Looking Back at 300 - Part 1

This last week was my 300^th game as a coach. This journey started back in 1991 as an Assistant Offensive Line Coach for the San Clemente High School Tritons. I was very enthusiastic – my only problem then is that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Fortunately, by the end of that season I realized how much I didn’t know, and made some “course adjustments” that allowed me to keep going.

The first game that year was against the El Toro High School Chargers. I don’t remember much about the game itself, but we lost 28-7. That came to be a recurring theme that year, as we only beat San Diego Crawford High, and Garden Grove Santiago High in going 2-8. I did enjoy being the assistant coach for the powerlifting team though….we had some great kids there and I enjoyed hanging out with them in the weight room. For a lot of reasons though, the football program just wasn’t very good then. I’m happy to say they’re doing well now and every time I pass the school on my way north to Orange County or LA I always give it a glance and think about where it all started.

In 1992, my mentor at San Clemente, Offensive Coordinator Steve Castle, got hired as the Head Coach at Westminster La Quinta High School. He brought me along as the Offensive and Defensive Line Coach, and put me in charge of the strength program. The best thing that came out of that was the weight room itself. When we got there it was a dump. A friend of a friend happened to be the Strength Coach for the LA Rams, and he was getting rid of a bunch of equipment. We got benches, weights, leg presses, etc., all for $250. I went in there and cleaned the place up and just like at San Clemente, it became a place for the linemen to hang out. The skinny guys would work out right after school, while the linemen went home and did homework, then they came back and we worked out at night. The Powerlifting team ended up being pretty good – with usually only four guys competing, we took home medals in more than one meet. 

LQ’s only problem was a lack of participation in football. The kids we had were tough and willing, but there were too few of them. The baseball and basketball programs were both well-established and those coaches discouraged their players from playing anything else, so we were in a bind. In ’92 we went 2-8, with the highlight being in Week 1. QB Jason Gondringer threw a last-second TD against “big brother” Westminster High to pull out a 12-9 victory.

In 1993, a cross-country move cost LQ Coach Castle, and Coach Fred Valko came in. Steve was a spread guy – sort of on the leading edge of the time, and Coach Valko was more of an old-school power offense guy, so we lost some continuity. The constant was me, and I still wasn’t very good. In ’93 I only had to handle the OL, which was a good thing. That year we went 2-8 again and I started to think that was the norm…..

In February of 1994 I was at a coaching clinic (a habit started immediately after my first year) and was working at a booth for one of my biggest mentors (still to this day), Bill Williams of the Football Coaches Professional Growth Association (FCPGA). It was there that my coaching fortunes changed forever. Coach George Berg from nearby Fountain Valley High walked by and struck up a conversation with me. He ended up asking me to come by for an interview. Initially it sounded like I was going to be the JV OL coach, and honestly, I wasn’t interested in that (I was still somewhat in the “I didn’t know what I didn’t know” phase). Eventually though, I was told that I would also be the assistant varsity OL coach and would take over the following year as the current OL coach moved over to defense full-time. Now, mind you….La Quinta was Division IX at the time and was 2-8. Fountain Valley was Division I and coming off a 12-1 season. This was going to be a huge jump.

Fountain Valley was only about 1.5 miles away from La Quinta, but it might as well have been in a different state. Just in pure demographics from a football standpoint: LQ had 1200 students; FV had 2400-2500. LQ’s student population was 60% Vietnamese – the largest Vietnamese population in a high school outside of Saigon. FV’s population was 60% Caucasian. The Booster Club budget at LQ was right about $1,200 for the year. At FV, it was a staggering $75,000. I don’t think that LQ fielded a Freshman team – I think it was only Varsity and JV. Fountain Valley had two Freshman teams. It truly was a have vs a have-not situation.

Anyway, the big change for me was the accountability factor. In my previous schools, both the coaches I worked for didn’t demand a lot of the assistant coaches’ time. In a lot of cases, that may not have been a bad thing – looking back at it, whatever I was assigned to do those first couple of years, they probably would have had to re-do anyway. Within a couple of days of my hiring at FV, I was immersed in the playbook, and quite frankly, was drowning. I remember the QB Coach, Willy Puga (now a former HC himself), put me up “on the board” and asked me to walk him through our various pass protections versus different fronts. It wasn’t pretty, and it was emphasized rather strongly to me that I had to get this down.  FV had a large staff, and every one of them knew their stuff. I was easily the weakest coach there. It was definitely a sink-or-swim situation for me!

(Next week: Learning to Swim!)

Women's Recap & Off-season news

The two main women’s leagues wrapped up their season last weekend. As expected, the Utah Falconz dispatched the Minnesota Vixen 49-6 to win the IWFL league championship. I really do hope Utah and the WFA can work out whatever differences they have to get the Falconz in with the rest of the best teams in the country. If not, go ahead and pencil in the Falconz as 2017 league champs as well. And maybe 2018, 2019 and 2020.

OK, speaking of the WFA, fans were treated to another great National Championship game there. In a repeat of last year’s finale, the DC Divas came from behind to beat the Dallas Elite, 28-26. Dallas went up early 12-0 and at that time it looked like déjà vu of the regular season’s Week 2, where Dallas beat DC by 21. However, it is tough to beat a good team twice in the same year. When I was talking with one of my former players just before the game, I said I had no idea who would win. And it turned out to be a great game. I cannot congratulate the Divas enough – coming back after being down early is always a tremendous accomplishment, and I’m happy for my friends in the organization.

I also feel bad for my friends within the Elite. Back-to-back trips to the championship game in your first two years is a great feat (the Surge did it as well; losing to Boston in ’11, then beating Chicago in ’12) but in final games, it is absolutely gut-wrenching to watch it slip away.

The good news is that the Women’s Game is getting more and more press and exposure each year. A play from the Minnesota/New York playoff game even made the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 recently. Some American players are heading overseas the lend their expertise and leadership, and some coaches are going to, to help out national teams. The 2017 World Games might be interesting next year!

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Speaking of the off-season, as you may have thought, there is no RS Football Camp this year. With no player or coach base to start from, there wasn’t much reason to ask everyone to travel here. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities this fall/winter!

Coach Scott McCarron of the Seattle Majestics and I both attended one of LeCharles Bentley’s offensive line coaching seminars (unfortunately not at the same time – that would have been fun) this spring, and I owe him a trip since he came down to the RS Camp last year. We’ve talked briefly about maybe doing something up there this off-season, if for no other reason than to drill his OL in the new system and drills we picked up.

Additionally, I’m available for weekend trips anytime after November 19, until pretty much the 1^st of March. Whether you want your OL tuned up, whether you want to install a new offense, meet with your coaches, do a special teams clinic, or anything else you can think of, I’m game. As far as cost, it’s a lot cheaper for me to come to you and coach 30 people, than it is for 6 or 7 of your team to come to me. You could blend the cost into your team fees and barely have it register (about $25 per person for a group of 30, all inclusive, and assuming a plane trip).

Anyone that is interested, I’ll be happy to send my résumé and we can discuss exactly what you’re looking for. Everything is tailored to your team. Anything from just a nudge to get you over that “one last” opponent to getting your team of rookies ready to go, I can help.

What I’m even more excited about is the start of a weekly off-season Big Person camp. It’ll start either late December or right after New Years – I’m flexible on that. The goal is for “any” adult offensive lineman, male or female, to work solely on stance, body movement and biomechanics in a non-contact, learning environment. The cost will be “Free-99”. My main goal, of course, is to get my Nighthawk OL coached up and better than ever in stuff that I just don’t have time to teach during the season. The secondary goal is to get any and all female OL to a great level on the basics. More on that after the Nighthawk season is over.

Finally, the Nighthawks have a big game this weekend against the Riverside County Disciples. You’ll hear all about that next week!

Catching Up & A New Season

Hi All – there really hasn’t been that much to write about lately, so I didn’t want to just talk to hear myself talk, you know? But here are some thoughts on what has happened, what will happen, and what is happening now:

What has happened: The women’s seasons are coming to an end. In the WFA, it will be a repeat of Week 2, in which the Dallas Elite faced the DC Divas. The road to the championship had some surprising moments, at least for me. In their latest game, the Central Cal War Angels went to Dallas and came very close to knocking off the Elite, losing only 34-28. That was a heck of an effort by the War Angels. I didn’t expect it to be that close. I thought that Dallas’ speed would overwhelm Central Cal. So hats off to the War Angels players and staff!

The other, bigger surprise for me was Boston knocking off Chicago in a relatively low-scoring affair. After Boston lost their QB to injury in the last meeting with Chicago, it turned ugly for the Renegades in a hurry. They then squeaked past Cleveland and headed for a rematch with the Force. I figured the game would be in the 35-14 range for Chicago. Instead, the Renegades came out on top 17-13. That was truly a gutsy effort by Boston!

So now – what happens this week in the National Championship? I have no idea. DC turned around on put up 47 points on that same Boston defense the next week. They’re eager to prove their Championship last year was no fluke. Dallas defeated the Divas rather forcefully in DC in Week 2, but the close win against Central Cal concerns me (it is entirely possible that Central Cal was much better than I thought they’d be, but all of their other games tracked as I thought they would, so no surprises). I do believe it will be a great game.

Over in the IWFL, in the pre-season I thought it would come down to the Utah Falconz and the New York Sharks. I was right about the Falconz, and the Sharks almost made it – the Minnesota Vixen came out of seemingly nowhere to have an undefeated season, and defeated the Sharks in the semi-finals.

Utah rolled through their schedule, surprising me only once, when they beat the Carson Bobcats only 38-0. I thought it would be 49-0. To be fair, I was only one TD off – I didn’t realize Utah doesn’t have a kicker. I said in preseason that you could crown Utah the champion right now, because no one would come within 28 points of them, and I stand by that. Utah has unfinished business, after losing in last years’ league championship to Pittsburgh, who is now in the WFA. Minnesota surprised me by beating the Sharks, but the Sharks aren’t the Falconz, and this game isn’t in Minnesota.

Finally, what is happening: My team, the San Diego Nighthawks got off to a pretty good start this Saturday, hosting the California Cowboys.  The Cowboys are a first-year team, but they have some veteran players. We may as well be a first year team, as all but one of the coaches are new, and about half the team hasn’t played together before. Going into the game, I knew nothing about the Cowboys, except that they beat a Vegas team the previous week 41-0. So that’s always fun, having no idea what your opponent will do. Our first two plays lost a total of 15 yards (including a false start in between). You gotta like that, coming out of the gate and practicing those plays specifically, only to have it blow up in your face. But no one panicked and our 4^th snap gained us a 1^st down.

Looking back on the film and my call sheet, we stayed really basic, especially by my standards. Used motion only twice, and went unbalanced only once or twice. We killed them with a TE screen that got them out of their stacked box look, and the downfield passing game remained open all night. My starting QB was 11/17, and we got all three in the game. We were able to play everyone in a 38-0 win.

Certainly, there is work to do. I wasn’t happy with our run game, but early on a lot of the credit had to go to their defense, who seemed determined not to give up yards on the ground. Football is all about adjusting, and for the most part I was happy about how we did that.

I did have my customary “week 1” brain fart though…..just before the half I thought we were on 2^nd down when we gave up a sack, with about a minute left (scoreboard wasn’t working, so had to rely on the chain crew). So I called timeout. Turns out, that was third down, with 4^th now coming up and I’d just stopped the clock for them (they had no timeouts). We punted, and held them, but I was still mad at myself.

Our next game is on the 30^th, versus the Riverside County Disciples, a team that has been playing since the spring. They should be pretty good and I coached against their DC last year, so have a little bit better idea of what they’ll likely do. Fortunately for us, they have a pretty tough game this week so won’t have a lot of time to get ready for us.

I’m sure I’ll write something next week, at least about the womens’ championships and some possible off-season activity. See you then!

Coaching Them Up!

This past weekend was a great one – I had the chance to put into practice everything I learned two weeks ago from LeCharles Bentley and his staff. A friend of mine asked me to come out to his high school and coach his players up a bit. It’s a new staff, and the program had run onto hard times, only winning a couple of games each year for the past few seasons.

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect – I was told to “oversee” the OL during Indy, 1-on-1’s and team during the Friday afternoon practice, and then I would have them for four hours Saturday morning all to myself. When I got there, there were two other OL coaches there, and one was pretty much running everything. So I decided that since they were going into a competitive period (1-on-1’s) and then team, that I would hang back a little on Friday and just take notes about where they were at in terms of skill development. I didn’t want them to have to think not only “who” to block, but also “how” to do it in competitive drills.

Remember, this is a new staff, so none of the coaches were holdovers and they’d only had 4 practices with them. Given that, they didn’t look like they’d been coached much in previous seasons. One of the OL coaches is a young guy, and very enthusiastic. I’m convinced he’s going to be very, very good. He just has to develop his teaching patterns. Just as offensive linemen need to develop movement patterns to be efficient, coaches need to get their teaching patterns down so they can be efficient as well. This young guy isn’t quite there yet (but he’s way better than I was at the same stage of development). The older OL coach is more of an “attitude guy” – he’s very good at getting the kids to play with a proper attitude and to go out there and kick butt.

The kids themselves were great. They may not be great football players yet, but they are A+ human beings. As I mentioned, their technique was very raw, to the point of it was always a bit more of “how can I survive this play” rather than “how can I dominate this play”. So on Friday, I just took notes and offered some general suggestions to guys when I had the chance.

Saturday morning was different. They were all there either early or right on time. I’d developed a practice plan to take them through everything, that extended (in outline form) to five pages (!). Being that this is the first time I’d gone through this progression as a coach, and not knowing what pitfalls there may be, I wasn’t sure at all of how it might time out.

As it happened, we got through everything in almost exactly four hours. And let me reiterate – these kids are top-notch. I’d give them a water break, and they’d sprint off the field to an area a little ways away where the water was. By the time I got over there, they were saying, “OK guys, let’s go!” They really wanted to work and get better.

Some of the transformations were remarkable. The right tackle was a kid who sort of hopped into his pass set and opened up almost completely by his second step. We took a “before and after” video of him, and the results were staggering. A (soon to be) senior guard was coaching the other kids up before too long – he’s a smart guy, and was taking in everything and was able to repeat it back to me and the other players. They had two freshmen kids, one of which had never played football before, and they ended up being two of the stars of the camp. I could go on and on about how much fun I had coaching these guys, and how much I’m looking forward to watching their continued development over this season.

LeCharles just announced on Monday that the next Coaches Seminar is going to be July 16-17. I would strongly suggest that any OL coach who wants to make his guys better attend. I’ll be back in 2017 for sure. You can register here. You can thank me later.

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In the WFA game of note this week, Chicago beat up on Boston 50-something to 18. I was expecting a much closer game, maybe even with Boston winning, I understand that Boston’s outstanding QB, Allison Cahill, went out with a season-ending injury. At the time, I think the game was close, and my guess is that then not only were the Renegades missing a whole bunch of offense, but also probably were a bit emotionally deflated, which is understandable.

With that result, if there is any difference in the Final Four other than DC, Chicago, Central Cal and Dallas, I’ll be shocked. I’m still fairly certain that Dallas will be the finalist from the West, and less certain that DC will be from the East.

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On the men’s side, my Nighthawks have landed in a new league, the Southern California Football League (SCFL). This league is a quantum leap up in competition: The California Raiders were undefeated last year, the So Cal Coyotes have won a couple of national championships*, the Inglewood Blackhawks have won some, and the San Diego Thunder had a run on the national scene at late as the late 2000’s. Throw in a virtual All Star team in the Las Vegas Trojans, and there are very few gimmes on our schedule.

All in all, I couldn’t be happier – these are the types of games you sign up for as a coach, the types that for whatever reason we didn’t get often in the women’s game, at least until the playoffs.

*For my female game readers, national championships are a bit different in the men’s game. First of all, there are over 600 men’s teams across the country, so having one national champion is pretty much not going to happen. Second, there are several “national championship” tournaments put on in December/January. Fortunately for us, our league is recognized as one of the most competitive in the country, so our league winner will get an automatic bid to a national tournament.

Blown Away

OK, I am blown away, and I want to tell you about it, but first there was one game last week in the WFA that merits a short discussion, and that was the Pittsburgh/Boston game. I’d picked Pittsburgh to finally break through into the upper sphere of the National Conference by beating Boston. To me, he Renegades seemed a little lackluster lately, and given their daunting upcoming schedule, perhaps ripe to be taken down. Well, I underestimated Boston before and was proven wrong, so why not this time? Boston came out on top, 51-32.

With that win, we’re better able to slot where Pittsburgh stands, and that was of interest because they were IWFL champs last year, and were looking really good so far. For now, there is no grand re-ordering in the WFA universe. It’ll be Dallas and Central Cal in the West (although I’ll give Portland a 20% chance at an upset of Central Cal), and then DC and either Chicago or Boston in the East, dependent on how this week’s Chicago/Boston game turns out. I really have no idea how that will turn out, and it should be a great game.

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OK, back to the main topic…..this past weekend I was in Phoenix at LeCharles Bentley’s OLine Performance World (www.lbolineperformance.com). I’ve talked about him and his training plenty of times before, and had become a fan. Back in January he announced that he was going to hold a free coaches’ clinic in May, and that it was limited to the first 50 to register. So I made sure that I was one of those. Later, I heard that they accepted 80+. Now, I don’t know what goes through people’s minds, but I’m wondering if since it was free, there wasn’t as much value attached to it by some folks. That was their mistake. There were only about 35 coaches there, and it was the perfect size group. I think I was able to at least speak briefly with everyone there at some point, and the instructing coach to student (us other coaches) ratio was great.

LeCharles is a dynamic speaker and coach. He can get people fired up at the drop of the hat. His progression in leading students from skepticism to discipleship is masterful. Those who disagree or question aren’t ridiculed, but shown the “why”, the “how to” and the “how to do”. I can now say that I’ve watched his teachings on film, seen it in person, and felt it/done it myself. There is no quicker way to become convinced that something is right than when you do it yourself and have success.

CJ Davis is one of LB’s fulltime coaches. After playing at Pitt, he had a short NFL career with Carolina and Denver. He is a phenomenal teacher and communicator, and was dispensing knowledge, demonstrating and coaching us throughout almost every break. I had him as a demo partner in one drill, and the way he took me through it made me wonder about my own ability as a coach!

Matt Lee is LB’s strength and conditioning coach. His knowledge of training, kinesiology, power development and functional movement is absolute first class.  His presentations (with CJ demonstrating – we felt a lot of what was taught, but I’m glad we weren’t called on to front squat and snatch!) made me into more of a believer in Olympic movements for offensive line development than ever before. All I’d heard before regarding oly lifts is they “develop power”…..OK, great. Not inspiring. But Matt broke it down for us and explained why what he was talking about was so important, and exactly how it would make our players better. I can guarantee you that if I’m ever at a place that has a S&C program again, I’ll be incorporating his teachings.

Also, there were three current NFL players who came down on their own time to help out. Chance Womack (Tennessee), Larry Warford (Detroit) and Patrick Omameh (free agent, played for Chicago last year) are all very capable teachers and super nice guys (I just wouldn’t want to line up against any of them). I have a suspicion of “former/current players” being coaches because so often it seems they rely on their superior athletic talents to get by and don’t develop their communicative skills and don’t have an appreciation for what the average guy has (or, more likely doesn’t have) to work with. But these guys were great at offering suggestions, looking at what we were doing wrong and having the ability to fix it. I was working through some stance issues and Patrick came over and talked me right through it, told me exactly what changes would make me better. I can’t say enough about how helpful they all were.

Finally, there were two CFL guys there. I didn’t catch their full names (Matt and “Big Dog” was all I got), and they served as demonstrators as well. After Patrick helped me on my stance and ensuing pass set, I just remember Matt saying “Wow” – that pretty much made my day.

So, by now you’re thinking, “OK, great – they’re nice guys and great teachers. What did you learn?” Fair enough. I learned movement patterns. I learned how to move with purpose and intent. I learned how to move from the ground up, and I learned how to fight pressure with pressure at any point during a play. I learned that if you start bad, you’ll finish bad. I was taught OL play from an entirely different perspective.

There will be more clinics given by LB. The talk right now is to have one in July. I probably won’t be able to make that one, as our season games will be starting then, but if he sets a certain weekend (second one of May, for example) as a constant, then I’ll make my reservations years in advance. If you can’t tell, I have zero reservation in recommending that anyone remotely involved in OL play should pay attention to what LB has to offer. Make the trip when it is offered. I promise you you’ll thank me after.

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What’s got me just as excited is that I’ll get a chance to teach what I’ve learned to a brand new group of young OL next week when I’m in Las Vegas to conduct a high school OL mini-camp. Before this weekend, I had an idea of what the practice plan would look like. No more. In a sense, it is perfect, because the staff has just taken over at the school and wanted to concentrate on just the basics. And I’ve gotta admit that at one point I found myself wanting to push that envelope further. But now I have a much better understanding of the pace and importance of movement, and the learning of those patterns. So I’ve got two practices with the Nighthawks this week….we’re going to be spending our first 10 minute Indy periods from here on out focusing on stance and movement….and then I get to teach the high school kids.

Who’s got it better than me?  :-)

Into Pads & WFA Review

Things are starting to heat up in the Nighthawks camp – we went into pads last week. After seven weeks of one-a-week practices without pads, we started our 2x a week sessions which will last at least until the season starts in July, then we’ll reevaluate. As might be expected, the guys were itching to really get after it, and they did!

From an offensive standpoint, I’ve seen that I need to make some adjustments in which formations I run the counter out of – the defenders are just too fast, and I don’t want to automatically put my QB in a keep/run situation there. So in order to keep everything else consistent, I’ve just got to tweak the formation list a little to keep them honest.

Another nice surprise is how quickly the guys have picked up on the five man pass protection. I thought there might be more communication issues than there has been so far. I imagine that as the defense dials up more sophisticated schemes, we’ll have to keep adjusting upwards, and that’s OK.

It is also clear that our run game will have the ability to be a game-changer, and that was without one of our better backs even taking a rep. All in all, I guess you can tell I am pretty happy after the first week.

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This week I’m very excited to be heading over to Phoenix on Friday night to attend LeCharles Bentley’s OL Performance coaches’ clinic. LeCharles, as he puts it, “stays in his lane” when it comes to teaching OL technique. He keeps scheme out of it, and concentrates on the biomechanics, which don’t change – the body works how it works. Over time, I’ve seen him make some incredibly detailed adjustments which can make a big difference. I’m looking forward to going over, bonding with some fellow OL coaches (I know at least a couple of top San Diego high school guys will be there) and bringing back some knowledge that’ll make my guys better.

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I may have mentioned that I’m working with Dual Threat Athletics here in town. I had a young (11-year-old) OL out last week, who’d played for one year previously. I have a battery of initial drills that I put everyone through just to see where they’re at, and then I build the rest of the session off of those. This young man, once he got into what was his stance, I knew that whoever he played for before, there probably wasn’t an OL coach on the staff. And that’s OK….there may be a guy designated as such, but the chances of an experienced OL coach being at the youth level is relatively slim. Anyway, we worked for about an hour and I gotta say that at the end of the session, he looked like an honest-to-goodness Offensive Lineman. His Dad came up to me afterwards and said, “(My son) learned more today than he did all last season.” It is for experiences like that, that I coach.

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OK, a look around games of note for the WFA the past couple of weeks:

For better or worse, I called a couple of games billed as “big ones” correctly two weeks ago – Dallas beating Kansas City by 40 (I said “it wouldn’t be close”) and then the Central Cal War Angels beating the previously unscored upon Sin City Trojans 58-6 (I said, “War Angels by a comfortable (28+) margin”).

I have to give credit also to the Pittsburgh Passion – they really look like they’re stepping up into the upper stratus. Their game this week against Boston will tell if that is true or not. I’m going to go out on a limb and call this one for Pittsburgh, by 10 or less. That game seems to be the only one of true nationwide interest.

I think for now, the debate as to which team is #1 is settled – I think it is clearly Dallas, until/unless someone knocks them off. After beating DC on the road in Week 2, then having DC go up to Chicago and beating the Force in a nail-biter, the Elite seem to be truly that.

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Until I get into the Nighthawks’ season (or something else interesting pops up) I may not post for another two weeks. I’ll be out in Las Vegas in two weeks to conduct an OL mini-camp for a high school there, and will catch the Trojans vs. Pacific Warriors game. I’m definitely looking forward to both! Catch you later! 

Expectations & Review

While watching one of the women’s games this past weekend, I realized there is an interesting difference at the semi-pro level between the women’s and men’s game, and it lies in the expectations of coaches. When talking about plays/system/scheme I’m starting to believe that coaches in general overestimate what male players can do and underestimate what female players can do.

To be sure, at the elite level of the women’s game, this isn’t the case at all. I know staffs from across the country who are extremely demanding of their players, and if you looked solely at their schemes they are every bit as complex and advanced as their male counterparts. But at the “regular” level of the game, there just seems to be so much of the same ol’, same ol’ and I *know* the players are capable of more! You see teams lined up in an “I” formation probably 90% of the time and running three plays out of it. Or Double Wing teams….which is OK, if you look crisp. I do wish teams would remember that we’re in the entertainment business. Boring can be OK if you’re winning, but if you’re boring AND losing, you won’t have a fan base for very long.

Me personally, I probably tend to overestimate on both sides what my players are capable of. I always think I’m going to install a bunch of stuff, and then have to dial it back a little. The difference is that my female players will never say, “Oh, we can’t do that” whereas my guys will. With the women, I have to look at what our results are and what the reality is out on the field, and then dial it back. With the guys, they’ll flat out tell me something isn’t going to work before they even try it. In that respect, I definitely prefer the women’s approach – “OK, cool – let’s do this” and then trusting me to adjust. I think that with the guys, they’ve grown up thinking about the game certain ways, and those high school or JC thought patterns tend to stay with them. When they’re presented with something new, only those with adaptable personalities are able to go with it.

Anyway, I’m not sure why there is a difference, it just seems to me that there is. One other thing I’ve noticed is that men don’t seem to have the ability to do things at a learning tempo – it’s like they’re afraid to look like they’ve lost at anything. They don’t see the big picture – that we’re trying to learn a new concept or new play, and might have to run it a bunch of times in a row to get it right. 

Sometimes it’s OK if you have someone from the same side of the ball as the opposing player. But if it is an offensive drill and you’ve got defenders over there (or vice versa), you can forget about a learning tempo. It is flat out competition. And I can see the guys’ point (sometimes) – they’re out there to compete and make each other better. I get that. But in order to get better at something, you usually have to start out doing it slowly and make a few mistakes along the way. That’s why these last few weeks with the Nighthawks in no pads were so valuable. At appropriate times, guys were flying around making plays. But at others we were able to get some stuff down before stuff starts happening really fast – like next week in pads!

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Over the last couple of weeks in the women’s game, one score stood out to me above all others: Portland beating Seattle handily (40 to 0). That signals a sea change in the Pacific Northwest, where for the last few years Seattle has reigned supreme. I’m not sure if this is a result of Portland improving *that much* after the merger, or of Seattle dropping off. Quite honestly, right now I’m thinking there is a bit of a drop off in Seattle, because I saw their 13-0 score over the Tacoma Trauma and was surprised by that. However, the Fighting Fillies and the Shockwave combining forces had to have made them better. Either way, Portland is the team to beat up there, and if they truly did improve that much, then the War Angels had better look out.

Speaking of the War Angels, looks like they’ll finally play a team worth playing this week, when they face the Sin City Trojans. Both teams are at 3-0, and the Trojans haven’t been scored on yet. I’m going to pick the War Angels by a comfortable (28+) margin.

There’s been some debate about which team is better, the Chicago Force or the Dallas Elite. I don’t know for sure, although right now I’m leaning towards the Elite. However, in looking at remaining schedules, the Force also play the Divas, they play Boston AND they play Pittsburgh. If Chicago gets through their schedule unscathed, then I think the tide turns towards them. The Elite aren’t likely to be tested again until maybe when they play the War Angels, and even then I think they have way too much speed for Central Cal to handle. There’s some talk about the Elite’s game this week against KC as being a big one. I’m sure they’d love to hype it as that, but I’m not seeing it as close.

Over in the IWFL, there have been a couple of rating systems that have teams other than Utah as #1. Obviously these people have never watched football in their life. Sure, Utah’s strength of schedule may stink, but in the IWFL, saying someone has a strong schedule is like saying Doc was the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs. Utah remains a Top 10 team in the nation – not just in the IWFL, but in the WFA as well. Too bad we won’t find out how good they are.