O Line Skills

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!

Football’s greatest rivalries: Ohio State v Michigan, Auburn v Alabama, Army v Navy…

St Johnsbury Academy v Lyndon Institute???

Yes!

Two high schools in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont have one of the oldest football rivalries in the country.  “The Game”, as it has been named, dates back to 1894, with St Johnsbury having the edge 63-44-6.

In 2013, USA Today conducted an online poll to determine the greatest rivalry in the nation.  “The Game” easily won the Vermont, New England, and Eastern Regions, before finishing fourth in the nation.

Tradition matters… We all want to belong to something. Family, Team, Church, Fraternity or Sorority, or other associations or societies.  My friends who are Marines love being part of The Few and The Proud. Other Service members have their strong affiliations, and all are underpinned by traditions, accomplishments, and myths handed down with almost legendary reverence.

When we talk about “team building,” and putting the good of the team above self-interest, examples of those who went before us serve as a reminder of both what is possible, and what is expected. There is added responsibility to uphold the traditions of those who went before, and occasionally the responsibility to right some wrong or restore the best aspects of a tradition.

The Hilltoppers will look to get series win 64 on Saturday, October 20.  The Hilltoppers have won the last four meetings outscoring the Vikings 240 – 20.  Before you accuse us of running up the score against our rivals, please note that we have not scored a 4^th quarter touchdown during that 4-year stretch.

Regardless of records or standings, this rivalry brings out the best of both towns, schools, and teams.  Homecoming events welcome alumni back to both campuses from all over the world.  Parades go down Main Street in each town, ending back on campus for bonfires, and the memories of games past, families, and friendships.

As the Fall Foliage Season comes to an end in Vermont, the focus in the Northeast Kingdom turns to the 114th annual clash between St Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon Institute. The Hilltoppers stand ready!

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 ifs and buts were gifts and nuts, everyone would have a Merry Christmas…”

Your record today is what it is.  You cannot go back and get a “do over.” Focus on the game ahead.  There is a reason why your car’s windshield is much larger than its rearview mirror.  When you are driving the car, you need to spend your time looking forward.  It is OK to look back every once in a while; but if you spend too much time looking in the mirror at what is behind you, you will eventually crash into what is ahead of you.

Focus your coaches and players on this opponent, this week. Control what you can control. I’ve noted before, I love the game of football for its parallels to life. Life is unpredictable, and when a ball has points on its end, the ball doesn’t always bounce the way one expects. Football forces us to confront those unanticipated bounces and decide what to do next. Further, football often hands us the unexpected when confronted with daunting combinations of fatigue and stress.

What are you going to do now Coach? (The whole community is watching…)

What’s next Quarterback? (Your teammates are looking for your example…)

How about you Senior Letterman? (Every underclassmen’s eyes are on you…)

This game, like life, demands mental toughness, the ability to endure and to focus on the goals and objectives you’ve led your team to pursue. Jack Clark, the University of California Rugby Coach who holds more NCAA Division I National Championships than any coach, in any sport, defines mental toughness as the unrelenting ability to identify and execute the next most important thing… no matter what.

Put down the ifs and buts…

The next most important thing is this week’s game and this week’s opponent.

Get after ‘em!

How a simple mantra reinforces culture…

Throughout the nearly two years I’ve been sharing thoughts on this blog, and for more than 30 as both a player and a coach, I’ve learned and emphasized the importance of “culture” as a core component of success. Culture will develop one way or another. As a head coach, part of the leadership responsibility is to ensure the development of the culture you want your team to emulate.

Common vision, values, purpose, and goals unite teams and build cohesion. Those attributes are underpinned by character and personal example. Personal example is often reinforced by words; words that sometimes take on “mantra’ like status. I was told by a friend who is both a leadership expert and a US Marine Corps General, “When you’re just about tired of saying it, they’re just starting to hear it.”

We have established a culture at St Johnsbury Academy of how we do things as Hilltopper Football Players.  You’ve heard me say (or read here previously) “Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.” There is a very specific way we do everything whether it is football related (blocking, tackling, running, catching) or personal conduct on and off the field.  When any players’ action fails to uphold our performance standards, I often say the phrase, “that ain’t it.”  Apparently, it has been picked up by our students as noted in the email below from our defensive coordinator, John Lovett, who is also a history teacher and dorm proctor at the Academy.

FYI, the phrase “that ain’t it” has permeated the culture of the school. Three times today alone, and many other times before I have heard students say this about behaviors or ideas that are not what we are looking for. Your words are famous! Most of these students have no relation to the football program and still understand the idea of meeting a standard of thought and behavior.

Observable behaviors or actions that do not meet expectations are now being corrected with a simple phrase, “that ain’t it.” It’s become our way of reinforcing “do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason,” and the adoption of the phrase and its use by students other than our players is a great sign of the positive effects of our team on campus-wide culture. How do you reinforce culture in your team, family, partnership, or organization? What are the signs your efforts to develop culture are beginning to stick?

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!