1. Austin Chester
AP Lit
Mrs. Corbett
4-9-12
7th
I started playing football in fifth grade and ever since that first humid, sweaty afternoon practice
I was hooked. I guess you could say it was love at first down. The game of football means so much to
me. It helped me to find who I was in those awkward middle school years. In high school it kept me in
shape and provided me with many friends. It has taught me self-respect, dedication, commitment and
many other things that play into my personal values. It wasn't just the sport itself that shaped me; it was
the people that I met along the way. These people have impacted my life in more ways than I can even
begin to tell you. My closest friends to this day are from football and we share memories we will never
forget and have a bond as strong as blood brothers. Another group of people that I met from football
who have truly changed my life is the coaching staff here at Creekview. I respect every single coach on
that field and I have looked up to them as father figures since I started playing high school ball my
freshmen year. They are there through the blood, sweat and tears that all the players on the team go
through and they shed just as much blood, sweat and tears as we do. I know from experience that if I
have a problem with anything or need a question answered, the only place I need to go is coaches’
office. Another great thing about these coaches is they do not just coach football, they coach life. In my
opinion my life is on the right tracks and they have a big influence on this. They push me when I need
to be pushed and praise me when I do something right. This is the responsibility and the relationship
that I want to have when I am older. This is the reason I would like to be a high school football coach
when I get out of college.
My research paper is on the effects that organized sports have on children. From personal
experience and the research that I did I have concluded that the positives far out way the negatives of
children playing sports. The negatives pretty much all have to do with long term injuries. These mostly

2. consisted of knee injuries and they were a result of lack of stretching or improper warming up. The
positives can be seen very clearly. The biggest positive in my opinion is all the values a child learns
from working hard to get to a goal whether that be winning one game or making it the championships.
Sports also help to cut down on the climbing obesity rate of children in America which is currently at
16 %. It is also a great outlet for children with extreme energy or children with a lot of stress which is
also a rising problem in America. This relates to my project because I spent many hours one on one
with these kids and I saw the positive impact that football was having on their lives. It was amazing
getting to know all of them and hearing their stories and relating to them. I could see myself in these
kids and I had been there and done that. I finally got to feel what it was like to be in the coaches seat
and help out people who look up to you. I watched them grow throughout the season and I was
definitely sad when it was over, but they had grown a lot and it was a proud moment when we won
those last two games.
My project facilitator was one of the coaches I mentioned earlier who helped me become who I
am today. His name is Seth Deering, but I have called him Coach Deering since the day I met him. He
was more than qualified to help me with my project. He played football in high school and college.
After finishing college he was a coach at a college up in Ohio. He then moved down here and coached
wrestling and football. This year was his seventh year coaching at Creekview. If I had any question
about what to do with my kids I went straight to him. I called him, texted him, emailed him, talked to
him at school and talked to him at practice. He was very available at all times and super helpful when it
came to situations I was completely lost about. I learned a lot from watching him and many other
coaches’ deal with younger players on the high school football team. I attribute his style of coaching to
why I was able to connect with the players I coached and help them with more than just football. I also
was the middle man between the team I coached and the team I played for. This was because the
middle school teams are trying to mirror the high school teams to better prepare the younger kids for
high school ball when they get to that point. Coach Deering provided me with play list and drill that we

3. used in practice and I provided first-hand knowledge on how everything worked in real time.
The process started last year on the second of May. This was spring practice and it lasted three
weeks. Practice was every single day from 6:30 to 8:30. At the end of the second week and the third
week, on each Saturday, there was a scrimmage so we could see if the kids fit right in their positions
and it let the kids hit on some other colored jerseys. The first one was at Woodstock on May 14 and the
second one was at Centennial High, both scrimmages started at 4:00. After these three weeks of
practice the kids were done till after summer vacation. The main purpose of these weeks are so that
kids who are new to the sport can get a feel for it and decide whether or not football is for them. We
push the kids really hard to see if they really want to play or if their parents are just making them play.
These weeks also are for the coaches to start seeing who they have to fill certain positions and allow us
enough time to start getting depth charts written up for the following season.
The next step in the process is fall practice. We started practice up again August 1st, two weeks
before our first scrimmage game prior to the real season. Practice was still 6:30 to 8:30 and we had it
for three weeks straight Monday through Friday with a scrimmage game the Saturdays following the
second and third week of practice. After the second scrimmage game we were finally into the real
season and the kids were pumped up and working really hard that week before their first game.
The week before the first game practice was cut down to only four nights a week. We removed
Wednesday night practice so the kids who went to church had the opportunity to go to church without
missing practice and risking their spot on the team. Our first official game was Saturday August 27 at
5:00 versus the Roswell Hornets on their home turf. I was expected to be at every game at least an hour
early to oversee the warm ups and run plays and answer any questions the kids had before each game.
The Sunday after every game the coaching staff met at one of the other coach’s house and watched
game film and discussed the upcoming weeks practice from 6:30 to about 8:00. This schedule
continued for four straight weeks before we had our first bye week. A bye week is a team’s week off
which allows them to recover and rest any injured players and to drill plays. This was the week of

4. September 18-24. After we got back from our bye week it was practice as usual for another four
straight weeks till we played our final game on Saturday October 22 at Lambert. Our team finished 2-6
and those boys were as proud as they could be getting those two wins the last two games of the season.
Practice involved a variety of different things. Every day we switched between offense and
defense so the kids could get their fundamentals down. Offensive practice consisted of running plays,
catching passes, and the blocking schemes of the linemen. These seventh graders had to memorize
almost 50 different offensive plays and three different formations throughout the year and they all had
them almost perfect by the end of the season. Defensive practice consisted of pass coverage drill,
fumbles drill and most importantly tackling which is a key concept on the defensive of the ball. They
had to learn how to do it safe without injuring themselves and effectively to help reduce the number of
yards the opposing team could pick up. Another key concept of defensive practice was teaching middle
school players high school play reads. Play reads are tell signs the defense uses to know were the
offense is going with the ball. Without these the defense would have no chance figuring out the
offenses intentions. The defense had about ten to fifteen different plays and several different formations
that they had to line up in. Kids who were two way starters sometimes had difficulty with all the plays
they had to remember. Friday was a walk through day which meant it was much shorter, usually only
an hour long. Our biggest goal this day was to clear up any questions about new plays we had put in
that week on offense or the reads the players were expected to know for the upcoming team on defense.
We also would line all the kids up in their special teams positions and fill in any empty spots that were
there due to injured or absent players. This helped the kids out a lot and we had a lot less problems the
following day for the games.
The biggest problem that I encountered while I was a coach was taking a fully loaded high
school life and plugging in a brand new long term commitment. I'm not gonna lie, it was tough juggling
high school football practice, homework from multiple AP classes, and a girlfriend with being a coach.
As soon as I finished my practice I would throw on some workout cloths and head straight to my

5. seventh grade practice at Calvary Baptist Church on 369. I fit school work in by finishing it in class,
staying up later to do it or just leaving it to worry about the next day. My girlfriend got maybe two to
three texts during practice but I made up for lost time with her on the weekends before or after my
games. She even came to watch my kids play several times throughout the season. It is a good
experience for a high school student to coach any type of sports especially if they are an athlete
themselves, but only if they have their grades in a good place and the ability to multitask to the
extreme. Another problem that I actually had on the field was drawing the line with some of the
players. I had respect from all of them but just like them I was a kid too so they liked to cut up and joke
around with me. This was okay when we weren't doing anything productive but when it came time to
actually do work it got frustrating sometimes. When I coach again I will definitely draw a firmer line
and let them know my boundaries but also let them know that kidding around is appropriate just at
certain times. Another problem that I solved while coaching actually had to do with a certain player. I
helped out a lot with the inside linebackers and I had a player whose name was Noah Hammerick. He
was a great kid. He loved to hit hard and could run a football almost better than anyone on our team.
One of Noah's only problems was he loved to drop his head right before he made a big hit on someone
whether he was tackling or running the ball. This method put up some big hits but it also could have
left Noah with a broken neck or even paralyze him. As soon as I saw this I pointed it out to him and he
stopped doing it when I corrected him, but every now and then he would fall back into the habit. So
every time he would drop his head before a big hit I would tell him to do twenty pushups. This made
him more aware of it so by the end of the season and after about a thousand pushups he finally stopped
dropping his head.
I learned from this experience that kids can be really annoying but if you give them effort and
show them you care about them they will give you everything they have on the field. They will open up
to you and show you who they really are. Being a coach was a very cool experience and if I never have
the opportunity to do it again I will be extremely disappointed. I will most likely pursue being a high

6. school football coach when I get out of college. The college for this involves a four year teaching
degree because in the state of Georgia in order to coach you must be a teacher. I am attending
Reinhardt on a football scholarship and will be majoring in High School Education. Thank you for your
time. Are there any questions?