A Letter to My BGN Friends
Dear BGN Members,
It's been a while since I've posted anything on the blog, but I can explain. At the end of August, I left my job teaching math at a wealthy, high-end prep school to teach 8th grade math at a low-income public school in Montgomery County. The demographics of the school are 55% Black, 25% White, and 20% Hispanic. Why did I leave my previous job? Well I couldn't stand the prep school. The kids were obnoxious, the administration was a fraud, and the pay and benefits weren't as glamorous as the school led everyone to believe.
Any way, the higher ups at my new job needed an assistant football coach... and I jumped on that as fast as I could. I had coached basketball in the past, but let's face it, basketball is lame. The football head coach here is a cool guy, having played center in high school and college for years. He doesn't treat me as a measly assistant either and wants the kids to view us as if we're both the head coach. At the beginning of the year, he had asked me what I wanted to do with the team, to which i replied: "Give me the defense." And he did.
The defense we run is a 5-2. It's not a traditional NFL-style defense, but it works in the run-heavy middle school game. We stack 5 big guys on the line where our defensive ends' primary job is to rush around the offensive line, play containment, and force the play into the middle to our two linebackers. Cornerbacks play man, safeties play zone, and it's been doing well so far. I'm no Jim Johnson, but I'm hoping the NFL will be calling in a few years.
So, my day is pretty busy - wake up at 6:00, leave the house at 6:45, teach 'till 3:30, coach 'til 5:30, get home at 6:45, do my husbandly duties, go to bed, lather, rinse, repeat. Since my wife is working on a master's degree, this leaves me little time with the laptop, making it hard to discuss pertinent football matters with all of you. All that said, this coaching gig is the most fun I've ever had while receiving a pay check and I would recommend that anybody try to coach something - whether it's PAL football, little league, or whatever.
Thanks for hearing me out, BGN, and I hope to be a regular again very soon.
Love,
awd777
P.S. Go Eagles!
P.S.S. Go Phillies, too.
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Word bro
Congrats on the gig! I can’t imagine how fulfilling it must be to teach little kids about football. Good luck on the season!
Awesome!
My hat is off to you. There is is nothing better than waking up in the morning and looking forward to doing what you like to do. After 20 years of a high-end gig as a stuffed-suit I made a complete 180 and now put on a tool belt every day. Half as rich but twice as happy!
thats awesome, give em hell bro
but the 5-2 has weakness’s against Zone offenses or spread offenses… You should really put some wrinkles of the 3-4 and 4-4 in there to keep people honest. hell I’d even dabble into the 43 defense lol…
but its great you found something you love to do. good luck to ya!
thats Cobb on Kolb crime if you ask me... as said by yophillybro
eh, who knows
down here in florida we dont have middle school team.. we just have pop warner…
we throw prolly 30% of the time.
thats Cobb on Kolb crime if you ask me... as said by yophillybro
Yeah, I’ve never heard of a middle school football team, we don’t have those in my area either
by philiafan14364 on Oct 11, 2009 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Wow
Man, I’d do anything to be in your shoes right now. Coaching a high school football team?
Wow.
Make us proud and whoop some ass.
Awesome!
That is such a great job awd! Im really happy for you! Btw we run that type of defense, when I was DC in goalline situation and against a couple of heavy running teams, usually we had FS in box too, but it depended on how O lined up. But it requires that you got some good CBs. How do you line up your DL? Are they lining up heads-up or shaded?
2 Wild_eagle
if these teams run 70-80% of offensive snaps, it is not necessary, ispecially if you do have some good speedy CBs .

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