Never Too Late to Get Better….Planning Spring, Pre-season, and Prepping for Game 1
Never Too Late to Get Better….Planning Spring, Pre-season, and Prepping for Game 1 The following article was written by veteran football coach David Buchanan and is excerpted from his book, “Black Shoes and White Shoestrings.” One of the reasons…
Stealing Reps, Utilizing Quality Coaches, 21st Century Reality
The following article was written by David Buchanan, a high school head coach for over 25 years and a frequent contributor to AFM. This excerpt is from his book, ‘Black Shoes and White Shoestrings.’ You can reach Coach Buchanan at…
Building a Coaching Staff & Program: Technique Practice
Over the past few days I have talked to a couple of young head coaches who are looking to build a staff. It reminded me of the conversations I had with Chuck Smith, 25 years ago, when we were young…
Financing A Football Program: From Dysfunctional to Normal to Good
This article is excerpted from ‘Black Shoes and White Shoestrings’ by David Buchanan, a frequent contributor to AFM and AmericanFootballMonthly.com. When we got started at Mercer County in the spring of 2015, our financial situation was not very good. There…
Tony Dungy, Chuck Noll, and Bill Belichick
This article is excerpted from ‘Black Shoes and White Shoestrings’ by David Buchanan, a frequent contributor to AFM and AmericanFootballMonthly.com. As a football coach, Coach Tony Dungy stresses the concept that the key to post season success is to continue…
Finding Something Positive…. at Notre Dame
In the fall of 2011, our Mason County Royals finished the season at 2-8, on October 21st. Forget about Thanksgiving Day practice… we didn’t even make it to Halloween. It was depressing. John Combs had just completed his freshman…
Exit Interviews
I try to have exit interviews with every player at the end of the season. I ask all of them four questions: 1- What did you like about playing football here? 2- What did you not like about playing…
A Great Gift & Shooting the Elephant in the Room
This past Thursday at our football banquet, Gabby Banks & Morgan Reed gave me one of the nicest gifts I’ve ever received at the end of the season. It was an engraved, framed picture from their appearance on the Scholastic…
June Workouts: Making adjustments
As we begin preparation for year two at Mercer County High School (KY), we are making progress but still have much to do. One area that we have had to adjust has been our June workouts. Although we had made…
21st Century HS Football…. for old guys like me
The same article appears at this link and the graphics come through easier: https://blackshoesandwhiteshoestrings.blogspot.com/2016/06/21st-century-hs-football-for-old-school.html ” A new broom sweeps clean.” I heard Coach Roy Walton from Tates Creek say that several years ago at a clinic. His point was, it…