Ain’t in it for the money

by RYAN JOHNSON

Let’s Play Football Columnist

Growing up in a small rural community it was a rarity for a local athlete to compete at the collegiate level beyond high school.

My hometown sent a couple of kids to local colleges in a handful of sports but was by no means a feeder program. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we were such a small town that no one had the time to commit to one sport full time. We were kind of all expected to do our share and change our gear for the next season.

At the end of our senior year in high school that was kind of that, athletic career over and done with and time to go to school and get on with the rest of our life. I was able to play four years of college football and honestly, I think I am one of only a handful of kids from my community to do so. I played community college ball and then went to a small Division III liberal arts college. Along the way, I met some amazing people, including my wife, and made contacts that assisted me in where I am today. If I had to claim a win or loss in life I would say I have won this game for sure.

The school I am now in is bigger than my hometown and the next two towns down the highway from it as well. Growing up, if anyone had the ambition to play college athletics they were thought of very highly for taking on the challenge to commit to a child- hood passion. Many of the athletes, and the parents, I am now working with seem to have a very different focus on participating at the next level of athletics than what I knew.

I am saddened to see and hear about football players whose focus seems to be on scholarships, not following team and or community dreams. I have seen situations that kids would rather walk on at the Division I level than take a full ride to a Division 1 FCS or D2 or D3 level. I can’t believe people would turn down all of that money! More often than not I see kids that walk on end up walking off almost as quickly and end up giving up on the game as a result.

This desire to make it to the top of the top trickles down into not only the athletes playing but also their training. All of a sudden the parents and athletes are now not necessarily training to win a state title but maybe to win a scholarship. This isn’t always the case. Don’t get me wrong I am not growing old and bitter here but let’s just say that I have been seeing a lot more of this in recent years. I know of a young man who won a state title for his football team on Friday night and was at a combine the next morning trying to showcase his talents to potential recruiters. I encourage coaches to tell their athletes to train hard, compete hard, and as their teams progress they will gain more exposure along the way. We tell them this because this is what we hear from the recruiters themselves.

For smaller programs in smaller locations these kids may need to gain some exposure through these types of camps etc. but for a kid to wake up the day after hoisting the trophy blows me away. But for kids and parents to focus on forty times over hard work, discipline, commitment, and life success it makes me think that we may have to keep our priorities in check. I would rather have a higher overall number of athletes that play and train for the love of the game as opposed to a small number of all-stars.

I have no problems with kids having dreams and working hard to achieve them, what makes it hard for me is when the parents have dreams for their kids. Parents organizing training and coaching outside of what we trainers and coaches are already doing presents a dangerous overtraining situation. More is not always better and if athletes aren’t getting enough rest and recovery it could be devastating to the kid. In my 20+ years of coaching, I have learned of so many situations of athletes simply doing too much, and are overtrained. I tell coaches to have conversations with the parents of their athletes and tell them that they are doing too much and need to back off. Usually, parents have been receptive to us and the common response from them is that they just want their kids to achieve success. At times I feel that society has created a monster from the standpoint that the focus of athletics is to obtain a scholarship and are willing to do anything to help them get it. Hopefully, we can support our athletes, help build them up, provide a road map to their dreams and not damage them along the way.

Ryan Johnson – “RJ” played football for Normandale Community College and Augsburg University. He now teaches physical education at Wayzata High School and is the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for Wayzata Public Schools, a position he began in 2000. Wayzata Athletics have captured 64 team state titles in his tenure and Johnson works directly with the threetime state champion football program as Director of Operations and Player Development. Johnson was named the NSCA 2017 National High School Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year. He is the Regional Director / Secretary for the National High School Strength Coaches Association (NHSSCA).

Officiating: Communication key component for on field

by TOM RIITTERS

I have been blessed to be part of a high school officiating crew that strives to be the best it can be on every given play. In this week’s edition of The 3rd Team, I’d like to share with you the importance of communication amongst an officiating crew before, during and after a game. As I highlighted last week, communication is a key component in the overall success of an officiating crew. For this article, I will focus on the communication practices of successful crews that I have both been part of, and had the opportunity to observe.

Successful crews do not just get together on a Friday night, get dressed and hit the field. Communication between the crew members the night prior to the game prepares us to officiate the night of the game. During the week, effective crews are researching teams, reading articles from local newspapers about the teams they are working with that week, and even reaching out to coaches to gather information about their players and team. All these practices lead to a level of preparedness that can only serve to help the crew.

On game day, whenever possible, our crew drives to our game together. This gives us ample opportunity to discuss the aforementioned items, and gives us a decent baseline heading into the game. Our intra-squad “car prep sessions” are used to discuss anything we have learned about the teams, and to be sure we are all on the same page with any obscure or unusual situations that we may potentially encounter during the course of a game. If a crew does not travel to a site together, these types of discussions often happen in the locker room prior to the crew taking the field.

Once on the field, that is where the art and practice of communication between the members of the crew is paramount to a crews overall success. Our crew spends this pregame time observing the teams as they warm-up looking for formation keys, defensive alignment, and a host of other items that serve to give us an edge come game time. Our crew gets together toward the end of pregame to go over any unusual things that were noticed during this time. Having this time to give us a “heads-up” for potential pit-