How to Coach Youth Football

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Lawal McCray Senior. I'm the head football coach at Blanche Ely High School. We're located in Pompano Beach, Florida. How to coach youth football. Youth football is the foundation of football. This is where it begins, with the little kids on the field, running around. The most important thing that I could advise a coach to do about coaching youth football is understand that it's about the fundamentals. Emphasis should be taken away from just winning, but understanding that the fundamentals, the skills, are the most important things for these young kids. Encourage the kids, be positive at all times, and let the kids know that you're there for their wellbeing. Now, it's important to understand, when you're dealing with youth football, you're also dealing with parents. Dealing with parents is key to having a smooth football season. Knowing how to handle them, laying down concrete rules, make sure everybody's on the same page, being professional with them at all times. Now the word professional is very important. We must understand because even though you're coaching youth football, and you're doing it on your own free time, that you still must be professional. You have many young people looking up to you, you have parents trusting you with their children, so it's important at all times you're being professional in appearance, in speech, and behavior. You are molding the next great student athletes every single day. One thing that is missing in youth football that we need to improve on is getting the young people to understand that football is very important, but to play football, they must focus on the academic part of it also. Without the academic part, youth football will end, and they will not have the opportunity to play in high school. If they don't have an opportunity to play in high school by maintaining good grades, they will never have a chance to play in college. So please, it starts with the youth football coaches to emphasize to the young kids that academics is the most important thing, then comes football. Without one, you cannot have the other."