This is an article that ran in Headsets by Brent Morrison:
LET COACHES COACH
Typically my article is geared more towards offense, but this one will be more focused towards workload distribution. I specifically remember walking into my first coaches meeting at every job as an assistant coach. I looked around the room and saw all the other coaches with more experience and tenure than me and thought I would be getting coffee for everyone else. As a coordinator and head coach it is our responsibility to develop these coaches and give them a clear role. When I first took over as the head coach I was also the offensive coordinator, strength coach, QB coach, youth camp coordinator, booster liaison, recruiting coordinator, social media director, academic coordinator, equipment manager and the list keeps going on and on.
After the first season, I was truly exhausted and needed a change. Over the years I have learned to let go of all these things and allow others to take ownership of them. Most head coaches have very controlling personalities and struggle to let go of these things but for longevity, health, development of staff and family time, I encourage you to let others take on some of these roles.
Think about your typical practice set-up and there are probably position coaches working with groups all over the field and you have to trust them. They have to be able to communicate and teach so those players are able to perform as part of the whole. As the head coach or the coordinator you can not be everywhere at once and coaches need to be trusted. I typically tell coaches that the less time I spend around your drills, means the more trust I have in you. In order for coaches to develop, it is important to start the process in the off-season. I have all my new coaches clinic me on their position in our system. So the coach will give me at least an hour session explaining his philosophy along with drills, coaching points, etc. Some of the other coaches are typically in the audience and will ask questions and chime in with their thoughts. It typically turns into a discussion and best practices session at the end. Then myself or the coordinator will sit down with them and discuss what we liked and didn’t like from the presentation. I would advise you to approach this with an open mind because they may know techniques or strategies that are better than what you are currently doing.
Next we ask coaches to submit practice plans for their individual time prior to the start of the week. Each drill needs to specifically address football specific needs, no random drills just because they see them on youtube. Once the coach becomes established in the program we no longer need to have plans submitted.
As a head coach and coordinator it is important to constantly be evaluating and giving feedback to your coaches. There should be no surprises during the end of year meeting. As you watch them coach and they show competency begin to let up on the reigns and give them space. Obviously everything has to mesh with your big picture of the offense/defense and the team. We have all read about the concepts of small group cohesion and how it positively impacts a football team, so allow the assistant coaches to lead the small units.
In your program there are a lot of non-coaching items that can be distributed among your coaches as well. Find your coaches strengths and give them tasks. As long as they are getting the job done, allow them to put their own spin on it. Here are some of the most time consuming tasks that I have given to assistant coaches.
RECRUITING: There are lots of documents, graphics, emails, grade checks, film work, etc that can easily be done by an assistant coach. This is a great task for a younger coach that has been through the process as a player or has aspirations to coach at the collegiate level and wants to establish contacts. Obviously college teams will want to talk to the head coach at times, but so much of the other work can be performed by anyone.
EQUIPMENT: This is probably the biggest headache of mine. Find the most organized coach on your staff and let him take this on. This is a huge financial responsibility and should not be taken lightly.
TECH/FILM: I actually have one guy on offense and one on defense that takes charge of this. They make sure headphones, endzone cameras, sideline film, etc are all set-up and functional. Then they load the film and make sure it is distributed and tagged appropriately.
YOUTH CAMP: If you have an elementary school teacher on staff, then may be the best option. This typically involves planning the camp, coordinating field use, distribution and marketing.
APPAREL: I can not believe how grown men act about coaching apparel. Seriously, it is impossible to please everyone. Between coaching and player apparel you are dealing with 1000s of items each season.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Some of my assistant coaches have done this in the past, but we actually have a program with student managers and the goal is to get one in the program for a few years, build trust and then let them make graphics and other things to be posted. If your school offers graphic design or some other class that works in this field, then you may be able to use it to your benefit.
FUNDRAISING/BOOSTER: In my program I handle all booster communication but I know some teams that have coaches with business backgrounds that become very involved with the process.
STRENGTH COACH: An assistant coach is a much better option as a strength coach. The head coach has so many things that pop up during weight training sessions that it is nice to have one person that can dedicate themselves to that cause. They should be the person that has the ability to raise the intensity level of your program very quickly.
ACADEMIC COORDINATOR: In our program we have a few teachers in the building that are given this responsibility. We give each of them a few student's to build relationships with, check grades and try to intervene and help when needed.
As a head coach some of these items get pushed back on me from time to time but I save myself 100s if not 1000s of hours of work, emails, phone calls because I have trust in my staff to handle the majority. I was very reluctant to hand over some of these items but I made sure to clearly communicate my expectations and frequently check up to make sure things are being done the correct way. If you go to a collegiate program or any successful business there is probably a collaborative environment of trust. Use those models at the high school level to distribute the workload and get the best from all of your staff and help them develop.