CFC Coach Clinic Mississauga RECAP: Circelli, Hargitt & Barker highlight DAY 2

The final day of sessions of the CanadaFootballChat.com Coaches Clinic took place last Saturday. Many different coaches, front office executives, and coordinators spent the early morning into afternoon discussing schemes, playbooks, and different ideologies.

JP Circelli (Western University) Offensive Line.

J.P. Circelli started his presentation by discussing his football coaching background. His coaching background includes stints in both high school football and CIS football. Circelli coached the offensive line for Concordia Stingers from 2007-2009. Circelli is now the Offensive Line Coach for the Western Mustangs

Circelli went on to discuses his key fundamentals for his offensive line players. Those fundamentals included creating an aiming point, practicing footwork, creating contact and finishing the play.

Circelli also spoke about his influences in his career. Everyone form NFL, CFL, and NCCA coaches have all had help in developing his philosophy. Circelli also went into some of his key fundamental plays. The first philosophy Circelli shared was the dive block. For Circelli, the dive block is key to good offensive line play because it gives his players a chance.

“I love using the Dive Block technique,” Circelli said. “I like it because it give our players a chance.”

“Offensive lineman are usually the worst athletes on the field, help them by giving them the best chance they can to make a play.”

Finally, Circelli presented the Reach Step and down blocking. For him the Reach Step and down blocking are key because it allows his offensive lineman be able to make plays against the better athletes, and allows them to run the ball for big gains.

“I need to teach these kids correctly,” Circelli said. “If one of my kids makes a mistake, I can’t be mad at him because that is on me.”

“I have to find a way to teach him better or get him to understand better, I have to change the way he is taught.”

Circelli believes that footwork will save offensive lineman who struggle athletically. Footwork is something he believes all linemen can improve on and a lineman should never be satisfied with his footwork because good footwork creates leverage and pressure.

“If your lineman have good footwork, you can win a lot of games,” Circelli said. “Lineman are usually not good athletes it all comes down to footwork and technique.

Air Raid Offense Session: Drop Back Pass, Rich Hargitt (Ashbrook High school North Carolina.)

Rich Hargitt brought Southern American flare to his presentation about his “Air Raid offense.” The offensive coordinator at Ashbrook High School broke down his offensive philosophy, hand singles, and reads he makes on offense. Hargitt broke down his Air Raid offense for the coaches in attendance.

Hargit’s captivate presentation style grabbed the attention of all in view when speaking about his revolutionary offense. The Air Raid offense is primarily a four vertical; Shotgun based offense, which allows the offense to excel by taking advantage of over aggressive defences. The numbers speak for themselves; Hargit recalled a time in which his team won a playoff play in game using a tight end at quarterback.

“We went into our playoff play in game with our starting quarterback out with a migraine,” Hargitt said. “We ended up playing the game with our tight end at quarterback, he threw for 400 yards and a school record five touchdowns.”

Hargitt’s offense is primarily based on playing to his player’s strengths. Hargitt’s philosophy is to not change what his players do best, if his quarterback has a unique throwing mechanic, the best thing to do is to play to that strength and build his offense around the players, not the scheme around the players.

“Whoever you have at quarterback, you have to play to their strengths,” Hargitt said. “You have to do your best to make sure your quarterback is comfortable, so that he can have the best game he can.”

Hargitt hopes that the coaches take one thing away from his presentation, implementation. Hargit hopes that some if not all of the concepts in the Air Raid offense can be implemented in the Canadian game.

“I just really hope that these coaches can take something from my presentation,“ Hargitt said. “I believe that the Canadian system of rules and play style can fit this offense very well.“

 

Jim Barker (Toronto Argonauts) Importance of being professionals

Jim Barker, General Manager of The Toronto Argonauts, spoke at the Coaches Clinic about making high school and club football more professional. The emphases of Barker’s speech centred around making players better by learning more technique and making high school programs more professional.

Barker believes that the first priority for making a program more professional is teaching proper technique, whether that be offensive lineman, Defensive back, or offensive weapons that does not matter, what is important is that all players learn how to run plays and play their positions properly.

Also, Barker believes that a coach should put together his offensive playbook by what personal he has. For example, if a team has a great quarterback who can make all the throws, have a deep passing attack would be key. But, if a team has a great offensive line, a run heavy scheme would work best.

“You have to play to the players you have,” said Barker.  “That’s the most important thing, script your scheme around the players you have, not what you want to do.”

““If you have a great quarterback then you can use that to your advantage, if you don’t have a good quarterback, you better change your game plan.”

More than anything Barker hopes the coaches take this away from the clinics, simplicity.

“The less you can do and be successful, the more genius you are,” Barker said. “Create routine for your players, that is the most important thing you can do.”

Lastly, Barker believes that keeping players accountable will make kids better both on and off the field. Keeping players accountable to themselves should be a priority.

“Keep kids accountable, if you do that you can make them both better football players and better people,” Barker said. “You have to do that so the kids realize that making excuses is not a part of the game.”