How Youth Football Coach Ken Sloan Won His State Championship

Coach Jeff interviewed city and state youth football championship winner Coach Ken Sloan about his season.  Coach Sloan used the Youth Football Online Wing T Jet Series playbook masterfully, congratulations Coach!

Name: Coach Ken Sloan

League/ team name:  U-11  BGC/ Clark Falcons

Age Level: 9-10 year old

Location: Anchorage, AK

Coach Jeff: How many years have you been coaching youth football?

Coach Ken: 7 years

Coach Jeff: What is your favorite aspect of youth football?

Coach Ken: Competition. Watching them grow week to week in this contact sport is amazing.

Coach Jeff:  You won your city championship, tell us little bit about the journey to the championship.

Coach Ken: When we first started we only had 7 kids on the team. One full week later we were up to 22. We continued to work hard each and every day implementing our motto “hard work and dedication” to our practices and game day play.  Growing week after week with our fundamentals and techniques at each position on the field was key in this run.  Being able to share this championship with these players was amazing.

Coach Jeff:  Your team is running Youth Football Online Youth Football Wing T Jet Series Playbook, what is your favorite aspect of the Wing T?

Coach Ken: The fake and responsibility.  The Jet Series gives all 11 players a responsibility. If you aren’t blocking, you’re selling a fake.  My kids loved being tackled without having the ball. My lineman loved pull blocking. This offense is amazing. I’m glad I switched to it. I can’t wait to get back to it next year.

Coach Jeff:  What youth football defense does your team run?

Coach Ken: We ran a combination of the 5-3 and 4-4. In the championship game we ran the 5-3 exclusively. We had to have one of the best D-Lines in the state this year.

Coach Jeff: Are there any areas of  youth football coaching that you feel has room for improvement? What areas of coaching do you feel you are strongest?

Coach Ken: I think offensively we could’ve had better timing and blocking. Every play wasn’t crisp, but it was our first year running the Wing T Jet Set.  Next year I plan to drill selling that fake more and emphasize pull blocking more.  As a coach I want to improve on my teaching of blocking and situational play calling. I felt strong at teaching skill positions techniques throughout the season.

Coach Jeff:  What is the most challenging part of coaching youth football? For me it is dealing with disgruntled parents..

Coach Ken: This year I felt the most challenging was making sure that players got their snaps in practice and in games. I hate having a kid not be able to play due to the coaches forgetting about them.

Coach Jeff:  What are some of your most effective youth football drills?

Coach Ken: Oklahoma’s, angle tackling, W drill, scramble and throw, and 7 on 7.

Coach Jeff:  Physical education is crucial for kids; conditioning is a main focus while practicing. How do you promote physical education?

Coach Ken: We warm up with many stretching exercises and then get a light run in. At the end of practice we run snakes or 6 100-yards. I love hearing the players gut it out during the 100s. At the end they feel great. We really focus hard on conditioning on Mondays. We nicknamed Monday “C-Day” for conditioning Monday. We also let the kids know that the game is won in 4 quarters and those that tire can’t hang 4 quarters—“Hard work—Dedication”

Clark Falcons 2011 Alaska State Champions