leadership – Page 7 – O Line Skills

More on making your program the “Big Time” for you, your team, school, and community.

Football is a copycat game. We imitate (copy, borrow, replicate, clone) plays, schemes, formations, alignments, stunts, coverages, blitzes…why not traditions?

Heading into the 2014 season, after changing our helmets, we reinforced success by starting new traditions. We looked at the best traditions in college football and sought the help of other coaches for creative ideas.

Since we are the Hilltoppers, my good friend and fellow coach who is an exceptional motivator/leader suggested we emulate Clemson’s run down the hill as they enter into “Death Valley.” We have a cross country trail that goes down a hill through the woods and exits at the entrance of our stadium.

2017-05-16 Down Hill Tradition

Then, we borrowed the “We Are…” call from Marshall and Penn State. Now, before every home game we take the XC trail into the woods and at the top of the hill above our stadium, I yell “WE ARE” and the team responds “HILLTOPPERS”. Then we run down the hill to enter our stadium.

To further enhance our look, we borrowed the Ohio State tradition of awarding helmet stickers. Since we are not buckeyes and no one knows what a Hilltopper is, we use little white footballs as our helmet stickers. Kids love the look and it causes them to watch more video as they email me on Sunday with how many stickers they believe they have earned.

2017-05-16 Helmet Stickers.png

To finish out the gameday experience, we introduced tailgating. Please let me emphasize, tailgating does not mean alcohol or unruly behavior. It’s about family, fellowship, and team cohesion. We create an environment where parents, players, students, and faculty extend the Hilltopper team culture into the local community. We section off a parking lot that overlooks our stadium. Our player’s parents set up a smoker, grills and tables. Every parent brings something to share and contributes to the event. The parents of our freshmen players often staff the smoker and grills so the parents of our older players do not miss seeing their sons play. Win or lose, our staff, families and players head to the parking lot to tailgate after every home game. They share the Hilltopper spirit, extend the Hilltopper family, and reinforce the Hilltopper Tradition. If we do this right, players, parents, teachers, coaches, and the community may come and go over the decades ahead, but “tradition will never graduate.”

Thankfully, we win more than we lose. Since the 2014 season, when we changed our helmet color and instituted these new traditions, we have gone 13-3 at home including a 4-0 playoff record.

Recent posts about “Making the Big Time Where You Are,” have really spurred great feedback and comments from readers. I look forward to sharing one reader’s reflections on our program in an upcoming blog post. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I did!

If you’d like to learn more about making your program “The Big Time” for you, please stay with us on olineskills.com. We’ll be discussing more of the changes we implemented to cultivate success in the coming weeks. 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 www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends.

Make the “Big Time” Where You Are.

Last week I began a conversation with you about making your program “The Big Time” for you, your players, your school, and your community… Some approaches are external, some internal, and some combine an outward facing symbol to help cultivate an internal change in team identity.

Few of us enjoy the bright lights or big budgets that seem to go hand in hand with an ESPN SportsCenter highlight reel. Big stadiums, celebrity coaches, and marquis branding seem to dominate the highest levels of collegiate and professional athletics. One of the hottest trends in Big Time college football is the changing of helmet color and design. Programs seem to have a different helmet or uniform every week, and players project images or identity with little care or concern over the costs of such a metamorphosis. While most high schools and small colleges may not be able to change every week, they can change every year at little or no additional cost. There are ways to emulate the “Big Time,” without the big budget.

SJA_Football_gray helmet
When I arrived at St Johnsbury Academy in the summer of 2013, the team had endured seven consecutive losing seasons. The eighth, my first, was no different. We made the playoffs but suffered a quick exit. During all eight of those losing seasons, the team wore silver helmets with a grey face mask, green logo and green stripe. Heading in to the 2014 season, the program needed a change; an outward expression of evolution and improvement.

One of the first, and most noticeable of several program changes that year was our helmets. As a relatively small school in northern Vermont, we did not have the budget to make big changes. The same creative problem solving we emphasize on the field for our players would have to become the basis for what initially appeared to be an insurmountable fiscal challenge. Working closely with our reconditioning partner, Stadium Systems, we explained our intent, conveying both the importance of the change, and the reality of our limited resources.

We knew the helmet reconditioning process includes repainting every year and seized the opportunity to paint our helmets a new color. Similarly, we order new logos each year, so instead of ordering green, we chose white. Although we could not afford to have our face masks dipped to change color, Stadium Systems worked with other clients and arranged a swap with a school who had white facemasks looking to go to grey. Trading our facemasks for theirs, we found a “win/win solution” with no cost to either school! The only additional cost was the painting of helmets not used the previous season in need of recertification, but that nominal expense was well worth it.

Beginning with their new look, our kids felt “Big Time” entering the 2014 season. They knew opponents would first see, and subsequently feel the change in our identity upon first contact. With our new found confidence, the Hilltoppers played like a “Big Time” program, going 10-1, and earning the school’s first trip to the state championship in 20 years.

SJA_Football_green helmet

Tag: leadership

“Big Time” Traditions

Make the “Big Time” Where You Are.