By Jim Reese

Years ago, when the Internet and web sites and e-mail had yet to be invented, I had some articles on football coaching published in The Athletic Journal. I was an assistant coach then and I remember the thrill I felt when I received twenty-five bucks and saw my story in a table of contents listing some pretty important names in the coaching ranks of those times.

Years went by and I drifted out of teaching and coaching and into the business world and my scholastic coaching days ended, replaced by a thirty-year involvement with flag football, a game which was just beginning to gain wide popularity at that time.

I always had in my mind the notion of putting together a book about flag football but I never got around to it. The years went by with nothing but pages of notes lying in an old filing cabinet out in the garage. Then while surfing the net one night I came across  www.compusportsmedia.com and I saw a familiar name, Lou Howard.

Lou was a highly successful football coach from Amityville, New York, who was coaching about the same time I was out on Long Island. A great motivator and an innovative guy, Lou reached 100 wins faster than any coach in the history of New York state high school football. I remember talking to Lou and always being impressed with his enthusiasm and knowledge of the game.

I noticed on the site that Lou was selling a book he had written on the short-punt formation, The Shotgun and the Modern Short Punt. . I also read that it was down-loadable which meant that somebody who wanted it could press a couple of buttons and, presto, it started coming out of their printer at home. The light went on and I saw a way to go out to that old filing cabinet in the garage, dust off my theories on flag football, and submit it for consideration and, hopefully, publication.

Before long, it was accepted and now it is available for anyone interested in an old coach’s version on How To Win At Flag Football. And I get just as much of a thrill seeing it in print as I did those articles of so many years ago. I strongly suggest to any coaches out there wanting to share information and experience, and get paid for it, to consider this type of publishing.

Through the site I’ve made many acquaintances. One of the coaches I’ve met is a gentleman named Bob Troppmann, a retired coach living in California whose knowledge of football is truly enormous. Bob is a coach who still wants to share knowledge with his fellow coaches. To give you an idea of how he, and I am sure many other retired coaches are still held in such high esteem, may I share with you the following story I read in a California newspaper?

Coach Troppmann, a legend from years of coaching in California, was coaching high school football and one of his players was Pete Carroll. Pete went on to become coach of the Patriots and the Jets and is now the head coach at the University of Southern California. When the Trojans were preparing for this year’s Rose Bowl game against Michigan, Carroll invited a number of his friends from his home-town in Northern California to come to the game as his guests. Many accepted and made the trip south for the big game. But his old coach, now 80 and battling cancer, sent coach Carroll his regrets, saying he wasn’t up to making the trip with the rest of the townspeople heading to Pasadena.

As Bob was settling in at home to watch the game on television on New Year’s Day, shortly before the coin toss, his phone rang. On the other end was Pete Carroll, on the sidelines at the Rose Bowl getting ready for the biggest game of his career, a game that would earn him the national championship, asking, “what do you think, Coach, should we kick-off or receive?” How many of us dream of being remembered like that by our former players?

Some of you coaches out there, active or retired, have so much to give younger coaches from your experience gained over the years. If you want to help others, gain the thrill of seeing your work accepted and passed on, and be rewarded for what you do or know, I suggest that you, like Lou Howard and Bob Troppmann, and many others, sit down and put your thoughts together and send them in. I guarantee you’ll find it a labor of love, which is, after all, why we got into this coaching business in the first place.

—————————————————————————–

Editor’s Note: When Jim Reese submitted this article, my only comment was “wow”. As a footnote, I would like to share something from my recent personal experience that I too feel is relevant to many coaches, but particularly young or aspiring ones.

Pete Carroll, I believe, also mentioned his HS Coach Bob Troppmann in an interview on ESPN during the pre-ceremony show. I have personally become a big fan of Pete Carroll. I’ve mentioned this to Coach Troppmann on numerous occasions since Pete took the USC job and the media has shared with us the person who is Coach Carroll. I recall the post-game interview, on the field, after USC’s 2003 Orange Bowl victory over Iowa. Pete was full of class, grace, humility and compliments for his players.

I had the good fortune to hear Pete Carroll speak at this year’s AFCA convention and to meet Pete before the Coach Of the Year Banquet. That night, Pete was to receive the NCAA Division I Coach of the Year Award. I felt a special connection to Pete that night, since I had worked closely with his High School Football Coach, Bob Troppmann on the Master Defense “project”.

Pete’s acceptance speech that evening was one of the most memorable moments of the conference for me, and I am sure many in attendance. Pete talked about his long, hard climb to NFL head coach, his difficult experience in New England, and finally his gratitude for the “opportunity” to restore one of the nation’s most storied teams to the top of the National Rankings.

I learned long ago that there are many different styles of coaching, none necessarily better or worse than another, just different. I also learned that unless the style fits a coach’s personality, and the coach’s personality fits the coaching position, the results are not always the best.

It may be a cliche, but Pete Carroll is often referred to as a “player’s coach”. In the all-business world of the NFL, that is not always a formula for success. But in College Football, where High School “kids” become young men, coaches like Jim Tressel, Pete Carroll and many others have found great success with this approach.

As coaches, we all have much to learn from Pete Carroll’s experience. He has, through his fight through adversity as much as his approach to coaching, educated us. Thanks Pete, but then again, you too had a great teacher in Coach Troppmann!

Nick Interdonato
CompuSports