3 Point Blogs - 3PointScore.com

Wow! what a game this week. My Chiefs won a very intense game against the steelers 29-20 which now makes us 2-1. We officially are having a winning season! and since we play the Vikings again next week, everyone is feeling pretty good.

Offensively our passing game was bad, it's a good thing we have a bunch of kids who know how to run with the ball. Defense truly was the reason we won this week because the Steelers had some pretty good kids on their team. Although we kept the lead most of the time and made some good stops, it was one of those games that had you going until the last 2 minutes because at that point it was clear that there was no way for them to come back and win.

After reflecting on the game I learned something very interesting. The Steelers are a very confident and intense team, so intense that on a few occasions my players would walk off the field crying because they got hurt by someone from the other team. My team is also very confident but sharply contrasted the intensity of the Steelers. It wasn't until I observed the whole situation that I realized why this was so. My assistant coach and I are both layed back, confident people that believe in having fun. These attitudes of ours transfers to the kids during the games and when they play, they too are layed back, confident and want to have fun. The Steeler's coaching staff on the other hand are very intense with the way they practice and speak with their kids and so this intensity transfers to those kids and it shows in the way they play the game. Now I do want my kids to be intense; but do I have to change who I am in order for that to happen?

One of my goals since I started coaching is to teach these kids to be positive. Every Friday night I spend about 15 minutes after practice to get them motivated about the the next day's game and to think positively. This week, the assistant coach spoke to them about Buster Douglas and how he was positive that he could beat Mike Tyson. Every Friday we'll be telling the kids a real life positive story and teaching them how to apply it to their everyday life.

Only 3 weeks into the season and a lot has changed. I'm watching kids change for the better right before my eyes. One kid didn't know how to keep his mouth shut the first time we practiced, now he is speaking less, listening more and has a lot more focus. Another one of my kids, when I first met him I truly thought that he was ADHD or worse, he couldn't focus for nothing, and when I spoke to him his attention, eyes and face was everywhere else but on me. Well this kid too, has greatly improved in the focus area. Some kids had no confidence in themselves in the first week of practice and now their confidence has improved. I'm truly proud of my kids.

This week I had to take my older son to his flag football game. During that time I was able to see two other teams from my division play against each other (We will be meeting one of them on week 8). Watching those two teams go at it made me realize that I'm gonna have to step up my game plan more so I can take the Chiefs to that next level. I have no doubt that we'll be in the championships, however, on the road to the championships, I don't want us to lose another game. I truly believe in my heart of hearts, that my Chiefs are a good enough team to go the rest of the season without a lose and to beat the Panthers next time we meet. After watching other teams warm up for their game I learned some new things to bring to practice that will be fun and help us become more of a defensive presence in the league.

There was one more thing that I learned this week. I experimented during one practice by having the kids run around the field before practice to warm up. This was an idea suggested to me by another coach. During that practice, those kids were so sluggish that it almost seemed like a waste of time being there. Six to eight year olds are active and full of energy already. my practice time is at 6:30, if they're not already warmed up at that time, it could only be because they just woke up before practice time.

I'm thinking of asking the coach of the panthers for a scrimmage game next week. Starting this week, I'm gonna start working on improving each kid on my team. If they all can improve their game individually our team will just get better. Until next blog, see ya.