21st Century HS Football for Old School Coaches

" A new broom sweeps clean." I heard Coach Roy Walton from Tates Creek say that several years ago at a clinic. He explained it is relatively easy to show progress and generate interest in taking  over a football program in years one and two. But, what will your program look like in year five, or ten, fifteen and even 20 years? It is tough for a head football coach to stay in one place for an extended time, especially in the instant gratification climate of the 21st century. 

I experienced that first hand in my 19 seasons at Mason County.  In those 19 years, we were making progress in building our program, but it kept getting tougher to do so.  When I talk to other coaches who have been in the same program for an extended period of time, they share the same concerns about keeping their program new and fresh.

I am excited because we have come up with some great ideas to help keep our program fresh, modern & relevant.

Mercer County Titan Football will have a Twitter  & Instagram account. I understand a lot of coaches have a Twitter account. I will not. But, our football program will have one. It will be run by our administrative assistants, Morgan Reed & Gabby Banks. Morgan and Gabby are outstanding young ladies/student-athletes in our high school. 

If I tried to do Twitter or Instagram, it would appear old and dated. Obviously, with Morgan & Gabby, both of those accounts will have much more appeal to our students, fans, and younger kids in our school system that we want to recruit to our football program.  These accounts will be great for Mercer Titan Football.

Gabby Banks & Morgan Reed

Another way we will keep our program current  & fresh will be with the graphics in our locker room.  At Mason County we would permanently fasten motivational signs to the wall. Action photo posters would be placed in large frames and hung on the walls.  At Mercer County, our locker room was very generic at the beginning.

The Harrodsburg Herald has taken the motivational signs and action shots and turned them into vinyl banners with grommets.  We had a couple extras made so that every few weeks, Morgan & Gabby can switch out signs and photo posters and change up the look of the locker room. During the season, we will have some current in season action shots turned into vinyl banners that can be hung up as well. 

Finding a good system to switch out the banners was tough. Gabby & Morgan kept a sense of humor about it and I didn't have to worry about it.

In the way we run our program, I am still confident in our plan, schemes, fundamentals, and most importantly, how we treat kids. But, especially in the 21st century, there is more to it than that.  What we will do with Twitter, Instagram, & our locker room will be a big part of keeping our program relevant & appealing.

As a head coach it is critical to surround yourself with good people who can do some things better than you can. Morgan & Gabby will be much better at all of this than I would be. And, I really like that I can still do what I like doing as a football coach and they will do all of the work with our social media and the locker room. In my old age, I am trying to do a better job of delegating.  That will be tough. But on these items, this will be a little easier because I don't want to do this stuff myself and I know these projects will significantly enhance our football program. 

I would be interested in hearing from other coaches. If you incorporate these ideas, or if you have similar ideas after being in the same school for an extended period of time, please email me and tell me about it at david.buchanan@mercer.kyschools.us. 

The more I can recognize my own weaknesses and get help with those areas, the stronger our program will be.  I believe Coach Walton would like what we are doing!