More than 200 student-athletes and 50 coaches from New York and 
New Jersey joined us at The Hun School in Princeton New Jersey for the 17th annual Alercio OLine Clinic. Having taught, coached, and mentored football players for more than 30 years now, I relayed with confidence the challenges young men have in learning the tactics, techniques and procedures essential to success on the offensive line. I’m often frustrated by media personalities who refer to quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers as “skill positions.” Most young men learn the basics of throwing, running, and catching as part of growing up. However, successful offensive linemen begin with fundamentals they’ve never considered and build upon them techniques foreign to nearly all except those who study the game.
For more than four hours Sunday morning, football players and coaches focussed on foot placement, body position, coordination, balance, vision, and more than a dozen nuanced elements of offensive line play. During conversations between sessions with coaches Jim DeSarno, Westfield HS, and Ed Gurrieri, Manalapan HS, perennial New Jersey state powers, both coaches noted they have been to every one of the seventeen Alercio OLine Clinics we’ve hosted over the years. It is my sincere hope our clinics have in some small part contributed to the multiple state championships they have won. Regardless of our clinics’ impact, I think it is more a statement of their commitment to player and team development and a testament to players commitment to the programs. It is no wonder they have so much success.
Some of the young men who joined us are pictured below:
Special Thanks to my good friend and fellow Coach Todd Zimmerman from Steinert HS, in Hamilton, NJ, for taking pictures of this year’s participants.
Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss team building, coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for your time!
O Line Skills 