O Line Skills

November is the month for Thanksgiving.  December is the Season of Giving… Giving is the secret to success in life and football.

This post marks the start of my third year writing this blog and I hope it’s given you as much as it’s given me. Thanks for following along over the last 24 months, and if you’re new, thanks as well for joining the journey.

In a social media-soaked world often highlighting consumption, greed, and near instant gratification, I think it’s important to begin the New Year focused on others. While attending the AFCA convention 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a presentation by Zig Ziglar.  He entertained and inspired a room of 1,000 coaches for over an hour; but there was one line he said that has stuck with me for the past two decades, “You can have everything you want in life if you start by giving others what they want.”  Soon after, I began using the Eugene Sue quote, “The hand that gives, gathers.”

Arm yourself with these two quotes as you enter the New Year.  Do not focus on what you want.   We all want to win a state championship.  We all want to go undefeated.  But that cannot be your focus.  Success in coaching comes from providing your players with what they want.

To know what your players want, you need to understand the Millennial Generation who make up today’s teams.  If you are coaching your players the way you were coached, I feel confident in saying that you are not giving them what they want (or candidly, what they need.)

Today’s generation of football players is team oriented.  They want to be a part of something and they want to understand the big picture.  While pride in belonging remains consistent, the Millennial generation’s respect must be earned.  My generation gave deference to the position of coach and respect, at times, out of fear.  This generation of kids often raised by helicopter parents does not share the same degree of deference, respect or fear for positions of authority common to earlier cohorts.  They tend to trust individuals over institutions.  To quote a Marine Corps General and close friend, they (today’s generation) do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.  Today’s players want to be part of a team that is challenging but fair, and builds traits of confidence and self-reliance. A team with a culture of character, and aspirations of confident achievement.

Give them what they want, and you very well may get what you want.

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 your time!

This week’s blog comes in response to last week’s post about my trip to Canada.  Frank Francisco, long-time friend, colleague, avid olineskills blog reader, and author provides his feedback:

Coach Alercio,

To get an idea of the true impact that Canada had on the growth of our American football,  I would refer you to an excellent history of the game (he (the author) said with tongue in cheek),  Evolution of the Game. Page 5, the Boston Game mentions the influence the Canadians had on Harvard as they began to formulate their version of the game.   Page 7, Harvard- McGill speaks to the first Canadian-US games between Harvard and McGill.  

In all seriousness after doing the research for my book, I came to the conclusion that the Canadian/Harvard version of the game (often called The Boston Game) is much closer to our present game of football than was the Rutgers-Princeton contests of 1869, widely considered to be the birth of college football.   We often hear coaches refer to Canadian football as “a version of the American game”.  The Canadians, if they wished may have just as strong a statement in referring to our game as being “a version of the Canadian game.” 

Thanks for the perspective and insights Frank! Whichever game one considers the birth of football as we know it today, I’m thankful for my association with the game, the people I’ve encountered and the lessons I’ve learned since I first put on the cleats and helmet four decades ago. Teambuilding brings out the best in us regardless which side of the border the game originated.

One last thought this week as the Christmas Holiday will pass before I post the next installment: Whatever Holiday, event, or sentiment you celebrate this time of year, please take the time to share your thoughts, feelings, appreciation for the many gifts you’ve received this season, this year, and over a lifetime. Savor time with family and friends… and consider your intentions for 2019; a new season for us all.

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 your time!

I made a recent visit north of the border to Bishops University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada with one of our international players looking to play college football in the US or Canada.  Here in St Johnsbury, we are only about 45 minutes from the Canadian border, and folks in this area like to make the joke that “It’s like another country up there.”  It may be another country, but we quickly discovered football is football.

During the visit, our player, who is from Finland and whose father is from Africa, met with the head coach whose parents immigrated to Canada from Egypt.  Joining us was the defensive coordinator who though he played his college football at Central Michigan, his family came to Canada from Haiti. It was truly a multicultural group.  Since I was the only person in the room not fluent in multiple languages, I was happy to hear that both classes and sports at Bishops are taught in English.

After touring their very impressive campus and athletic facilities, we sat down with the defensive coordinator to discuss their philosophy and schemes.  Other than the 12^th “X & O” on the board, there was nothing different from any conversation happening in any coach’s office in the States.   Over lunch, we discussed the similar issues of coaching the millennial generation, dealing with the impact of social media, changing a losing culture into a winning program, and the impact coaches have on our players lives both while we have them, and beyond.

It may be “like another country up there,” but football is football and coaching our sport, building teams, and cultivating young leaders is the same no matter where you are, where you are from, or what language you speak.

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 your time!

I was privileged to be invited back to present at USA Football’s National Coaches Conference in Orlando, FL. early next year. USA Football’s National Conference is the largest annual gathering of U.S. high school and youth football coaches and administrators. As I’ve mentioned on the blog previously, it is a privilege to be a member of the football coaching community, and I amazed every year by coaches’ willingness to share ideas, schemes, and philosophies. Though we may compete tooth and nail on game day, this fraternity has for decades found ways to extend hospitality and wisdom regardless of the level of play.

USA Football’s conference is a premier education and networking opportunity for administrators and coaches to gain insight on best practices, innovation, and smarter play. More than 1,500 football leaders attended the event in 2018, including international participants from Canada, Mexico, Scotland, and Sweden.

Attendees have gained insight from leaders across football, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Tony Dungy, Bill Polian, and Mike Singletary; Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden; Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis; XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck; and Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy.

It would be difficult to conceive of a small business owner receiving counsel and mentorship from a Fortune 100 CEO, yet Coaches and staffs at ranked NCAA Division 1 schools regularly open their playbooks, film rooms, and practice sessions to help junior high, high school and other college coaches broaden their knowledge and understanding of the game. Somewhere along the way, each member of this fraternity was a beginner or novice and we’ve all benefited from a culture of sharing and learning. I’m privileged to present at a conference like USA Football’s and hope to do for others what so many did (and still do) for me.

USA Football’s conference dives deep on every aspect of the game and affords attendees the opportunity to specialize on topics most important to them. I present on our offensive scheme and describe both concepts like using tempo and pace to our advantage during a game, as well as the nuances of our run-pass options, blocking schemes, and teaching young athletes to make split-second tactical decisions mid-play.

At the same time, I’m often struck by some of the side-bar conversations I encounter. While there are plenty of X’s & O’s to be discussed, coaches approach topics like culture and character with equal fervor, and it’s not uncommon to hear heartfelt conversations about how coaches support athletes and families contending with personal challenges off the football field.

I look forward to posting pictures and sharing some of this year’s lessons learned upon my return from Orlando. In the meantime, I wanted to share this news and wish you all well as thoughts turn from gear inventories and end of season statistics to Holiday preparations.

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 your time!

If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will keep getting what you have been getting….

If you are achieving desired outcomes, maintain your course.  If not, adjustments need to be made.  This is true for every aspect of life as well as in football games.

Halftime provides coaches an opportunity to make those adjustments.  Our defensive staff takes a great deal of pride in their meticulous preparation for games, but sometimes teams just don’t do what you prepared for or they add something that your players have not been trained to defend.  Our defensive staff at St Johnsbury Academy has done an outstanding job of making adjustments at halftime and communicating them to our players in a manner that allows them to rapidly and successfully implement those changes with great success.

During our recent Vermont North v South Senior Bowl, playing under rules heavily favoring the offense, the North squad, coached by our coaching staff and a few coaches from another area school, scored with 1 second left in the first half and went into the locker room up 35-28.    We were in need of some adjustments to stop a few plays our opponents were having success with.  We discussed adjustments as a staff, communicated them to our players, even demonstrated them in the gym, then went out and executed them.  The result…we held the South squad to only one second-half touchdown on a drive that was aided by two 15-yard penalties.  Final score, 56-35 in favor of the North.

Football games allow for a scheduled time to evaluate success.  The scoreboard and first half statistics provide a clear picture for you to measure whether you are achieving objectives.  Measuring success in life is often not so clear.

The measure of success in life is not your job title, size of your house, or car you drive. You need to define success with what holds real meaning in your life. For me, it’s relationships and making a difference in people’s lives.  I don’t say this to suggest yours should be the same as mine, but rather to show I have priorities and think we all should take stock of what is important to us.

In my opinion, chasing material things, even when they are successfully acquired, do not necessarily lead happiness.  Disappointment will inevitably come when the newness wears off.   I firmly believe making an impact on lives and having good relationships at work and in personal life are the greatest measures of success.  If you are not achieving your goals and objectives, make adjustments now and don’t wait until halftime. Unlike a football game, our lives don’t offer a clock on the scoreboard.

What this coach is thankful for…

1. A wife who loves, supports, and encourages me to do what I do while she takes care of everything else and loves me along the way.
2. A supportive administration who understand the important role athletics plays in the development of our students.
3. Loyal assistant coaches who do all that is asked of them and more without ever concerning themselves with who gets the credit.  (And they deserve a lot of the credit!)
4. Committed players who understand games, and championships, are not won on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons in the Fall.
5. Former players who gave of themselves on and off the fields to create memories to last a lifetime and build a legacy of what it means to be a teammate.
6. Teammates who are now life-long friends with bonds forged on the gridiron decades ago and yet ready to respond over hundreds of miles as quick as a referee’s whistle.
7. A community who embraces its team, student-athletes, and school
8. The opportunity to be part of this team
9. The teachers, coaches, and mentors who invested in me and lit a fire for me to first be worthy, and second, to pay forward investments in others.
10. The privilege of leadership, and the opportunity to build a culture returning student-athletes to our society who are better citizens for having shared the experience.

And last but not least, for God’s grace… His gifts reflect His love for us, and the challenges He lays before us remind us of His belief in our strength.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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 your time!

I have the honor of coaching the North Squad in Vermont’s North v South Senior Bowl.  We have four practices to prepare 44 players, representing 16 schools, to play a game at the end of the week.  More important than teaching X&Os, is teaching these all-stars to work together as a team.  While four practices is hardly enough time sow the seeds of team culture carefully cultivated over 12 months… the concepts underpinning our success are the same.

We strive to build a common vision of our goals, common understanding of our circumstances, common values of trust, dignity, and respect, and a common belief in our likelihood of success.

Teambuilding starts with and is continually reinforced by communication.  We have established both verbal and visual communication systems among and between all position groups.  We believe if we share common situational awareness, and a common vision of success, we can make individual decisions consistent with our collective goals and objectives for success.

On offense, our Line and Tight End verbally communicate blocking schemes, the number of linebackers in the box, combination blocks and who is pulling. (There is nothing worse as an OLine Coach than watching two linemen pulling from opposite sides and smashing into each other.

Our receivers are using non-verbal communication to signal blocking responsibilities on our Bubble and Smoke screens.

The QB and RB are communicating play direction and point of attack based on defensive front alignment.

On defense, our Inside Linebackers communicate front alignment to the Defensive Linemen.

Inside Linebackers also communicate the alignment of the #3 receiver and whether or not they need to “Banjo” him in match zone coverage.

The Inside Linebackers will also communicate with the Outside Linebackers if the #2 receiver is aligned inside of the Outside Linebacker.  They will “Bracket” the receiver to the Running Back in their match zone coverage.

The Outside Linebackers will also communicate with the Cornerbacks to make a “China” call when there is a concern of a Rub or Pick between the #1 and #2 receivers.

The Free Safety is responsible to make coverage checks to see that we are properly aligned to 2×2 and 3×1 formations.

Maybe more than you want to know, and truth be told many readers of this Blog will not dive into the Xs & Os described above, but we all have families, businesses, friends, and others who “Team Together” for projects large and small.

Good communication is the key to any relationship and building a team is about building relationships.   It will be even more important since this week’s weather forecast for 5+ inches of snow looks to turn our 4 practices into only 3.

Best of luck building your teams for the short or long haul.

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 your time!

Earlier this week, I heard a knock on my door.  I looked up to see a young man proudly standing in my doorway adorned in his Marine Corps Dress Blues. 

Two years ago, this young man lacked confidence in himself and his abilities.  He questioned what he could accomplish and couldn’t see the potential our staff knew was buried deep within him. Even though he was a varsity starter on our offensive line, his lack of self-esteem often negatively impacted his game-day performance. We worked hard on teamwork, interdependence, and conveying our team’s reliance on the offensive line’s (and his) performance.

I’ll be candid: I made it very clear I expected more from this young man. When Senior year presented itself and we had a chance to speak one on one about expectations, I tried to make it clear: “If I hold you to a higher standard, it’s because I believe in your potential, and the greatness you can accomplish.” By his senior season, he gained confidence in himself and took personal pride in his teammates’ reliance on his performance. He became a two-way starter on dominant offensive and defensive lines ultimately leading our team to a state championship.

As he stood in my kitchen this week, he thanked me for the impact football had on him and how it prepared him for the rigors of Marine Corps’ boot camp.  He talked about how his training at Parris Island opened the view to his potential and helped him realize he was far more capable than he originally thought.  Then he informed me that he had a goal to become a Drill Instructor so that he can help others realize their reach, far exceeds their grasp.

As Coaches with careers spanning decades… some years you win, some years you don’t.

Some seasons end with championships, and even if you’re lucky, many end with playoff losses.

But every year comes with the blessing of having the opportunity to positively impact lives beyond football… (as my coaches did for me, and countless other do for student-athletes nationwide.)

Best wishes young man. You raised the bar of what you thought possible for yourself, and in doing so, set an example for others. Your leadership matters, and if in some small way, the staff here at St Johnsbury contributed to helping you find that potential, it was our privilege.

Now go do good things!

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 your time!

…is availability!

There is a saying is athletics: “the best ability is availability.”  That is never more true than during the post-season.  At this point of the season, every player deals with bumps and bruises compiled during a long and hard season.  With no bye week on the high school football schedule, there is no time to “get healthy”.

Thankfully, we have an outstanding athletic trainer at St Johnsbury Academy who works collaboratively with our players, their families, and our physicians to determine who is injured, who is just hurting, who can play, and who must stay on the sideline come game day.

The relationship between the coach and athletic trainer must be one of mutual trust and confidence with both working toward a common goal: to return the athlete to safe participation as soon as possible.

Effective communication is the bedrock of this relationship.  Our athletic trainer meets with me daily and often sends text messages throughout the day to update me on the status of our players.

This type of relationship and open communication ensures the athlete will not be put in conflict with the coach telling him, “we need you to play so that we can win” and the athletic trainer offering conflicting guidance, “you need another week to recover.”

Our athletic trainer is a highly educated health-care provider who has the overwhelming responsibility of providing care for hundreds of athletes all by himself. We do not want to make his job any harder than it already is.  We support his decisions and coach the players who are available to play.

Ultimately as a coach, we must balance the imperative to win against the longer-term health of our student-athletes. As with most things in life, the long-term good outweighs the short term (perceived) benefit. I’d rather lose a championship this year and have a player return 10 years from now to tell me about how the program benefitted his development than apologize for career-ending injuries, chronic conditions, and the perception that short-term gains supersede doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.

I believe God injects people and situations into our lives for reasons, for seasons, and for lifetimes. I don’t say that to thrust my opinion upon you, but rather to reinforce there are concerns far more important than any individual player or game at stake here. How a student-athlete pursues his/her life and its meaning is far more important than Friday’s final score. I feel fortunate to have such a competent and conscientious trainer looking out for our team and managing “availability” of our student-athletes.

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 your time!

The state football playoffs and our defense of the Vermont Division I Championship begins this tonight.  In Vermont, we start and end early because the snow comes early in the Green Mountain State.

As we prep for the playoffs, our number one priority is to stick with the same routine that has gotten us to this point in the season (and served us well in three of the last four state championship games).  We continue to strength train on Monday afternoons and Thursday mornings.  We continue to run the same tackling, pursuit & takeaway drills on defense.  We continue to drill our blitz pickups, read progressions and route conversions on offense.

As the season goes longer and the days get shorter, keeping players motivated and emotionally engaged can become a challenge.   We may throw a wrinkle into our offense and defense to keep our players sharp.  We also focus on the brotherhood, supporting our teammates, and celebrating the successes of others. We reinforce the commitment, sacrifice, and interdependence that has been the foundation of our season together thus far, and the expectations of those who went before us and established the Hilltopper reputation.

I’ve often heard other coaches say the football season is a “Grind.”  It can never seem that way to our players, especially this time of year.

This time of year should be the most exciting.

With every playoff win, comes the gift of another game and another week together.

Enjoy this time.  It, as so many seasons have before, will too soon come to an end.

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 your time!