Folks, since we all love football and things are a little slow around here lately, I thought I would share a true story with you. My older brother is eight years older than me and he has four grown children, three boys and one girl. Back in the eighties and nineties he coached junior pee wee level football for the Pop Warner Oak Grove Rams in South San Jose. I think he coached that level all the way up to JV level at Oak Grove High School as his own sons grew older and moved up. I believe he coached youth level for 12-15 years and had a national champion during that run.
The year before he started coaching his eldest son at 8 years old was playing his first year of junior pee wee and was one of the strongest players on the team, rarely leaving the field. At the end of a blowout win the coach for his sons team put in his minimum play players for four plays, because he was required to do so. The coach instructed them to take a knee all four plays. After the game my brother approached the coach and told him if his son were one of the kids he had taking a knee he would "have him by the throat". To defend himself the coach said "what do you want me to do, they don't know the plays"? Naturally, my brother says "who's fault is that"? They verbally volley back and forth and before you know it the coach says to my brother "if you think you can do better, coach the minimum play kids". So my brother coaches those 6 or 7 kids for nearly a week and by the end of the week they scored a TD or two off the starting defense. Oh by the way, one of those kids was a very young Mark Grieb from San Jose Sabercats fame. Grieb playing all through high school with my nephew and was a pretty average high school quarterback. What folks didn't know about Grieb is he would be a late bloomer.
I'm sure there are plenty of stories about excellent youth level coaches but this one is my brother, so I'm biased. He took some time off from coaching and is now back to coaching youth football in the Brentwood area in his early sixties. HIs "excuse" was to coach his grand sons and even a couple of grand daughters for one season. He still coaches with no relatives on the squad. He tries to make football as safe as possible for the kids without softening the game. Great example is he learned from experience there's nothing to gain by pitting your two biggest studs head up the first day you're allowed to hit and get one of them injured because testosterone is running high. He's the kind of coach that once a win is secured, he plays his minimum play kids a full quarter up to half of the game to avoid running up the score and doing so because it's the right thing to do. Kids love him and parents love him. Most kids he has coached continue to play football for years after they leave his squad. To me this is the ultimate measure of a youth coach, do kids continue to play and love football?
I always regretted he was not able to coach my own son, but he lived in San Jose and I live in San Ramon. Regardless, my son got some pretty damn good coaching without my brother's influence. Some of you have met him at a few Cal High games he has attended over the past three years.
However good or bad they are as coaches, we owe a huge debt to the men and women that donate countless hours of their time to coach our kids.
