FOOTBALL COACHING CLINIC TO BE AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Clinic is in it's 25th year

Beyond watching film of other teams – or copping an idea or two from observing games at other levels – one of the best ways for football coaches to improve their teams is to attend clinics.

Clinics essentially serve as coaching conventions for those involved in teaching the game to their players. One of the best ones in the state of New York – created in conjunction with the gridiron coaches at Syracuse University 25 years ago – will be hosted by the New York State High School Football Coaches Association at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona from March 6-8.

Featuring names such as Bill O’Brien, Fran Brown, Ty Harper, Lazarus Morgan, Kyle Flood, Greg Schiano and Pete Lembo as guest speakers and a roundtable discussion with former Orange coaches like Paul Pasqualoni, George O’Leary, Doug Marrone, Ed Orgeron, Jeff Stoutland, Lou Anarumo and Kevin Coyle, a wealth of football knowledge will be on hand.

For those interested in registering for the clinic, arrangements can be made at https://nyshsfca.wildapricot.org.

But how did this event get its start and what goes into organizing it? We caught up recently with Kevin DeParde, the head of the New York State High School Football Coaches Association, to discuss such burning questions.

Q – How did this event come about?

A – We've been running this event for 25 years. In its inception, it was created and it was an encouraged collaboration with Paul Pasqualoni, who was the head coach at Syracuse University. It was kind of a brainchild of both our organizations. 

Our first few years we held the clinic at Syracuse, but we kind of outgrew it. We went from about 100 people to last year where we had 700 people there. So the early organizers, when we got to that point, moved it to the Turning Stone because they were really the only venue that could hold our growing numbers at the time, and it's pretty centrally located from all points of the state. We've been there ever since.

Q – There’s going to be a roundtable discussion with a whole bunch of ex-Syracuse coaches there and whatnot. I'm sure that's going to be a big part of that too.

A – Absolutely. Because it's our anniversary, and Paul was a big part of starting this organization, he's coming back. He's going to be our featured speaker in our keynote time. And we’ve got commitments from a number of former SU coaches to come back and participate in the celebration, and they're going to do a roundtable right after the keynote on Thursday evening – when they all get there, we're going to do a private reception for those guys, and then we get on with our clinic. 

A lot of these guys are in different places around the country. We’ve got Jeff Stoutland, who's the offensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, and they're still playing, obviously. So we’ve got some guys who are coming from near and far, and made an exception to come here because of their time at Syracuse.

Q – Obviously Stoutland’s going have his hands full preparing for the Kansas City Chiefs the next couple of weeks. Besides him, there’s a lot of big names who are going to be there – Bill O'Brien, Fran Brown, Kyle Flood, Greg Schiano, Pete Lembo…

A – We’ve got a few other Syracuse coaches coming like Nunzio Campanile. We’ve got the new Colgate coaches coming in on Saturday for us and doing some drill demonstrations too. And we always honor our state champions, and so the state champions get a speaking spot if they desire, so they'll be in there. 

We try to balance out between offense, defense and some special teams. One thing we added this year with the growth of girls’ flag football, because we represent all forms of football in the state and all coaches of the state, we've added four sessions on girls’ flag this year, which has gone over well so far with registration.

Q –What goes into selecting some of these guys to come speak – not necessarily the Syracuse coaches, but some of the guys who have NFL and college experience?

A – We always want to get a handful of big names because they're a draw. People want to see those guys. But truth be told, the meat and potatoes of our clinic are the lower-level coaches. Being a former coach myself, as much as we want to hear the Bill O'Brien's of the world – which are fascinating – we want to bring back stuff to our programs to get them. Some of the stuff the bigger schools talk about isn't always applicable to what we can do. We don't have those type of players, of course, but a lot goes into getting those guys. Their availability is very difficult. It takes a while to roll out our schedule, because we have to find out when they're available, when they can come in and what speaking spot works for them. So we have to frontload the big name guys and then backfill with all the other guys. It’s a slow process. 

It's very difficult to get to those big-name guys, because you never talk to them directly initially. If you call the University of Texas to get Kyle Flood, you’ve probably got to go through three or four people to get to them. A lot of people don't know that Kyle Flood’s from New York State. He grew up in New York, he went to high school in New York. So we always try also to get coaches who have a connection to our state to help promote our state, and for us to show that we've got a big coaching tree out there nationally. In my personal opinion, it's comparable to other states in the country as far as producing good bloodlines in coaching. But it is a process, it takes a little bit of doing. 

We try to not get the same guys every year. We try to rotate it out. And because it's our 25th year, we have a nice stockpile of coaches who do want to speak. We get requests to speak at our clinic all the time. And we can't accommodate everybody, but they're on the list, we try to reach back, rotate them in and out. But it's always a pleasure having these big-name guys here, because we know what it takes for them to commit to come and we don't take it for granted. They're fantastic, and we learn a lot from them.

Q – It sounds like a lot of guys learn tidbits they can apply to their own program. Not even just schematic stuff, but ideas of how to deal with certain position groups, how to teach different athletes. I'm sure there's a lot to be able to take from these events.

A – Without question, because the big-name guys will talk a lot about program development, creating culture and how to put teaching progressions together. I don't care what level you're at, there's always something to take home from those guys. Our X and O stuff will come maybe from some of the lower-level guys. But the goal of going to a clinic is, if you can bring home two or three things out of maybe the dozen or 15 coaches you'll see speak, it will certainly be worth your while. 

It’s also a great networking event. You get to see other high school coaches around the state, bond with them, talk with them, make connections, get opportunities to pick each other's brains about what they're doing within their program. That in and of itself, is as valuable as sitting through the lectures. If you go there and try to bring a couple dozen things home, it gets overwhelming. You really can't apply it. But if you can bring home one or two things to apply to your program, then it certainly is worth the time, plus the networking part of it.