Author: Coach Alercio

While our high school players continue with their summer OTAs, the next generation of football players (63 in total) joined together from towns throughout Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and beyond to participate in this year’s Hilltopper Youth Football Camp.  

Four years ago, we highlighted two Youth Camp participants who came from different towns and different backgrounds to quickly become friends during our 5-day camp.  The following year, they entered St Johnsbury Academy and became teammates.  As they prepare for their senior season this year, they took time off from their summer jobs to return to our Youth Camp as student coaches.  

Team sports (football in particular), provide a prime opportunity for kids to work together, rely on each other, and interact with teammates from various backgrounds regardless of their perceived differences. These opportunities have a way of forging potentially lifelong relationships. I know I’m lucky to share friendships forged on the gridiron and at summer camps that have lasted more than forty years. I sincerely hope some of this year’s campers and teammates can say the same forty years from now… As the saying goes, what unites us is far greater than what divides us.  

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! 

Tomorrow, July 7^th, a great friend and extraordinary coach, Major General Austin “Sparky” Renforth, USMC concludes 41 years of military service to our Nation. I’ve known Sparky for nearly all of those four decades and am in awe of all he’s accomplished. While his personal leadership successes in multiple combat tours, and while commanding at every rank are truly extraordinary, I think I’m most impressed by the legacy of lives he’s enriched during his tenure.

Sparky is first and foremost a team builder. Whether as a Little League World Series pitcher, high school football player, college football team captain, or rugby player, Sparky is most comfortable in a team setting, (which is probably what made the Marine Corps such a great fit.) Core characteristics like interdependence, trust, and integrity are key to a team’s success, and I’d bet they are tattooed on Sparky’s heart.

Even in the most challenging and arduous combat environments, Sparky’s genuine concern for his Marines (his teammates) showed through. His personal example of resilience and confidence combined with a sense of humor kept Marines focused on their mission, and morale high, during multiple combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite cautionary advice telling him he would “ruin his career,” Sparky accepted the role of Head Coach of the US Naval Academy’s Sprint Football Team (Sprint football is regular, full contact, intercollegiate football, only with a weight limit) and led the same team he played for, and co-captained in college, to two conference championships.

Whether on the battlefield or the gridiron, Major General Renforth always lifts the performance of all around him. He’s led a life of service to others and selflessly put the interests of the team ahead of his own. I often discuss the selfless dedication and teamwork of offensive linemen in these blog posts, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t relay Sparky played “Center” on a Naval Academy team that went 24-4, winning 4 straight conference championships. Sparky would want also me to stop there and not tell you he was a three-year All-American offensive lineman, because he’d prefer the focus is left on the team.

Similarly, during tomorrow’s retirement ceremony, (just a few days after celebrating our Country’s Freedom on July 4^th) Marines young and old will tout his accomplishments, successes, and contributions to our Country. Others will undoubtedly mention his humble beginnings in the coal country of West Virginia, and the American Dream of successes he’s amassed since. However, when Sparky takes the microphone for his concluding remarks, he’ll talk about his team: his family… his Marines… and how for 41 years, it’s been his privilege to serve them.

Semper Fi, Spark!

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! 

The scores of players in attendance at the Vermont Alercio OLine Clinic were taught the steps, visual targets, strike points, techniques, angles, and leverage associated with offensive line play.  They were also taught words like rate of force development, and transfer of force. But the most important word shared with them was “Selflessness.”  It is a topic of discussion at the conclusion of every Alercio OLine Clinic and one of the most important aspects of being a successful and productive member of any team.  

My favorite definition of the word is as follows:  having little or no concern for oneself, especially regarding fame, position, etc.  No position in football or athletics for that matter better exemplifies selflessness like the offensive line.  The sole purpose of their job is to make others successful and they are consumed with doing their job.  Their only reward is the team’s success and the brotherhood developed by working together with the other members of their unit in anonymity. 

We all aspire to belong to something bigger than ourselves. For most of us, it starts with family. Those of us who are fortunate, find parents or relatives we want to emulate. We search for and hopefully find our own way to contribute to the legacy of all that’s come before us. While we have no say in the families we are born into, many of us later choose to belong to a team. That conscious choice reflects a perception of the value we see in such an affiliation. We are, after all, social animals, and our teams in many ways reflect our choice of a tribe to which we belong. In doing so we also choose to put the team’s interests ahead of our own. Through interdependence, we grow to recognize how we’re all stronger together than any of us would ever be alone. I think Offensive Linemen in particular, adopt and flourish in such a framework, and it’s a philosophy I’ve been blessed to contribute to for nearly four decades.

Please join me in congratulating these selfless teammates who attended the most recent iteration of the Alercio OLine Clinic.

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! 

Our summer OTAs (Organized Team Activities) begin next week, and I look forward to getting the team back together again.  During the winter and spring seasons, we encourage our football players to participate in other sports and we value the impact being a multi-sport athlete has on overall motor and athletic development. as well as the increased ability to transfer skills from one sport to another.  

We want our players to know themselves and consistently seek improvement.  The summer months allow us the greatest opportunity to make those improvements both individually and collectively.  We meet Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 5-7pm for sessions including speed and agility training, strength training, and only afterward, football-specific skills.  Whether we are on the track, in the weightroom or on the field, our focus is on increasing the rate of force development or what is known as explosive strength to make a more powerful athlete. 

Concurrently, shared time together doing challenging events reinforces our sense of commitment and purpose, and reinforces elements of culture essential to our collective success. Teammates see their own progress, the progress of their peers, and build camaraderie and team spirit. As we have stated in previous blogs, the foundation of our program is built upon the philosophy that games are not won on weekends in the Fall. I look forward to seeing our Offensive linemen and Tight Ends on Sunday at the Vermont Alercio OLine Clinic working with other players throughout the region and to all of our players gathering as a team on Monday for our first OTA. 

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! 

The t-shirt design has changed multiple times over the years but the joy of receiving a photo of a player proudly wearing an Alercio OLine Clinic shirt never changes.  Several years ago, while I was speaking at a football clinic, a coach in the audience pulled up his polo shirt to reveal an Alercio OLine Clinic t-shirt underneath.  When I think of the thousands of shirts we have given out over more than 20 years, I hope they bring a sense of joy and pride every time they are worn.  

While having a conversation with another coach about camps and clinics he shared the two schools of thought: “You can make a lot off of a little, or a little off of a lot.”  His example was that if you charge $100 and get 40 kids, it is the same as if you get 100 kids and charge $40. I have always and will always choose the latter.  Most of us coaches get into the profession to impact the lives of players the way that our coaches and mentors impacted our lives.  Zig Zigler, The author/trainer/motivational speaker used to say, “You can have everything you want if you’ll just help others get what they want…” I’d rather help hundreds rather than dozens of players learn and develop. Even if it costs a little more in t-shirts or takes a little longer at registration check-in, it’s worth it to help these student-athletes learn and achieve more.   

I look forward to the next such opportunity; Sunday 11 June on the campus of St Johnsbury Academy for our Vermont Alercio OLine Clinic. Student-Athletes and coaches will travel from all over the Northeast and Canada to learn, work, and play together. They’ll take home a t-shirt, some new skills, new friends, and a belief in their potential as teammates. We’d love to have you join us. The more, the merrier!

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! 

This weekend marks the “Memorial Day Holiday,” where we remember those who have given their lives in sacrifice for the freedoms we all enjoy. Veteran’s Day (Nov 11) is intended to honor all veterans, but Memorial Day is focused on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. As you gather with family and friends, light the barbeque, and begin the summer season, please recall those who made it possible.

In 2022, Buzz Bissenger, (Author of “Friday Night Lights,” a book, movie, and TV show, familiar to many football fans) wrote a book called “The Mosquito Bowl,” about a group of college all-star football players who all ended up in a semi-organized football game on the island of Guadalcanal on Dec 24, 1944. Though merely 8 months from the end of the War, they also faced a seeming lifetime of trials and tribulations.

Some of the players included:

— George Murphy, team captain at Notre Dame and the son of a clerk in South Bend, Indiana.

— Tony Butkovich, an All-American at Purdue and one of seven sons of a Croatian coal miner in central Illinois.

— Robert Bauman, a tackle and punter at Wisconsin. As a kid he had gone to work in the onion fields near his hometown south of Chicago after his father died.

— David Schreiner, an All-American end at Wisconsin whose German immigrant grandfather had established a prosperous family in Lancaster.

All were in their 20s when they played in the Mosquito Bowl and ultimately fought in the battle of Okinawa. Their World War II experience changed them just as it would hundreds of thousands of other Americans, their families, and friends.

I wouldn’t expect readers to know the names of these men or the countless other young football players who like them who found themselves fighting and in some cases dying for the freedoms we enjoy today.

However, in reading about them, I also recognize commonalities among the hundreds, perhaps even thousands of players I’ve played with and coached in the last four decades. While the names might be different, the character attributes are the same: selfless, dedicated, dependable, trustworthy, team-oriented… all had seemingly unlimited potential to be husbands, fathers, role models, and mentors. Men of integrity who would have led their community, and led others to greatness. Each name and circumstance could easily be from the hometown or city most familiar to the reader, and it’s exactly this “everyman” characteristic that makes the story so compelling.

While I am saddened by their lives cut short, I am bolstered by their ability to translate both the physical and moral elements of football to become players worthy of mention in Bissinger’s novel. I hope none of our student-athletes find themselves in a circumstance where such a sacrifice would be called for. Yet at the same time, I find myself drawn to the character, integrity, and courage underpinning each of those described in Bissinger’s book.

In the Bible, John, Chapter 15, verse 13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I salute the men and women who have sacrificed to ensure we have the opportunity to both recognize and honor them by emulating their honor, courage, and commitment. Those we honor this weekend; are the teammates we someday hope to be worthy of. Those we honor years from now are likely young men and women cut from the same cloth. Shaped by family, teammates, teachers, and coaches… We should be so lucky to turn over the responsibility of our society to leaders like those Bissinger describes in his book, and we’re blessed to work with student-athletes like that every day.

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! 

Tomorrow (May 19^th), we’ll hold a team meeting in the campus chapel to kick off the planning and set expectations for the summer training. As we’ve discussed through the evolution of this blog, I believe our culture is an essential and foundational component of both our team and our success.

Hilltopper culture establishes a set of common practices, approaches, and behaviors guiding the team on and off the field. With more than three decades of coaching experience, I’m confident getting the culture right is more important than any offense, defense, or special teams philosophy we may want to employ.

The Team comes first. Individually, we all must commit to putting the interests of the team ahead of our own, and we reinforce those concepts in many ways. Tomorrow, we’ll reinforce elements of attitude and aptitude. I’ll project a 2×2 matrix with “Can & Can’t” on one axis, and “Will & Won’t” on the other.

These axes set up four quadrants and provide visual cues to attitude and aptitude. Coaches work with student-athletes and each needs to know where they fall on this graphic. Obviously, we want teammates and staff in the “Can & Will” quadrant, and not in the “Can’t & Won’t.” The “Can’t but Will” quadrant is ripe for teaching and coaching. The “Can but Won’t” quadrant often requires more assessment and a conscious decision to motivate or in some circumstances recommend an alternative team…

The operative question is to pose the four quadrants and ask each teammate and staff member, “Where are you today?” While considering “where they are…” most will also recognize “where they should be.”

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! 

I am delighted to share that Quinn Murphy has become the 6th Hilltopper in as many seasons to be inducted into the Vermont Chapter of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame as a scholar-athlete.  This past season, Quinn scored 42 of our team’s 45 touchdowns and accounted for 93% of our total offense on the ground and through the air while excelling in the classroom.  He joins Collin Urie – in 2017, Jasper Rankin – in 2018, Renwick Smith – in 2019 (also named to the National Team of Distinction), Trey Alercio – in 2020, and Sam Begin – in 2022.  (There were no inductees in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.)  

The Foundation also honored two other Hilltoppers during that timespan.  Shane Alercio was named the Most Courageous Athlete in 2018 after battling a rare vestibular disorder during his senior season while leading us to a state championship.  In 2019, Jake Cady received the Community Service Award for helping raise over $40,000 to help support families battling cancer through his non-profit called Team Sullycat.

We are immensely proud of the successes of our student-athletes on the field, in the community, and in the classroom.  We trust the examples of excellence in those who have been honored will inspire future Hilltoppers to strive for excellence, overcome adversity, and put others’ interests above themselves. 

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! 

Every year during the time of the NFL Draft, we have a staff exercise where each coach is sent an alphabetical list of our returning players and asked to return the list with each player in the order they would draft them.  In draft terms, each coach is asked to create their own “Best Available” list.  

Then we put all the drafts in a shared drive so that we can see how each coach’s list compares to the others and mine.  If I have done a good job in communicating the shared vision of our team, the lists should not be all that different.  Then we combine all the lists to have a final staff draft list of our team.  This is the first step in seeing that we put the “Best 11” on the field going into summer workouts.

When Anthony Richardson, the QB from Florida, was drafted, he stated that God blessed him with abilities.  I can only assume he was referencing his physical abilities which are unparalleled at the position. But when I draft our team, I focus on other abilities first: coachability, accountability, reliability, and dependability.  In high school football, the 5’8″ 175lbs player who is “All In”, is of greater value to his team than the more talented 6’2″ 225lbs player whose commitment to the team is lukewarm at best.  According to my son, who was an athletic trainer this past season with the Gators, Anthony checks all of those ability boxes as well.

Lastly, our coaches should know to make evidence-based decisions in creating their lists.  They should list players based on the behaviors they have witnessed from the player on the field, in the weight room, in the classroom, and in our community.   They should not base their evaluation on what they think, feel, or believe.  This is where the Anthony Richardson pick is interesting.  As Tim Hasselbeck stated at the draft, “there is very little evidence that Richardson can play the position at a high level.”  Yet he was the number 4 pick.

How would you draft your team?  Who are your most valuable players and how do you measure that value?

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! 

On Sunday the 23rd in Princeton, NJ, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared, and the sun came out just in time for the start of the New Jersey Alercio OLine Clinic, and for the many players and teams in attendance, the unofficial start of the 2023 football season. While we worked on the skills, techniques, and schemes associated with offensive line play, we also reinforced the value of the position.  A position like no other in sport.  They are not glorified on gameday.  Their recognition and praise occur within the walls of the locker room.  When their job is done well, their teammates who carry, pass, and receive the ball get all the accolades.  Yet they celebrate their teammates, and fellow linemen in recognition of a job well done.

Teams with bad offensive lines cannot win games. It is that simple.  Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs after Super Bowl LV.  They had the best QB, the best TE, and the fastest receiver in the NFL and they could not score a touchdown.  Just like a house needs a solid foundation to stand, you need to have a good offensive line to win. 

Those players and teams in attendance on Sunday took a huge step toward recognizing both individual and team success by honing their Oline skills.  As the day concluded and the hundreds of people departed, one parent remained in the parking lot to speak with me.  That parent informed me that he had accompanied his son to many camps over the years and that this one was the first that focused on the why as much as the how.  

As I thanked him, I assumed it was because we focus so much on why we take a Base step on one block and a Reach step on another.  Why the visual target is on the near number at times and the sternum on others.  Why the strike points are the sternum and shoulder one block but both pecs on another.  While I drove away, I thought that he may also have been referencing why it is so important to be a well trained offensive lineman, a good teammate, and a person of character.

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! 

New Jersey Alercio Oline Clinic Training Groups follow: