Coaching with my Dad

My first paid football coaching job was coaching under my dad at the middle school level. My dad's background is as a multi-sport athlete at a D2 school. He played football and baseball, and his claim to fame is striking out Joe Carter. I was brought on as a defensive coordinator and my dad coached offense. He has been at the school now for 9 years and has been very successful. He has a winning record against every school in the league and has finished second in the standings multiple times. However these past two years he has had undefeated teams and has won winning league championships. I was so happy to have been a part of the first one.

The first year as a defensive coordinator I was still in college and had a 45 minute drive to and from practice every day. It was a great experience and a lot of fun to be involved with this team. We started a lot of 7th graders and we were a small team, but our kids enjoyed the game and flat out got after it. We finished 5-2 that season and were pretty close to finishing 6-1. I was happy with how my first season of coaching went and coaching with my dad was certainly an awesome experience.

My dad has commented, "I have never had one of my assistants question what I was doing let alone say, "why the hell are you doing that?" The father/son dynamic made for an interesting coaching staff (the third coach on staff was one of my best friends). We were able to get on each other in ways that other people would and I think it made us both better coaches. We were free to express ourselves and out thoughts in a way a lot of staffs cannot do. 

That being said, it drove our family insane with the constant football talk (it still does). This talk has really never stopped. My mother and younger sister were annoyed constantly as we started planning for the next season as soon as the first ended. My brother is currently getting ready to begin his senior year at a D1 school where he is entering into his third year as a starter. The poor ladies of the house never get a break from the football talk.

Season two I was entrusted with the reigns of the offense. While I expanded a bit on the base offense my dad had run for years the heart of it stayed the same (breakdown coming when I can figure out how to get cutups on here). We finished the season 7-0 and set a lot of schools records. While it was an awesome season, perhaps making it better was that I was doing my student teaching at our biggest rival's middle school that season. I got a lot trash talk thrown at me the week we played, but when we won our game on a Thursday night all I had to do was walk into class with a big smile on my face the next day. 

Coaching with my dad has been my favorite coaching experience I have had, and I am sure it will always be amongst my favorites. I learned a lot and I am sure he did too. The next season I moved on to my first teaching/coaching job and my dad kept his undefeated streak alive for a second season. He took the offense back over and kept a lot of the things I had added to it and was just short of our scoring record we set the season before. His team is having camp this week as they are looking to add a third straight league championship to the trophy case. I am excited to be closer to home where I can make it to some of his games and throw in some much unneeded advice when I see fit.