For the past two years I have been very fortunate to meet some of the best and brightest youth coaches in America. Despite my remote locations, first in Kodiak, and then St. Paul Island, Alaska, the internet has allowed me to interact with, ask questions of, and learn from coaches all over the world. I'm very lucky to have had this chance.

One of the things I feel most fortunate about is my friendship with Clark Wilkins, the incredibly inaccurately nicknamed "Dum Coach". Folks, don't let the nickname fool you. Coach Wilkins is by far the most respected coach on at least two football forums I know of. The league he coaches in is set up so that, in an effort to maintain parity, the best coaches get the worst possible players. Players with ADD, ADHD, Down Syndrome, and every other conceivable form of learning disability are routinely assigned to his teams. Despite these setbacks, Coach Wilkins maintains a winning record, coaching not one, not even two, but three football teams. This record is made all the more impressive when you realize that many of the coaches he takes the field against are professional high school coaches hired by a local business to coach their sponsored football teams to a division championship.

Coach Wilkins runs the Wing-T offense, and a special version of the "50" defense. His email address is private, but if you wish to contact him, he may be reached at his forum, www.dumcoach.com.

This article is reprinted by permission of Coach Wilkins from a message board post he made November 14, 2000. The copyright on this article is held by Coach Wade in Coach Wilkins' name. You may only make copies of this article for personal or team use without express written permission of the original author.

~D.

They change head coaches at the high schools around here like they're on a merry-go-round. The high school I'm feeding players to has gone through three or four coaches in the last four years. That's the influence of the "company". If you don't win, you're out. They just don't tell this to the coaches that they hire.

Before the merry-go-round got started though, they had the same coach for about 20 years and he won about four state championships and about ten conference titles and my team provided him with 25% of his players. He came down and said, "Run this on offense. Do this on defense." And we did. Boring as Hel* but it worked. We won and so did he.

Now, with the merry-go-round spinning, I no longer pay any attention to what they're running. The prophecies of Jack Reed's books are being fulfilled. The head coach of my local high school of today will not be the head coach of tomorrow. Furthermore, what they're doing now (Expecting a quarterback and receiver to link up on an over the shoulder fade pass or read/look off a free safety at age 10) ain't gonna happen with my boys anyway. Fortunately, the high school coaches are smart enough to know that and they don't ask us too. Heck! They can barely coach that stuff themselves. Instead, they offer two policies. They are:

1) One for me
2) One for the rest of the league

The policy for the rest of the league is that the high school coaches will hold a clinic once a year for us youth and middle school coaches to attend. They offer classes on what they think we should know/might be interested in. You pick the classes you want to attend, and go.

Then there is the policy they have for me. I can get their fields. I can get their equipment. I can get their film. I can get their entire coaching staffs and they will come to my practices and demonstrate whatever I want in front of my kids. And why do they do this?

Because when I ask them for their help I never say, "If you'll come down and give my kids a blocking demonstration, maybe I'll use it this season." I figure if I say that, he has the right to say, "Well then maybe I'll show up." Instead, I say, "If you'll come down and give my kids a blocking demonstration, I will use it this season!" And the response I get is, "What time do you want us there?"

They do this for a simple reason. Most of them receive kids in the Frosh program that do things, in their opinion, wrong. So they have to un-teach it and then re-teach it right. I save them two steps. They only have to teach it to my kids once and then when they come into the Frosh program, they'll already know it and they won't have to be re-taught.

Granted, those high school coaches might not be around anymore by the time my boys arrive, but that's their problem, not mine. I got the use of their film, their staff, and their facilities and my boys all benefited from it. In my opinion, Jack Reed missed the boat. High school coaches represent free, hands-on teaching opportunities performed by experts used to working with young minds. I can just stand back and let it happen.

It's like that losing HS program whose practices you attended. You didn't approve of what you saw but you did learn things from them. I just pick and choose from what they have to offer and they're fine with that. They'd rather I adopted some things of theirs rather than nothing at all.

What youth coach here wouldn't love to have the local high school quarterback coach come down and spend a practice with their 10 year old QB? You can do it. All you have to do is ask and not waste their time. But I'll tell you who they won't do it for. They won't do it for Jack Reed.

Think about it. Where do you suppose I get all this information I share? Am I on the winning end or the losing end of this relationship?