Hey guys (and gals),
Here is the latest on the little league team.

Sadly, we have lost our last three games. I have found out that I have strictly a FIRST-HALF TEAM!

We play great until half-time. They seem to give up in the second half. I cannot figure it out.

1-0
We beat the Panthers 6-0. Purely a defensive game. I am a "defense-minded" coach. That is my specialty.

1-1
We lost to the Bulldogs 12-0. one of our toughest teams. We had a TD called back for holding. They scored on a kick-off return. Otherwise it'd been a 6-0 game. We played well.

1-2
We lost to the Chargers 20-0. You CANNOT beat the other team and the referees too. I don't normally complain about them, but this one went to the little league board it was so bad.A close friend of mine (actually my son's Scoutmaster) is the Chargers head coach and he said it was the worst called game he'd seen as well.

Regrettably, I CAN lament about lousy referees. THEY cost us the second loss as well as contributing to the third.

1-3
We lost to the Eagles 32-0. At half-time the score was 6-0. I felt it was the best we had played yet. The Eagles ARE the team to beat this year. But after two TERRIBLE kick-off calls (the ball only 8 yds. on the longest one) My team simply gave up. Myself and my staff were in danger of getting penalized ourselves due to our livid protests. This one is being addressed by the board as well. We would probably have lost anyway since the Eagles are bigger, faster, older, and with the momentum of a 3-0 record going for them, but I feel we were their equal till those bad calls.

I haven't lost heart, but man, these ref's are terrible.I HOPE the board will see about some replacements.

Keeping these little guys motivated is getting tough.When one of them makes a 60-70 TD run and then it's called back, you don't get anything out of them like that again that game. They just quit trying. You can plead, cry, cajole, threaten, whatever. They're done.

We will win again. The season's still young! I'll just take my own advice and....

Suck it up coach!!!!

Chuck

 

I got faith in ya Chuck you'll get em.



Wiz

[link:www.clubfte.com/users/thewiz427/index.html|"Wiz's Place"]

 

Both years I coached there were only 15-20 players on the teams, and we had about 7 coaches. We were mighty fed up with lousy officiating too, and usually at least one of us was in danger of being ejected. We kinda concerned the officials I think, since there were always so many of us.
I more than understand about the kids just giving up, though. Both years we just dominated in the regular season, winning games 32-0, 28-6, blowouts like that. Both years we met our match in the semifinals. After the first quarter and a half, seeing themselves tied, of even down 0-6, the kids just sort of gave up, not understanding why the score wasn't already 18-0 like they were used to. It's a very difficult thing to motivate children that are ready to throw in the towel when the game is half over.
I know it may be a long shot, but try incentives like no conditioning on monday for the 3 kids with the most tackles or the 2 o-linemen with the best blocking technique. Sometimes a little competition among themselves goes along way. Also, when our own players got to fighting with each other, instead of immediatly separating them, we would let them scrap for a minute to get good and angry. It helps to break out a little of the armed burguler in these kids.

The Law
1989 F-250 HD 4x4
460, C6, BW 13-56, Sterling 10.25" (4.10:1), Dana 44 HD (4.09:1), twin K&N's, no muffler, stock lo-flo cat, Bosch Platinum Plugs (0.060") MSD 6A and TFI Blaster Coil

 

The name of your team isn't the Nebraska Cornhuskers, is it?
And yes I am from Nebraska.

 

Thanks Wiz, I appreciate the vote of confidence. Especially when I have parents in the stands yelling, "Don't quit your day job coach".
That's ok, I don't listen to them. They only yell till you remind them after the game that you'd let their son run the ball more, if he didn't fumble EVERYTIME you gave him the ball, and ask them to work with him since I have 19 kids and only 4 hours practice between games!

Law, that was some good advice. You know what I'm talking about as far as motivating the kids. One cardinal rule of little league football is SCORE FIRST! Very feww l.l. teams have the "depth" to play catch-up football. BTW, I already work on the positive/negative reinforcement principle. We win, they get pizza and plenty of it. We lose, we run, and plenty of it. But you're right, I may expand it a little on the personal level. They already get skulls, stars, tomahawks, and footballs for their helmets.

On a personal note, my son is having his finest year. At RLB, he averages three tackles per game!He is a HEADHUNTER!!! (I'm a proud papa, can you tell?!LOL)

Nah flyboy, it's not the Cornhuskers, it's the Dolphins.

We have a game tomorrow night under the lights. I just hope they don't get "starstruck". It's a rematch against the panthers. We changed our defense to a 4-4-3 to stop the end-arounds and we're gonna try running the ball down their throats since they're weak in the middle. Then surprise them with a screen pass we've been working on since we met last.

You guys take care, I'll get back with another update later!

Chuck

 

I'm a real big fan of the 4-4-3. It's brutally effective if you have a bad **** at safety. We used to run that when I was in high school, and we consistently allowed the fewest yards. When I coached we ran a 6-2-3. It was a little unorthodox, but it worked. On the line we had 4 interior linemen in their 3-point, 2 DE/OLB's in a 2-point, about 1-2 yards back we had a pair of linebackers, usually about opposite of one guard and one tackle, a safety hung out another yard or so back, and of course there were 2 CB's. If the O sent out a 3rd or 4th reciever, the DE/OLB's covered them.
Basically, it's a 4-4-3 with the OLB's on the line every play. It's a good set up for stopping the run and short pass. You can really get screwed if you're against a quarterback with an arm or a team with a brutal O-line, but since we were in the 6-10 my first year and 8-12 age group my second, we didn't worry much about our opponents airing it out much past 20 yards, and our D-line was fairly brutal in it's own right.

The Law
1989 F-250 HD 4x4
460, C6, BW 13-56, Sterling 10.25" (4.10:1), Dana 44 HD (4.09:1), twin K&N's, no muffler, stock lo-flo cat, Bosch Platinum Plugs (0.060") MSD 6A and TFI Blaster Coil

 

 

WE WON IT!

Final score 12-0

We can't seem to punch in on the two-point conversions but I'll take the win no matter what.

Last night was the best my guys have played yet. I'm very proud of all of them.

Pizza and cokes all around!

We are now 2-3 for the season. Which, BTW, is the first-time in 5 years the Dolphins have won 2 games in a season!

Go Dolphins!!!



Chuck

 

Oo Way to go Chuck! Congrats to you and your team looks like you smoked them.



Wiz

[link:www.clubfte.com/users/thewiz427/index.html|"Wiz's Place"]