports,” DeRuiter says. “This stadium is not just for football, so we looked for a scoreboard that could accommodate the other activities and events. The Fair-Play scoreboard we purchased met all those needs.” The FB-8126TK-2 model scoreboard is used primarily for football, but offers the flexibility for scoring soccer and track and field with changeable captions. DeRuiter also likes the wireless capabilities of Fair-Play’s MP-72 control. “We’ve got two controls in our gymnasium that have worked really well, so we can mix and match with those,” he says.

Fair-Play Scoreboards P.O. Box 1847 Des Moines, IA 50306 800-247-0265 Fax: 515-265-3364 sales@fair-play.com www.fair-play.com 54

Coaching Management

A Versatile Piece The Samson Combo/Decline bench is one of the newest and most comprehensive utility benches on the market today. This revolutionary addition to Samson’s bench line gives your athletes the ability to perform a decline press by making a few simple adjustments. Perform the bench press, incline, military, decline, and even sit-ups all from the same bench. Outfit your weightroom with the best in quality and design from Samson Equipment. Samson Equipment • 800-472-6766 www.samsonequipment.com Circle No. 545

Reduce Groin Injuries The High Stepper develops explosive power in the hip flexors and legs in a running motion, substantially increasing athletes’ speed, quickness, and durability. Coaches notice fewer groin injuries with their athletes after training on the High Stepper. It can improve 40-yard dash times, decrease groin injuries, and train the legs to explode higher and more powerfully. Powernetics • 800-829-2928 • www.powernetics.com Circle No. 546

Lifelike and High-Tech This off-season, while your opponents are lifting, you will be putting the intensity of football into your workouts. MAXX provides a lifelike dummy and a durable weight machine with state-of-the-art computer technology. The LED board gives your players instant feedback on their speed off the ball and the power of their punch while they work to increase strength and perfect football technique. MAXX Football • 800-294-4654 www.maxxfootball.com Circle No. 547

Armed for Power Rogers Athletic’s Monster Arms feature an unrestricted range of motion to help athletes develop specific muscle groups. Monster Arms develop power and skill using free weights, with the added safety of pre-determined start and stop points and a positive-lock height adjustment. With Monster incline, decline, and horizontal arms in one Brute Rack station, you save significant floor space. Call Rogers Athletic for more information. Rogers Athletic Co. 800-457-5337 • www.rogersathletic.com Circle No. 548

CoachesNetwork.com

Build a Better Athlete

STRENGTH TR A INING

Total-Body Power

and pull-up bar that is also available as an option on non-Pro Series cages. New Powernetics offers many products for the strengthfront bar catches have an updated design training needs of your players, including the Bulldog and for more weightroom appeal, and they the Attacker. The Bulldog isolates the make your spotter’s life easier thanks to hamstrings and glutes without putting new walk-through bar storage. stress on the knees and back. It also Legend Fitness • 866-7-LEGEND offers an explosive hack jump exercise www.legendfitness.com that develops power in the hamstrings, Circle No. 551 glutes, and quads—all from one exercise. The Attacker allows the athlete to fire and roll his hips while moving up and out into a full hand separation. Because of the intense movement, power is developed from the feet IHI-040M.Stack Mag-Full pg. 10/3/08 10:42 AM Page 1 through the hands. Powernetics • 800-829-2928 IHI-040M.Stack Mag-Full pg. 10/3/08 10:42 AM Page 1 www.powernetics.com Circle No. 549

Empower Your Linemen The Strong Fireout Station provides 50 to 500 pounds of resistance and is ideal for helping linemen learn to play lower, longer. This station, which is excellent for improving players’ first two steps off the line, consists of two rows of four Strong Bands that connect across the shoulders using Jump Stretch’s adhesive strap. Undo the strap and you’ve got two Strong Shuffle Stations to perform regular quick-feet running drills. For details, call Jump Stretch today. Jump Stretch, Inc. 800-344-3539 www.jumpstretch.com Circle No. 550

Better than Ever Legend Fitness continues to refine its extensive product line, and several new aesthetic and functional improvements have been introduced to the Pro Series cages. Most notable is the rakish new arching top cross-member

School: Campbell High School School:Junior Campbell High School Class: Class: Junior Volleyball Volleyball Girls’ Basketball Girls’ Basketball CrossCountry Country Cross feet66inches inches 55 feet Junior Basketball,and andrun runTrack. Track.I am I amvery veryoutgoing outgoing JunioratatCarlisle CarlisleCounty. County.I Ilike liketotoplay play Volleyball, Volleyball, Basketball, andandlovelovemymyfamily. family. Balancing Balancingthree threesports. sports. you’renotnotfirst, first,you’re you’relast.” last.” "If"Ifyou’re WinningDistricts Districtstwo twoyears yearsininaarow. row. Winning

Circle No. 136 CoachesNetwork.com

Coaching Management

Director ies

Advertisers Directory Circle Company No.

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Circle Company No.

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103. . . Active Ankle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

105. . . Mondo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

112. . . Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

101. . . Mueller Sports Medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

119. . . Aer-Flo (football products) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

130. . . New York Barbells of Elmira. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

113. . . Aer-Flo (Tuffy Windscreen). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

122. . . OakWood Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

138. . . AthleticBid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

117. . . Polytan-USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

109. . . California University of Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

126. . . Power Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

142. . . CoachesNetwork.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

128. . . Power Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

140. . . Cutters Gloves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC

139. . . Powernetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC

121. . . CyberSports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

110. . . Prep Gear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

133. . . EZnet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

114. . . Pro Look Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

104. . . Gear 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

125. . . ProGrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

111. . . GearBoss by Wenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

124. . . Rogers Athletic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

131. . . Hammer Strength Clinics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

129. . . Samson Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

118. . . HighSchoolSports.net. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

134. . . Save-A-Tooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

108. . . HME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

116. . . Screen2Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

136. . . iHigh.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

107. . . Sports Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

120. . . Jump Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

106. . . Stromgren Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

123. . . Legend Fitness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

135. . . TurfCordz/NZ Mfg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

115. . . M.A.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

132. . . Wizard Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

127. . . MAXX Football. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

100. . . Xenith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC-1

102. . . MilkPEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Products Directory Circle Company No.

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513. . . Active Ankle (Power Lacer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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540. . . New York Barbells (CL-96090 Thruster) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

500. . . Active Ankle (Volt ankle brace). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

530. . . New York Barbells (Wide Base Monster Rack) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

519. . . Adams USA (chinstraps) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

572. . . OakWood Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

511. . . Adams USA (Monster Man girdle). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

566. . . OakWood Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

560. . . Aer-Flo (Bench Zone). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

522. . . OPTP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

568. . . Aer-Flo (Cross-Over Zone) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

571. . . Polytan-USA (LigaGrass). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

586. . . California University of Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

562. . . Polytan-USA (LigaTurf) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

517. . . Cutters Gloves (GreatCatch). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

531. . . Power Lift (Combo Power Rack) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

509. . . Cutters Gloves (Wrist Coach) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

542. . . Power Lift (Indoor Cycling Bike) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

585. . . CyberSports (CyberTix). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

535. . . Power Systems (Double-Sided Half Cage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

581. . . CyberSports (CyberXtreme) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

543. . . Power Systems (Elite Urethane Dumbbells) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

587. . . Cytosport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

549. . . Powernetics (Bulldog/Attacker) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

564. . . EZnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

546. . . Powernetics (High Stepper). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

504. . . Gear 2000 (X2 Air shoulder pads). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

506. . . Prep Gear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

515. . . Gear 2000 (Z-Cool shoulder pads) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

507. . . Pro Look Sports (Soft tackle twill). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

570. . . Gearboss by Wenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

512. . . Pro Look Sports (stretch tackle twill) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

563. . . GearBoss by Wenger (AirPro lockers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

567. . . ProGrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

534. . . Hammer Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

532. . . Rogers Athletic (Brute Rack System). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

580. . . HighSchoolSports.net. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

548. . . Rogers Athletic (Monster Arms). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

521. . . HME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

545. . . Samson (Combo/Decline bench) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

582. . . Jump Stretch (Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Ice that Ankle Sprain!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

533. . . Samson (Double Power Station) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

550. . . Jump Stretch (Fireout Station). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

501. . . Save-A-Tooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

551. . . Legend Fitness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

584. . . Schedule Star. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

541. . . Life Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

520. . . Screen2Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

565. . . M.A.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

514. . . Sports Attack (remote control). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

547. . . MAXX Football . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

502. . . Sports Attack (Snap Attack). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

583. . . MilkPEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

518. . . Stromgren (1583 girdle). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

569. . . Mondo (Loyola Academy HS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

510. . . Stromgren (Flex Pad II). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

561. . . Mondo (Mondoturf Ecofill Star) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

544. . . TurfCordz/NZ Mfg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

516. . . Mueller (MAX knee strap) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

505. . . Wizard Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

503. . . Mueller (No Glare Premium strips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

508. . . Xenith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Coaching Management

CoachesNetwork.com

COmpany News

Mondo Announces GREENGUARD Certification For Rubber Flooring Products Mondo surfaces certified for contributing to healthful indoor air quality Mondo, a global leader in the sports and contract flooring markets, is proud to announce that the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute has awarded its GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certification to 10 of the company’s rubber flooring surfaces. The contract flooring products that received certification are Geode, Harmoni, Natura, Punti, and Terranova. The certified sports surfaces are Advance, Mondoflex, Ramflex, Sportflex, and Super X. The GEI’s Indoor Air Quality Certification is conferred upon low-emitting interior building materials, furnishings, and finish systems that have been tested for indoor pollutant emissions and meet strict requirements for maintaining healthy indoor air in businesses and commercial buildings. Products that are GREENGUARD-certified contribute minimal levels of pollutants to indoor environments. “The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute applauds Mondo for its commitment to furthering our mission of improving indoor air quality,” says GEI founder Marilyn Black. “With GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified Mondo rubber flooring, architects, builders, and developers can be confident that they are specifying products that contribute to healthy indoor air quality and are safe for users and the environment.” The GEI’s methodology for the GREENGUARD certification program was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. GREENGUARD certification is an industry-independent, third-party certification program for low-emitting products and materials. A member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Mondo is committed to producing surfaces that do not harm the environment at any stage of the manufacturing process—from the time raw materials are harvested to production to disposal following their useful life, which can be 25 years or more. “Throughout its 60-year history, Mondo has invested heavily in research and development to produce high-quality products that meet the industry’s strictest standards, require minimal maintenance, and are environmentally safe,” says Federico Stroppiana, President of Mondo North and South America.

CoachesNetwork.com

“Mondo’s rubber flooring products contribute to LEED initiatives, are antibacterial and antimicrobial throughout, and are free of harmful chemicals, so they help create healthy indoor environments.” Mondo rubber flooring is made of sustainable materials, including renewable natural rubber, natural fillers, and color pigments that are free of lead and other heavy metals. The company’s artificial turf products are also designed to be environmentally friendly and are made with post-consumer recycled content and recyclable materials. Ecofill Star, Mondo’s newest artificial turf infill, is a patented, environmentally friendly, factory-manufactured polyolefin-based granule infill. It is completely recyclable, which is an industry first. Mondo is a global leader in the sports and contract flooring markets, manufacturing flooring surfaces for virtually every application. More than 1,100 Mondo tracks and 800 Mondo artificial turf fields have been installed worldwide. The official supplier of the athletic track for the past nine Olympic Games, Mondo is also the official supplier or official sponsor of more than 100 sports federations and associations.

Mondo 1100 East Hector Street, Suite 160 Conshohocken, PA 19428 800-361-3747 mondo@mondousa.com www.mondousa.com

Coaching Management

FOOTBALL FACILITIES

Gridiron Greatness

Protect Your Grass

Smart Storage

The Bench Zone sideline turf protector eliminates grass compaction and cleat damage while allowing rain, sports drinks, and other fluids to drain through. Made with Vipol Matrix material, a tough micro-fiber mesh that lets air and sunlight through, you simply hose it off to clean it. Much lighter than felt-like mats, it is available in 15 colors and multi-color custom imprinting. Custom sizes, colors, and get-back lines are available. This product is used by dozens of NFL and NCAA Division I teams. Aer-Flo, Inc. • 800-823-7356 • www.aerflo.com Circle No. 560

GearNet by EZnet Organizer is a new, simple, flexible, durable, and affordable storage solution that makes storing your athletic gear and finding it when you need it easy. Constructed from strong nylon netting with an elastic bungee frame, it quickly and easily mounts to a wall and expands as you add items to it. GearNet is a high-quality, low-cost alternative to expensive wire bins and baskets. EZnet Organizer • 949-261-5888 ww.eznetorganizer.com/teamsports Circle No. 564

“The Only Way to Go” “It’s amazing how much cooler Mondoturf Ecofill Star fields are. It can get quite hot in West Liberty, and when we saw that Mondo could stay up to 30 degrees cooler than rubber infill-based artificial turf fields, and that it’s more environmentally friendly, we felt we owed it to our studentathletes to install it. Any way we looked at it, Mondoturf Ecofill Star was the only way to go.” —Jim Watson, Director of Athletics, West Liberty State College. Mondo USA • 800-361-3747 www.mondousa.com Circle No. 561

Springing to Life LigaTurf mimics the properties of natural grass, yet provides a highly durable synthetic surface. The structural design of the LigaTurf system is optimized to ensure excellent playing characteristics over the life of the field. Featuring “spring-back” monofilament fibers with an outstanding ability to bounce back due to their resilience-enhanced design and soft elastic yarn composition, LigaTurf is ideal for stadiums and high-performance sports venues. Polytan-USA • 877-POLYTAN www.polytan-usa.com Circle No. 562

Upgrade Your Locker Room AirPro lockers from GearBoss enhance team room functionality and aesthetics. The open-grid design promotes airflow, sanitation, and visual inspection. An integrated hinged seat saves valuable floor space and is lockable over a security box and footlocker. There are a variety of color/finish choices, from school colors to wood-grain laminates. Wenger Corp. 800-4-WENGER • www.wengercorp.com Circle No. 563

Coaching Management

For Any Budget M.A.S.A. carries a large selection of economical sideline turf protectors that come in two grades of durability to meet any budget. All of the company’s protectors are constructed using a durable, breathable polypropylene that will stand up to cleat traffic and protect your turf. All tarps are light gray in color and feature brass grommets every three feet along the edges. They’re now available with optional lettering and logos to make your field stand out. Custom sizes and shapes are available. For more information, call today or visit the company online. M.A.S.A., Inc. • 800-264-4519 www.masa.com Circle No. 565

Solid and Durable In almost a decade, OakWood Sports has helped more than 200 schools and sports organizations design and install wood lockers for their athletic facilities. Every locker is constructed from special cuts of high-quality veneer and solid wood to ensure a vibrant grain pattern and beautiful color. The lockers are assembled by hand as an individual unit prior to installation. OakWood’s specially formulated finish resists moisture, citric acid, and up to a 25-percent solution of sulfuric acid. Finally, all hardware (including hooks, hinges, and clothes rods) is either solid brass or stainless steel. OakWood Sports, Inc. 517-321-6852 • www.oakwoodsports.com Circle No. 566

Expect Great Things ProGrass is a proven leader in artificial turf systems, offering design, installation, project management, and product development. High school and college football teams across the country play on ProGrass turf. The company has installed fields from above the Arctic Circle to the Rio Grande. ProGrass’s philosophy is simple: the company expects 100-percent customer satisCoachesNetwork.com

Gridiron Greatness

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faction. ProGrass doesn’t want to be the biggest turf company on the market, just the best. ProGrass, LLC • 866-270-6003 www.prograssturf.com Circle No. 567

What a Track Needs Cross-Over Zone and Bench Zone track protectors provide the cushion and cleat-proof protection that modern track surfaces demand. Made with tough geotextile fabric and self-ballasted with chain-in-vinyl edging all around, they stay down without stakes or sandbags. Easy to install, remove, and store, these track protectors are used by many hundreds of high schools and colleges, including Villanova and North Carolina State. Standard sizes are kept in stock for immediate shipment. Aer-Flo, Inc. • 800-823-7356 www.aerflo.com Circle No. 568

“First-Class Customer Support” “During our research, we contacted a number of schools that have Mondo products, and they could not have been happier. Mondo is known around the world for taking care of its customers before, during, and long after an installation. That combination of a high-quality product and first-class customer support was very attractive to us.” —Patrick Mahoney, Director of Athletics, Loyola Academy High School, IL. Mondo USA • 800-361-3747 • www.mondousa.com Circle No. 569

Manage All Your Stuff The GearBoss storage system from Wenger Corp. maximizes available space and functionality. It improves inventory management and security while reducing storage needs when compared to traditional shelving. Modular, high-density rolling carts are flexible and easy to configure for a variety of equipment. Team Carts make equipment readily available at the game or practice site. X-Carts roll along a fixed track, allowing easy access and creating a space-saving, movable aisle. Wenger Corp. 800-4-WENGER • www.wengercorp.com Circle No. 570

Low-Maintenance Turf Polytan LigaGrass synthetic turf is made with high-quality monofilament fiber that’s uniquely textured using an exclusive manufacturing process. Due to the nature of the textured fibers, LigaGrass provides more of a closed playing surface, which prevents the infill materials from coming to the surface, even during player contact such as tackling or kicking. Therefore, less maintenance is required. The LigaGrass system is optimized to ensure excellent playing characteristics over its lifetime. Polytan-USA 877-POLYTAN • www.polytan-usa.com Circle No. 571

“I Only Wish All Internet Dealers Were as Professional and Speedy” “Your company has been a godsend. We have a very limited budget to work with, and with your assistance, we have been able to purchase good quality equipment for a reasonable price. We already have over 40 off-season football players working out and have attracted the girls’ indoor track team as well. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We enjoy doing business with you!” —Stephen Saratowski, Football Coach, Williamsport Area High School, PA “I recently purchased another piece of equipment from you via the Internet. I received it today and again am very pleased with my purchase—another quality piece of equipment. I am even more impressed with your super-fast order processing and shipping. I have purchased three items from you and will continue to purchase all my equipment from you. I only wish all Internet dealers were as professional and speedy as New York Barbells. Thank you again.” —Charles Antoni

A Professional Look

OakWood Sports is a premier custom wood locker builder, with experience in design, construction, delivery, and installation. For new builds or renovations, the company takes care of your locker needs from start to finish and beyond. With more than 200 locker rooms completed since 1998, OakWood’s experience and knowledge ensure that your locker system will be visually stunning and highly durable. OakWood understands the construction requirements of athletic lockers, and prides itself on applying that expertise to the specific needs of each customer. Go online to view the company’s photo gallery. OakWood Sports, Inc. 517-321-6852 • www.oakwoodsports.com Circle No. 572 CoachesNetwork.com

New York Barbells of Elmira, Inc. 160 Home St. Elmira, NY 14904 800-446-1833 Fax: 607-733-1010 info@newyorkbarbells.com www.newyorkbarbells.com Coaching Management

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Customers Speak Out About Turf’s Quality and Value “We wanted a reputable company with a good product and chose Trophy Turf because of its longevity and monofilament fiber construction. In my opinion, Trophy Turf is the best there is and a good fit for us.” —Don Short, Athletic Director, Hopewell Area School District, PA “We liked Trophy Turf because it came in at a good price, but we also wanted it because of the weight—48 ounces versus 36 ounces. It has more fibers and all-rubber infill. We host 60 to 70 events a year, so our fields get a lot of use, and we thought it was the better product.” —George Cardone, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education, Altoona Area School District, PA “We believe the caliber of this turf— which we chose after thorough research and testing—reflects the quality standards we insist on at TCNJ. Tiger Turf’s research and development, customer service, and status as a leader in the industry impressed us.” —Matt Golden, Executive Director for Public Relations and Communications, The College of New Jersey

HighSchoolSports.net has free tools for coaches to showcase their teams all in one location. Coaches can save time and get the tools they need to stay ahead of the game. Add, postpone, or cancel events and practices, enter scores and stats, access your roster, and get cumulative player and team stats, all on HighSchoolSports.net. Go online and start saving time today. HighSchoolSports.net • 800-258-8550 www.highschoolsports.net Circle No. 580

Powerful Technology With CyberXtreme, gathering and organizing information for recruiting has never been faster or easier with access via your phone or computer. CyberSports’ secure, customized online database and communication tools give you the creative power to engage your audience and hold their attention. Powerful technology with unrivaled service, support, and expertise combine to give you the advantage in today’s competitive market. Let CyberSports take your program to the next level. CyberSports 315-737-7150 • www.cybersportsinc.com Circle No. 581

Rethinking Sprains “Don’t Ice that Ankle Sprain!” by Jump Stretch founder Dick Hartzell and Dr. Michael Shimmel will introduce you to the FlexBand Ankle & Strengthening Traction Technique, which is designed to reduce pain and swelling and to speed recovery time from ankle injuries. You will never deal with a sprain the same way again. This 85-page book includes a companion DVD and covers horizontal traction, vertical traction, deferred pain, and more. It also includes testimonials from athletes and healthcare professionals. Jump Stretch, Inc. • 800-344-3539 • www.jumpstretch.com Circle No. 582

Nature’s Protein Drink Research suggests that low-fat chocolate milk, with its unique mix of nutrients, is a naturally nutrient-rich protein drink that can help you refuel and rehydrate within the critical two-hour recovery window after exercise. Drinking low-fat chocolate milk after exercise not only provides the carbohydrates and protein to refuel and repair muscles, it also helps replenish fluids and electrolytes like calcium, magnesium, and potassium that are lost in sweat. Visit www.milkdelivers.org to find out more about the science behind nature’s protein drink. Milk Processor Education Program • 202-737-0153 • www.milkpep.org Circle No. 583

A Key Assist

TigerTurf 4616 W. Howard Lane, Bldg. 6, Ste. 600 Austin, TX 78728 512-782-8175 www.tigerturfworld.com

Coaching Management

Schedule Star’s patented Game Wizard™ saves you time and sets defaults for the things athletic directors and coaches are always scheduling for games, such as facilities, transportation, and departure and return times. When you schedule your varsity team for any sport, Game Wizard automatically schedules the sub-levels of that sport. Schedule Star is all about keeping you ahead of the game. Go online to get started today. Schedule Star 800-258-8550 • www.schedulestar.com Circle No. 584

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Great Ideas, Great Value Streamlined Ticketing CyberTix eases the workload on your staff and allows high school coaches to request their complimentary tickets online. Send an e-mail to coaches who are invited, and they are required to verify all their staff contact information prior to submitting the ticket request. Control cut-off dates and number of tickets per coach and/or per school while ensuring that your program has all the latest contact information on your schools. CyberSports • 315-737-7150 www.cybersportsinc.com Circle No. 585

Never Stop Learning California University of Pennsylvania has helped build the character and careers of its students for more than 150 years. Cal U’s dedication to providing high-quality, in-demand programs to its students continues through the University’s Global Online 100-percent online programs of study. Through an asynchronous format, Global Online allows students the opportunity to complete coursework anytime,

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anywhere. All that’s required is a computer with Internet access. Go online for more information. California University of Pennsylvania • 866-595-6348 www.cup.edu Circle No. 586

The Lighter Side Muscle Milk Light 100 Calorie is a convenient way to get all the great taste and performance of genuine Muscle Milk with half the fat and significantly fewer calories. Muscle Milk Light delivers the same nutrition-rich, flavor-packed indulgence of genuine Muscle Milk, but with only 100 calories. Perfect as a snack, Muscle Milk Light is ready-to-drink and provides the same precise blend of premium proteins, complex carbohydrates, functional fats, vitamins, and minerals found in genuine Muscle Milk. It’s a smarter way to respond to snack cravings. CytoSport, Inc. 888-298-6629 • www.cytosport.com Circle No. 587

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Legendary High School Coach Chooses A Training Aid That Gets Results Cecil Flowe, Head Football Coach at Parkview (Ga.) High School, has a .860 winning percentage. He has led the Parkview Panthers to the state quarterfinals 11 years in a row and to four state championships in all. He provides this testimonial about a product that helps his players succeed. The Snap Attack instantly caught my attention. Unlike the old unusable tire machine I inherited, I could see that this machine rolled easily and quickly off the field, had solid football wheels that eliminated troublesome air pressure tires, and had wheel guards to protect operators and players. I use this machine to practice our kicking game, passing game, pass defense, and snapping. The machine has changed the way we practice all phases of our kicking game. Before practice, it gives our receivers daily reps in catching long punts. They typically get at least 15 difficult deep kicks. During practice we use the Snap Attack to practice punt returns and coverage. I can place the punt exactly where we want without wasting time waiting for a punter to get it there. What previously were time-consuming and frustrating punt return drills quickly became much easier. We get effective repetition on all our returns. We experienced the same benefits in our punt coverage practice, and we can teach kickoffs and kickoff coverage more quickly. It completely amazed me how many more reps we achieved, and in a much shorter time. We also use the machine every day to help in our passing game. Our receivers get many more reps receiving passes on all their breaks off the top of our stem. The machine pivots easily, passing in any direction, and it takes only a little use for any coach to become an efficient passer. We set up on a cone and we time the receiver.

I anticipate that when used as a snapping machine, the Snap Attack will become an important tool in another phase of our practice routine. During seven-on-seven shotgun drills, we frequently do not have a center. As a result, the quarterback gets into the bad habit of looking up to watch the pattern evolve instead of having to concentrate his eyes on watching the snap into his hands before looking up. This results in fumbles, costing time in practice and the ball in games. Managers or injured players can operate the machine during these drills, freeing up coaches and keeping the quarterback honest. Extra point holders, kickers, and punters also benefit from the Snap Attack. On the extra point, it introduces the element of timing. The holder actually has to catch the live snap before placing the ball. Slight deviations in the snap make the whole situation game-like, requiring critical timing between the holder and kicker, again without the need for a center. The punter also now has live snaps during his punting practices. He even has a chance to deal with errant snaps, including those launched over his head that he has to chase and deal with, all without a center. In addition, it gives our backup holder practice and repetitions.

With this machine, you can lead a passer executing any route, and it is especially good on long passes. The machine recovers so fast that we keep two lines of receivers catching balls in rapid succession. In fact, we have as many as four receivers going at one time. The number of reps we get in is truly astounding, and we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t burn out our quarterbacksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it frees them for other work.

The Snap Attack is an indispensable tool in our daily practice. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m certainly not anxious for our opponents to discover it.

The Snap Attack is also used to train our defensive backs. It has been especially effective in working the seams in zone pass defense. The machine can place the ball exactly as required to give countless reps in coordinating defensive backs and linebackers to get into their designated zones and react to the ball. We used to talk about this, but now we actually practice these reactions over and over in much less time.

Sports Attack P.O. Box 1529 Verdi, NV 89439 800-717-4251 Fax: 775-345-2883 info@sportsattack.com www.sportsattack.com

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Find more coaching resources at the new Coaches Network! You can find more information related to coaching on CoachesNetwork.com, which has been completely revamped to better help coaches. We now offer expanded editorial resources, including articles addressing a wide variety of issues facing coaches today.

Articles on the site include: Strength & Conditioning

Gain Without Pain Why over-training can be as bad as under-training.

Coaching Life

Meet the Parents A coach explains how he establishes the roles parents play.

Nutrition

Food for Thought Make sure your players know what to eatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and when.

Leadership

Leader of the Pack Give your captains the tools they need to succeed.

Sports Medicine

Anyone Can Save a Life A first-person account of a life-saving response.

Plus archived articles from past editions of Coaching Management, including: Coaching the Star Player How to Help Players Avoid Off-Field Trouble Making Risky Plays Work In addition to educational resources, Coaches Network also features social networking tools that allow you to connect with other coaches across the country. Build your own network and share your thoughts on our message boards and blogs. Plus, Coaches Network provides you the opportunity to create private team pages where you can share information with the parents of your players.

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