All-Star Week Update: Northwest Ohio All-Stars

 

Crestview HS (Convoy, OH) WR Venice Roberts takes the jet sweep hand-off around right end as head coach Jerry Cooper looks on

 

by Brian Wical
Cardinal Stritch Catholic High School Head Coach
Follow @CoachWical

This week has been flying by! In this past, this was always the official, unofficial, start to football mentally for me. Having never coached in this game previously, I always attended and watched our players at Lima Central Catholic take part in the game. In my mind, this always got my brain in full-blown football mode and in the mood for the season. I was already there this year, being a first year head coach in a new place, however, the practices have gotten me even more excited for football season to begin. 

On Day 2 of practices, we worked a lot more on the defense than on Day 1. The issue with the defense and this game is that there isn’t a lot that can be done from a schematic standpoint. You are required to either play Cover 1 (man-free defense) or Cover 0 (straight man-to-man) in the secondary, and you can only blitz your middle linebacker to either A-gap. The linemen cannot stunt and must be lined up over an offensive lineman (they can shade, but not align in the gap). Finally, you must do all of this out of a 4-3. Obviously, these rules kind of put a defensive coach in a bind and don’t leave a lot to work on. All-star caliber football players should be able to play these two defenses in their sleep. Needless to say, not much defensive work has been done in practice this week, however, much more was done on Tuesday. We also installed all of our counter run plays and inside run plays, offensively, as well as continued to rep our pass plays. The timing was much better and began coming together too. 

Day 3 was the best day of practice yet. We spent a lot of time perfecting our rocket and jet sweeps. The timing of these two plays essentially dictates the success of the entire offense and was critical we got it down. We also did a little more work with our special teams, although we struggled with our kicker getting the ball off the ground in kickoff, which was a little unsettling. Especially considering he was bombing kicks 70 yards on Tuesday. I am confident once the lights turn on though, all will be good in that area as well. 

Overall, I am really enjoying my time with all of the players. We coached against every player on the roster last season, and it is neat to see their talents up close. The one thing that is also neat is seeing the football IQ of some of the players that come from the better teams. Its not surprise that the kids who come from the more successful schools have some of the highest football knowledge and IQ, as well. 

Last night, both teams (WBL All-Stars and NOW All-Stars) came together in Van Wert for the first time. The teams have been practicing at separate facilities up to this point. We are given one hour of practice time on Thursday for a walkthrough-type of practice and then the people who host the game did  a cookout for all of the players and coaches. Naturally, I cant wait until 7:30pm tonight when we can play some real football, though!