Recruit Night- recruiting football players in the 21st century

In the 21st century, how do you recruit guys to your football program?

This becomes more important every year. Kids have a bunch of activities competing for their time and attention. Most of those activities demand much less than football. Also, coaches at other schools will aggressively (and illegally) recruit your best players to attend their school. Good grief, I even had one opposing coach basically admit to this in pregame one night!  If we THINK kids are going to automatically show up to play football in our program, for most of us, we are wrong. 

We started recruit night at Mason County HS and have continued it here at Mercer County HS. One of the driving forces for me was my belief that if I could get the parents with my assistant coaches, they would want those men coaching their son. 

We model this after how colleges will do recruiting weekends. We invite the families for a small meal of appetizers and we include 3 tickets to the basketball game that evening, which should be one of the best games of the season.

In early January, we send these postcards to prospective 8th graders that will be freshmen in the upcoming season:

front of post card

back of post card

We will also have our coaches call to follow up and invite the kids and their families. Once we get them there, here is our itinerary:

Overall, this has been an effective way to get kids introduced to our program and get them going in HS football. We host it on a Friday Night and call it their first Friday Night of HS football.

If you have ideas to recruit kids to play HS football, IN YOUR SCHOOL, please send me your ideas to coachdavidbuchanan@gmail.com.

2018 Offseason Day #1 : A good investment already paying off

Change of Direction Tag- An idea we stole from the Bluebirds

This past December we made the decision to put a high grade indoor/outdoor "turf" on the top level of the complex. The plan was to use the top level and split it into two areas. One area would be for running backs & linebackers. The other area would be for offensive and defensive linemen.  The main turf, original turf on the 1st level would be for wide receivers, quarterbacks & defensive backs.

This time last year, all 57 guys would have been in this space.

Today was our first day back in school and we didn't waste anytime in working to get better. We had our 1st Perfection workout of the offseason and it went great!  The extra space really made a difference.... to the point that I feel really stupid that we didn't figure out a way to get this done earlier. To be fair, we didn't have the money. But, thanks to our field sign and game sponsors, we were able to finally pull it off. And, I am glad we got it done quick. It was great to have it available on the first day of the 2018 offseason.

Running Backs- top level turf

We still have a long way to go and alot of room for improvement. But, we have no excuses for not being the best we can be.

Linemen- top level turf

For a little more information on Perfection workouts, go to : Perfection Workouts 2016

Linemen- top level turf

Also, great job here by Raegan Long with our social media: Titan Blake Russell on Perfection Workout #1 !

Linemen- top level turf

Tackling Rings- Improving Technique without contact

Tackling Rings- Improving Technique in the offseason

A gift so great.... I never thought it was even possible

Robert Allen Yankey, #11,  playing Quarterback at Greensburg

My Dad's first game as a head football coach was leading the Boyle County Rebels at Greensburg HS versus the Dragons, August 29th, 1969. I was 4 years old and made the trip.  The Rebels did not win a game in 1967 or 1968. 

The Rebels defeated the Dragons that night 14-6. I was so excited I couldn't sleep. Only 4 years old, my mom let me stay up until my Dad got home. I will always remember that game and that night.

The 1969 team went on to finish the season 9-1-1, a huge turn around from going winless two seasons in a row. It was one of the happiest times for my Dad and our family.

Tonight, Lee Glasscock, a senior on that 1969 team, gave me a dvd copy of that game.  I never dreamed I could have a video of my Dad's first game as a head coach. Now I have it thanks to Lee.

2018 is off to a great start.