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September 16, 2021
www.letsplayfootballmn.com
Ain’t in it for the money
by RYAN JOHNSON
Let’s Play Football
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. recruiters. I “I am saddened to see Many of the encourage athletes, and coaches to and hear about football the parents, tell their athplayers whose focus I am now letes to train seems to be on working with hard, comscholarships, not seem to have pete hard, a very differand as their following team and or ent focus on teams progcommunity dreams.” participating ress they will at the next gain more exlevel of athposure along letics than what I knew. the way. We tell them this because this I am saddened to see and hear is what we hear from the recruiters about football players whose fothemselves. cus seems to be on scholarships, not For smaller programs in smaller following team and or community locations these kids may need to gain dreams. I have seen situations that some exposure through these types of kids would rather walk on at the Dicamps etc. but for a kid to wake up the vision I level than take a full ride to a day after hoisting the trophy blows me Division 1 FCS or D2 or D3 level. I away. But for kids and parents to focan’t believe people would turn down cus on forty times over hard work, disall of that money! More often than not cipline, commitment, and life success I see kids that walk on end up walking it makes me think that we may have to off almost as quickly and end up givkeep our priorities in check. I would ing up on the game as a result. rather have a higher overall number This desire to make it to the top of of athletes that play and train for the the top trickles down into not only the love of the game as opposed to a small athletes playing but also their training. number of all-stars. All of a sudden the parents and athI have no problems with kids letes are now not necessarily training having dreams and working hard to to win a state title but maybe to win achieve them, what makes it hard for a scholarship. This isn’t always the me is when the parents have dreams case. Don’t get me wrong I am not for their kids. Parents organizing growing old and bitter here but let’s training and coaching outside of what just say that I have been seeing a lot we trainers and coaches are already more of this in recent years. I know of doing presents a dangerous overtraina young man who won a state title for ing situation. More is not always his football team on Friday night and better and if athletes aren’t getting was at a combine the next morning tryenough rest and recovery it could be ing to showcase his talents to potential 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 success 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-
falls is very beneficial. Once the game begins, our communication is mainly handled through our O2O system (Official 2 Official). These are the earpieces that you see many officials, even in the high school ranks, using now. Use of the O2O system streamlines our communication practices during the game. As an umpire, it is very helpful for me in penalty enforcement, ball spotting, and time clock management. Granted, there are still situations where you will see officials “huddle” when discussing something, but with the use of the O2O systems, game flow is so much better from a communication aspect. Lastly, successful crews utilize both the halftime intermission and their postgame locker room time to reflect on the actions of the half/game. As officials, we don’t have to make halftime adjustments; we just have to communicate with each other on what it is that went well, and what we need to improve on as a crew. Our crew has always felt comfortable with each other when things go askew. Yes, we are critical of each other when we need to be, because we want to be successful, but it is always done in a respectful
manner. Bottom line is that the officials you are watching, and hopefully supporting, rely on many aspects of effective communication as they prepare for, work and reflect on the game. Just like communication is vital between coaches and players, it to is just as vital for The 3rd Team as well! Good luck to your team this week. And, as always, please remember that the officials are out there working as hard as they can to ensure that your athletes are safe and play within the rules of the game. Please keep that in mind as you head to the game this week! If anyone would like any information about becoming a high school official or would like a topic covered in future articles, please feel free to contact Tom at tomriitters@yahoo. com. Tom Riitters is a graduate of Little Falls Community High School and of Saint John’s University. He is currently an elementary teacher in the Upsala School District. Tom has been officiating football at the youth, high school and college level for over 20 years.
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