Youth Football Online Coach Interview- Roderick Brown
Youth Football Coach: Roderick Brown
Organization name: Waccamaw Youth Football Georgetown County
Location: Pawleys Island, South Carolina
Coaching position: Head Coach, Offensive coordinator
Coach Jeff: What age level do you coach?
Coach Roderick: 9-10
Coach Jeff: How many seasons have you been coaching youth football?
Coach Roderick: 7
Coach Jeff: I feel every coach has room for improvement. After every season I sit down with my assistant coaches and go through thorough analysis of the season. We figure out what we did well and what we could have done better. Are there any areas of youth football coaching that you feel has room for improvement? What areas of coaching do you feel you are real strong at?
Coach Roderick: We are always looking for areas to get better. I think I need to do a better job of installing plays that will work with our talent. This past year I needed to have more of a power running game to expose some weaknesses on the other side. We were too focused on off tackle and outside running. I also need to work on play calling in critical moments.
I think our strength is making our kids know we believe in them and that it is ok for them to trust us. That has to be earned and I believe we do that well.
Coach Jeff: What are your goals for the upcoming youth football season?
Coach Roderick: Our main goal every year is to have fun! Then we start breaking down our team goals and that is to make the playoffs– That all takes care of itself when we do things the right way and that starts in August.
Coach Jeff: What is your favorite aspect of coaching youth football?
Coach Roderick: Without a doubt it is the kids……I love to take a kid and work with them not only to teach them about the game of football but share with them things that help them with life. The number one things a lot of kids suffer from is non –confidence; so if I can give them confidence and make them believe in themselves then I have done my job.
Coach Jeff: What offense are you thinking about running this season? Why?
Coach Roderick: We try and keep it simple and run base plays out of the I formation but it depends on your talent and we adapt our offense around the kids at this level.
Coach Jeff: What defense are you thinking about running this season? Why?
Coach Roderick: That could be difficult to put in a category but some version of a 5-3 but we bring guys off the end and set guys up in spots to make plays to stop the outside game. That is mostly what we see in our league at this age is sweeps.
Coach Jeff: What is the most challenging part of coaching youth football? For me it is dealing with disgruntled parents, once in a while I get a few crazy ones.
Coach Roderick:For me it is not knowing enough x and o’s. I am very blessed with parents and the key to that is tell them up front in team meetings what to expect and get them involved. Youth football, more than any other sport has to have parents involved.
Coach Jeff: I put a decent amount of time into special teams, I feel many coaches spend little to no practice time on special teams. Do you feel special teams tends to get overlooked by many coaches?
Coach Roderick: I think the less experienced coaches drop the ball there but in our league we don’t punt so we spend time each week on kick off-and return and we haven’t any issues there.
Coach Jeff: I feel physical education is crucial for kids; conditioning is a main focus of mine in practice. How do you promote physical education?
Coach Roderick: We do conditioning but we do it in a variety of ways to get it in….maybe I am soft but I don’t think real conditioning happens until 6th or 7th grade where their bodies can handle it more effectively.
Coach Jeff: What are some of your most effective drills?
Coach Roderick: Tackling drills, blocking drills ..If you block and tackle well you will win games.
Coach Jeff: Do you think making youth football free for kids in town (budgeted by the municipalities) will keep kids busy, while teaching them about physical education? Do you feel this will deter kids from getting into trouble?
Coach Roderick: Here we pay $3 , it can’t get cheaper than that…….yes I think it keeps them out of trouble and can be the key to some childrens escape from lots of trouble.
I would like to take the time to thank Roderick Brown for taking time from his day to do this interview. He is a great coach that is there for the right reasons. Roderick loves his players and he teaches them much more than just football. I look forward to following him and his team this season. It was a pleasure to meet you coach.
-Coach Jeff
If you are interested in doing an interview please contact us, parents and coaches welcomed.
