Glendale and Mesa Passing League

Usually we send our JV team to Glendale HS for their passing league. The HC of Glendale was complaining that our Varsity team wasn't there. We came out and had a good but bad showing. We started off with Sierra Linda. Held them to one score in non-competitive competition. We scored at will against them. Next we had Phoenix Christian. We shut them out and scored easily. Next was the bad we got into a shoot out with Dysart. The defense blew coverage all game. The last game was against Ironwood. They came out talking smack and I really wanted to put a beating on them. We scored first then they scored. We got a stop and they got a stop. We drove inside the 5yd line and had 2 dropped passes in the end zone. They got the ball and we got a stop. Next drive we scored and held them. We had to have a talk about the history and tradition at Tempe High and if our guys were deserving of the uniform that men before them have worn. that must have sparked something....

Mesa High Passing League-

We tried something different for warm up today and it light a fire. We came out against Mesa High and pitched a shutout while scoring 3 times. All out effort from everyone. Game two was against Desert Ridge. We have seen this team 3 times before and know they try to run no huddle, so we went with a coverage that gave us a chance. scored 3 times and keep them to 1 score. Game 3 was against Desert Vista, we gave them all they could handle scoring 4 times to there 1. Big time defensive effort with 2 interceptions. Game 4 Desert Ridge; We almost decided to not play this due to Desert Ridge first team avoiding us again for the 3rd time. So we gave their 2 team another beating. The last game was against North Canyon. We felt disrespected when one of their coaches asked if everyone had played today. We came out and scored right away. They scored and we traded another score with them leaving the game tied at 2. we had the ball and caught their LB sleeping on a wheel route and our halfback dropped a pass in the end zone. So we needed a stop. They dove down inside the 5yd line and we got two drops and 2 pass break ups to stop them. We ended the day 4-0-1. Big step in the right direction. Go Buffaloes!

Updates...

Been a week since last post. Here is a rundown of the last week.

Friday- ASU Passing League: Had a good showing against some good teams. We were a bit inconsistent throughout the night on Offense and Defense. Our offense has spots where they look unstoppable then they can't complete a pass for stretches at a time. Our WR's are young and need to be more consistent with catching the ball with their hands instead of their body. On Defense we look good towards the end of the tournament. We are still having problems with re-routing WR's and sinking into our zones of responsibility. The last two games we had a couple of interceptions to end the night on a good note. Being so young we tend to play in spurts, good and bad. Finished the tournament 3-3.

Thursday- Mesa High passing league: Once again started off slow against Desert Ridge. Defensively our LB's just aren't getting deep enough in coverage. The offense came up empty in the red one twice.. We had a overall good showing against Casa Grande. Defense had 3 stops in the redzone. Against Corona we had success against their slower defense the entire game. On defense we had some critical stops at the end. We had a dominate showing against Mt. View on defense and offense. We had 4 straight stops against them with one interception. Was pleased with our effort against them. The last game we played Desert Ridge again, this time around we scored when we needed to and got some stops. We played a lot of back ups to get a look at them because we have 3 passing leagues left before we go into camp and I'm trying to make a depth chart before that. I have already started working on our defensive game plan for the McClintock game.

SAS Camp Week 2

Today was day 3 of week 2 of SAS Camp. The kids are starting to get in a rhythm of the warm up and getting to their stations quickly. Today was lower body day. Squats, front squats, leg extensions, leg curls, some GHD extensions, and lunges. We finished the day off with some 3x3 power cleans. We are really excited about the future of our program and the overall growth of the lower levels of our athletic program. Next week we are ready to had out workout sheets and kids get to work. We have their folders set up and we are ready to rock "n" roll. Varsity passing league is tomorrow at Mesa high. Their are top tier teams in the state in this league that we didn't draw last week so we should be getting some of them tomorrow. Friday we go to ASU for their passing league so tomorrow should be a dress rehearsal for that.

SAS Week 2 and Marcos passing league...

Today for SAS we had upper body split. I know all my CF friends will say something about it, but it's sports specific training. We had them bench, incline bench, alt military press, hammer curls, push press, and jammer presses. Tomorrow they will have lower body and a circuit on Thursday. Also today Andre Thurmond who played with the Green Bay Packers came by and caught some passes from our QB's and did some agility work in the weight room.

The Varsity team traveled to Marcos de Niza high school for 7on7. We started slow on offense and defense. This has been a serious trend we need to break. After about 2 series we caught fire. We scored on 5 straight possessions. That was a good feeling and on defense we had 3 interceptions in the red zone that got me fired up... I think they are starting to understand the coverages and what we are asking of them. I think we might be ready to add another cover age to the mix this week.

SAS Camp Week 2

Today was the start of week two of our SAS Camp. Today we had 30 stations lined up for the kids. They rotated every 30 seconds with 15 seconds of rest through the stations. Some of the stations we had set up were; Double unders, box jumps, TRX plank holds, pistols, dot drill, agility ladder, squats, one leg lateral jumps, one leg RDL w/ dumbbell, lateral hurdle jumps to name a few. All 3 classes were wore out when it was all said and done. We felt that we needed to add a metabolic effect to the training without having to bare the 110 degree temperature of today. Tomorrow we are going to implement the upper body/lower body split with conditioning. I can't wait to get the kids doing prowler pushes and sled drags up the turfed ramp we have. It's going to be a fun summer. Tomorrow we have passing league at Marcos de Niza and we're looking to build on our success and progression from Saturday.

Corona Del Sol Passing League

Well today we were in the Corona Del Sol Passing League. Our first opponent was the Peoria Panthers. Our Defense came out sharp. Breaking on balls and making plays. The enthusiasm was contagious from the very beginning. In all we played 8 games. I liked the format they had, you had 25 minutes of Offense or Defense and you could totally coach the entire time. Was proud of my son who is an incoming freshman and stood out the entire day. From a coaching standpoint, I was pleased with the Defense as they minimized the mental mistakes that plagued us on Thursday. We had a little bit of loss of focus in the middle game but a quick pep talk on "Passio Bellator" got us back on track. By no means are we were we want to be but you could see a vast difference between Thursday and today. We need to take the good and continue to build upon it. I love how are young kids are stepping up to the plate against the bigger schools. Once again this was a league full of schools that are Division higher than us. The restoring of Tempe High Pride is under way. Jump on the wagon now... Go Buffs!!!

Day 3 SAS, Passing League Game 1

Today in SAS I taught two of my favorite lifts. The back and front squat. It's funny to see how flexible kids are... We had a group of incoming freshman and 2 8th graders that were pretty much doing ass to ankle squats... Pretty damn impressive in my book. Today was our first passing league game. Here in AZ it's 5 round robin games that last 45 minutes. Game 1 highlights; we came out with jitters(which I expected due to how young we are) and played slow and with too much thinking. Tons of mistakes and really nothing to cheer about. After the game I got the team together and said, " well we have that out the way let's play ball." Game 2; we started to gain a little momentum but the kids were playing with no passion.... Another Coach Gant pep talk and then it clicked... Game 3; Defense stepped up and played big time against a school 2 divisions higher than us. We got the win. Game 4; It was back and forth the whole 45 minutes. What I liked was that on Offense we had drives not one pass touchdowns. I think that showed the character of our kids to not give up. Another victory against a school 2 Divisions higher than us. Overall I was pleased with our efforts, considerable improvements from when I came on board in Jan. Looking to get better, but also looking forward to the one day off before we hit the field again on Saturday morning.

Day 2 SAS and Day 1 Next Level Skills Camp

Today we had 32 kids in the Newcomer class today... Today was introduction to the bench press and incline bench press. Once the kids were comfortable with that we went over hang power clean for explosive training. The kids did 4-3-2-1 on a whistle seeing if they could re-set and explode in the time allotted. For the Varsity team we got more reps in the passing game and then moved into a chalk talk for the defense in preparation for tomorrows game. We covered are different coverage packages and formation recognition. As a youth coach I always put an emphasis on kids understanding what they needed to do on the next level(HS), but those fundamentals seem to be lacking with kids coming into high school these days. After spending 1245pm-430pm with my team I moved on to the Kenny Wheaton Next Level football skills camp. I always have enjoyed coaching young kids. I got to work with 4 lineman between the ages of 10-14 years old. After two hours with them they were executing drive block, cross block, fold block, pulling, and down blocks. I even rewarded them by letting them catch some passes with the tight ends. Great group of kids who were totally coach able. I love my job..

First Day at SAS Camp

Today was our first day at SAS(strength, agility, and speed) Camp. Arrived at the school around 12:15 to discuss with the head coach the plan of attack for our newcomers. We had no concrete idea of how many were going to show up because 1. yesterday was a holiday and 2. really hadn't heard any feedback from the junior highs. To our surprise 26 newcomers showed up. Talk about being pumped about the future of our program... We walked the through the first of our 4 core lifts the Clean. I always start instruction for the clean from the hang position. Just easier than teaching it from the ground. Before the 2 hour block was up we had gotten all 26 athletes hang power cleaning. Our next two groups were kids that were already in the program but we have adopted a new policy of always starting over, so they got the same treatment as the newcomers. From scratch.... After that we moved into 7on7 individual work.. Today we worked Offense in preparation for our 7on7 game Thursday. I work with the WR and our biggest problem is catching on a constant basis... So for 45 minutes we worked on footwork, route running, and catching drills before joining the rest of the RB's and QB's. Overall a productive day. Looking forward to tomorrow and working the back 7 on coverages.