In 12 years as a head coach, I have found that participation in the off season program is a culture, tradition and education thing, as much as it is commitment thing. Parents and players need to be educated on the importance of team work outs in the off-season. The culture that attendance is expected needs to be put in place and it needs to become a tradition. I have been at Dayton, Covington Holmes and Campbell County over the past 12 years and all 3 have been pretty difficult schools with off-season attendance numbers. All have different barriers to success when it comes to winning in the off-season.The number one thing to do is to find out what the kids are willing to do and make sure you can develop a training program that puts them in the best position possible to be successful.
When I got to Dayton HS in 2004 there were about 4 kids lifting weights. When I left in 2007, we had 25 consistently in the weight room. It was not a coincidence that the team's record improved greatly during that time. Our kids invested in themselves and the program. We worked out 4 days a week and it was called 60 Minutes because it was literally 60 minutes long. That included lifting and speed and agility work. We did 15 four minute stations. I found that it was easy to convince our kids to commit 60 minutes a day. I also stood outside school at the end of the day and funneled kids into the weight room. If they were going to skip, they were going to have to walk right by me and know that I saw them.
At Covington Holmes, I arrived in 2007 and there were less than 20 kids lifting weights consistently. We used the same type of 4 days a week 60 minutes program as we did at Dayton the first year and attendance wasn't very good. Year 2 I cut the program to 3 days a week and left it at 60 minutes. Our kids became more consistent and our core grew. Our kids were committed to 3 days, but when it was four, they were missing one day a week. We had around 45 kids each day at weights with around 30 being core kids that were there every day. At Holmes, most of the kids rode the bus, so I would stand outside by the busses each day and funnel kids into the weight room. It was funny, because by year 3 and 4, I would have girls on the bus yelling, “Coach Lickert, so and so is hiding on this bus so you can’t see him….” Once again, with the change in commitment to the off-season program, came major changes in the success on the field.
At Campbell County, we have had some different issues. Early on, kids would skip our weights in order to go to the gym or a personal 
trainer. I can’t even tell you how many emails I have sent the past 5 years to my parent list serve about how kids are expected to be at weights and personal training needs to be done in addition to our weights, rather than in place of. Year 2 & 3 were great years in the weight room as we averaged around 65. During those years, we lifted 4 days a week for 60 minutes a day. Year 4 was not a great year in the weight room with attendance. This year our guys are fully dedicated to the weight program and we are back in the 65 range. We changed our program into a Monday – Wednesday – Friday program this year and we go for 2 hours a day because we had so many kids wanting to do speed training and other outside programs. This allows them to go on Tuesday and Thursday to the other training they want to do or any kind of tutoring they may need. They know that M – W – F is football weights days and all other things need to be done on Tuesday and Thursday.
In Kentucky, we are not allowed to use playing time as a punishment or make weights mandatory. That is a big NO NO. I just tell our kids and parents that any kid NOT participating in an in-season Campbell County sport is expected to be at weights and I leave it at that. Our attendance is not perfect by any means, but not many are. Our core kids that are their everyday though is around 45 kids. They never miss. 20 or so kids are there most days and 10 or so miss more than they come.
The bottom line is games are won in the off-season. Football is too difficult for the uncommitted. Find the schedule that will get your kids to commit to the off-season training. With that commitment, the results will change as well.
Thanks for reading.
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