MarriedandWhatnot

WEEK 22: madden, practice, practice pads, strategy
(8/10 – 8/16): Thank you for dropping by for another installment of Diary Of a Mad Youth Coach

MADDEN - I wrote about this early this week. Madden came out. I have been a fan of 2K for the past few years, but since they no longer have the NFL license, it really hurt them. They tried to do a legends version last year, but I have to say I was disappointed. This year’s madden is chucked full of features, and I have to admit I am truly impressed. I guess I have gone over to the dark side now. But hey…darth vader always looked sweeter than the good guys anyways.

PRACTICE -  Our team has been holding practices prior to the official one (first week of September). It is basically a group of returning kids, and some others. This was the first time my son played with pads on, so I must selfishly steer the next few lines towards him. I was very proud of him. Hitting doesn’t come natural for some people, and he did decent for his first attempt. I love when people come to me and say, “You have been working with this boy, huh?” or “So you said he never played football before? Wow.” That type stuff makes me proud. Shows me I wasn’t just talking and teaching for nothing. Also makes me reflect on my relationship with our heavenly Father. How sometimes He teaches us stuff, and we don’t see the purpose for it at the time…then you get to that one moment in life where you see your previous trials were preparation. So back to practice. One of my coach’s son played a couple years, and this kid is a straight beast. I started salivating thinking about how I could use him. I think he would be a monster at FB, but unfortunately he is 10 lbs over the weight for that position (I will talk more about youth rules later). After practice the team had pizza, then went swimming. Kids had a ball. We (coaches), went to the other end of the pool, and tried to remain cool in the 100 degree weather while talking about strategy, employment, and ex-wives. Yes, it was very interesting. lol.

PRACTICE PADS – Let me interject this before I forget. I told you last week there was a site with a youth football package. Well that URL is – www.footballamerica.com. You get a youth DNA helmet, facemask of your choice, shoulder pads, mouthpiece and pads all for $99. It is item #FBEP08.

STRATEGY – I am like most arm-chair quarterbacks thinking I know more than I do. I guess you could say I have somewhat of an arrogance (as my wife would say – you think?) when it comes to football. I remember in high school we had this defensive coordinator. He came in, and gave us this speech about how we will be the #1 defense in the area. We were so hype. Then he started to implement this system, and some of us were too dumb to figure it out (lol), so he had to simplify it for us. Prior to seeing these kids, I was drawing up this system of blitzing, line shifts, stunts. After this first practice, I see I need to go back to the basics.

Well that is all I have for now. See you next week!