Our June OLine Clinic is here!

The Alercio OLine Clinic at St Johnsbury Academy (VT) is this Sunday, June 12.  I look forward to sharing the skills of offensive line play with the players and coaches in attendance.  As I referenced in a previous blog using the Liam Neeson line from the movie “Taken,”: “these are a very particular set of skills that I acquired over a very long career.”  I am blessed to have been mentored by and learned from so many great offensive line coaches during my career.

In 1991, I had the good fortune of working with Jim Pry at East Stroudsburg University.  Jim had worked with the guru of all offensive line coaches, Jim McNally, when they were together at Marshal.  Jim Pry spent a year teaching me everything he learned from Coach McNally.  In the summer of 1992, I had the pleasure of meeting Coach McNally.  Jim Pry and I loaded into an ESU van for the trip to Cincinnati and the C.O.O.L. Clinic.  C.O.O.L.  stands for Coaches Of Offensive Line.  Every OLine coach should make that pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.

On the first night of the clinic, I found myself bellied up to the bar with Jim Pry, Jim McNally, Pat Flaherty, and Mike Maser.  All these years later, I remember exactly what I was thinking at the time: “just keep your mouth shut, your eyes and ears open, and don’t go to the bathroom or you may lose your front-row seat” to some of the greats discussing/arguing about every little detail of OLine play at their annual meeting.  

Not many football coaches in the Green Mountain State have access to learn from coaches of that caliber. Not that we don’t have talented coaches, it’s just tough to get so many coaches of such high caliber when we don’t have the population density of other locales. …and while I will never be in the same category as those great OLine coaches, I sincerely hope to share with others as these giants of the game so willingly shared with me.  

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss 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 supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time!