Alba Vineyard - Milford: Established in the heart of historic Fineville, a nearly 200-year-old barn stands to symbolize the old world charm of Alba Vineyards. Here visitors may sample a varied selection of whites and reds, from dry rieslings to bold pinots, and taste the fruits of other vines in a sampling of dessert wines flavored with blueberries, apples, and raspberries.

Bellview Winery - Landisville: Located in the southern tip of the state, Bellview is a very active vineyard that offers something for wine enthusiasts year round. Among the award-winning wines available for sampling are the lively pinot grigio and chardonnay, bold syrahs and cabs, and spicy seasonal wines. Custom labelling is also an option for gift-giving.

Four Sisters Winery - Belvidere: The four sisters are Robin, Serena, Melissa, and Sadie. The vineyard named for them site nestled among the green hills of Warren County, where Marty Matarazzo oversees acres of vines to produce an extensive line of reds, whites, ports and champagnes. Guests to the winery are also invited to the onsite bakery and cafe for delicious dishes designed to complement the vintages.

Tamuzza Vineyards - Franklinville: For over twenty years, Tamuzza Vineyards has produced many flavorful wines and ciders. Anywhere from ten to twenty thousand gallons of wine are produced from annual harvests, and guests may purchase by the bottle or have creative gift baskets made for any occasion. Custom labels are always an option.

Whether exploring the Jersey shore or the green southern hills, you are certain to find an excellent vintage to enjoy on your trip through New Jersey. A simple search for state vineyards will provide more information on these and the other great vineyards of New Jersey.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer whose articles on travel destinations and travel tips have appeared on many websites, including the Grand Summit Hotel of New Jersey (http://www.grandsummit.com).

Granted, winning is a big high but if preparing for a win is like you were going to give an entrance exam, then it can be a bit of a spoiler. This is where soccer tipster services come in. Soccer tipster services are provided by online betting sites and gambling portals. You can visit these sites to gather tips on whom to bet on and whom to give a wide berth. It?s a great way to gain information on what others feel about a team or a player and the best part is that these tips are free. Of course, there are bound to be differences in opinion and the weight given by different tipsters to different teams will vary however even this has a positive, you can gather tips and arrive at your own conclusion based on them. Over a period of time, this practice of reading tips and co-relating them to the reality of the game can develop into a useful skill that will stand you in good stead as you progress and grow as a skillful punter.

The manner in which the tips are arrived at is both objective and subjective skilled tipsters offer their tips based on their observations and at the same time the websites use complex algorithms to arrive at a tip. These algorithms factor in various aspects such as the current form of a team, goals scored ? for and against, leading players, etc. More weight is accorded to an away win as against a home win. The tremendous amount of historical data available also makes it possible to draw trends and forecast based on them by making use of statistical tools.

If you fancy yourself as a punter you too can try your hand at providing tips. Your tips will be published at an online betting site or you can even set up your own site. You could stand to make some good money, especially if you have access to insider information and you can offer insider tips. As more and more people benefit from your tips, they will frequent your website more regularly which can lead to advertising revenue. So whether you?re a Bundesliga fan or your follow the English Premier League, you can beat the bookmaker and make the most of your bets, all you need to do is to make good use of the soccer tipster services provided online and at the same time use some of your own understanding of the game.

Florian Koerner runs a popular free online football betting tips website. Visit SoccerBetting.info every week or subscribe to his free soccer betting tips by email.

Football betting is definitely not for everyone. You need to take risks, some times smalls and some times big ones in order to win a bet on football betting. Risks are always present and odds help you to know in what kind and amount of risks your bet is in. That?s the feel of football betting.

Knowing the game is an important step. To understand the rules of the game and regulations imposed on the game. Football betting also requires you to watch many football matches and take notes on the outcome of past games. Player?s injuries and special circumstances also affect the probability on the outcome of a future game.

Something very useful in football betting are picks. These are special comments and predictions that experts on football called handicappers make on a regular basis to inform bettors of probable happenings and results. Internet has promoted the distribution of this football betting picks and there are websites that would place them even for free.

Football betting still is the major sport betting activity for almost every sportsbook and takes most of the bets of all sports events. This is because football betting is really intense! Taking risks and watching a game with all your trust on a team and really feeling the highs and downs is what a real football fan is all about.

Professional SEO. He helps a number of online gambling sites like:

Poker
Poker Affiliate Program
Sportsbook Online

Age is a very important factor in youth football. The league commissioner for Omaha?s Heartland Youth Football League did an in-depth study of the ages of the teams in our league in 2001. He found there were very significant correlations of average age of teams to wins and losses. He broke the study down to the average number of months the age of each team was and invariably the oldest team in each classification finished in the top 3 in the standings and the youngest team in each classification finished in the bottom 3.

In my first year of coaching youth football, I coached in an age 8-10 “draft” league where the coaches are given only the birthdate and weight of the player to make the draft selection. We were not given the players name etc, basically a blind draft with the exception of the age and weight data. This league had an older-but-lighter rule. As our turn in the draft came around we just selected the largest players available, while the team next to us the ?Dolphins? chose lots of 11 year old ?older-but-lighter? players that were quite small, as well as medium to smaller 10 and 9 year olds. Our roster was filled with bigger 8s and 9s and a few 10s. As it turned out, the Dolphins were the perennial bullies of the league and had won an incredible number of back to back league titles. They knew what they were doing and that age was far more important than size. They went on to win the league title again that year. That season, we had just one older-but-lighter player and he turned out to be our star player, our tailback and star linebacker.

In many youth football leagues there is an age cutoff, in many leagues it is August 1st. So whatever age the player is on August 1st is what the league uses to determine age for that football season. If a player ?Joey? is age 10 on August 1st and on August 2nd he turns 11, according to the league the player is 10 years old for that entire season. So if the age grouping is age 8-10 and an 8 year old player just turned 8 on July 31st, this 8 year old would be playing against a player ?Joey?, that is 4 years older than him. Age is important, but so is the date of the birthdate. In 2003 I had an ?Unlimited? age 8-10 team that had 4 players that turned 11 in August. Needless to say, that was a huge advantage for us.

Now just imagine if you had a lighter 11 year old that had a birthdate of August 3rd, now you have a 12 year old playing 8 year olds. That would be darn right dangerous for some 8 year olds if that 12 year old player had 4 years of football plays under his belt.

My personal teams play in unlimited leagues with ?running back? weights. The big kids are required to play between the tackles and are not allowed to carry or catch the football. We have always found it is not the big heavy linemen that are dominating games and making big hits, it is that medium sized or even smaller kid who has speed, aggressiveness and acceleration through contact. While the big linemen may seem a bit imposing at first glance, once the game is under way the players that are feared most are the big hitters, which are rarely if ever the big kids. Hence it could be that aggressive smaller older-but-lighter player that could be the terror of your league, not that ?Fat Freddie? big linemen.

What often happens in the youth football leagues that have ?older-but-lighter? rules is the rule gets abused. Instead of using the rule as it was intended for, to aid the development of truly smaller and weaker players, teams load their teams up with perfectly well adjusted and experienced smaller players. Some teams even make these already skinny lighter players LOSE weight to make sure they meet the weight guidelines, if the player is close to the weight limit.

I have had youth football coaches e-mail me to say they play teams of 24 kids where 17 are older-but-lighter. If you closely examine the ages of many of the top Pop Warner teams that play on TV for National Titles, quite often you find teams stacked full of very tall and skinny older-but-lighter players.

I?m not sure how to solve the “stacking” of older-but-lighter kids on teams to create competitive advantages. I really like the idea of significantly smaller first year players playing down an age group to give them a chance to develop. However, if the weight differentials are not large enough or already small players are being pressured into losing weight to meet older-but-lighter requirements, I?m not sure we are meeting the intent of the rule.

In our Omaha Youth Football league with August 1st cutoff dates, we often had 8th graders with August or September birthdates that were playing on the 11-12 year old team. The problem was many of their 8th grade buddies were playing on the 13-14 age team. While it would have given us a significant advantage to keep the player on the younger team, if the players were mature enough we would play them up with their friends. We felt doing what was right for that player superseded our need for a competitive advantage I would hope others would do the same when it comes to making older but lighter decisions.

When I coached in youth football leagues that had older-but-lighter rules, if we had kids what were close to the weight cutoff and they had experience, we just played them up and it worked out fine. If we had a rookie kid that was weaker and close to the cutoff, we never ran him extra or starved him. We just explained the situation to the parents and if they concurred, we asked them to curb the intake of desserts, junk food and sodas. If the player made the weight great, if he didn't make the weight no big deal, we never counted on the player making weight. We did not weigh the player every day or put any pressure on the player to lose the weight. We did not take him to any sauna, starve him or the like, like some do.

If you are in a ?draft? league, heavily weight age and experience when making your selections. Keep in mind not only the players age, but his birthdate, it will be to your advantage. Coaching Youth Football well is more than just calling good football plays and having great football schemes, and football practices, it also often involves smart selection or drafting of players. Make sure you are thorough and use age to your advantage within ethical boundaries.

If you have an older-but-lighter player that is close to the cutoff and you are considering having him lose weight, think carefully about how this will look 10-20 years from now. Was it really worth it to the player or team? Personally I prefer beating teams with younger and less talented kids, it?s more of a challenge and far more satisfying than doing it with a ?stacked? team of scarecrows.

Copyright 2007 Cisar Management Services, Republishing allowed if resource box and links are kept intact.

For More Youth Football Coaching Tips or to subscribe to Dave?s free newsletter stop here:

Football Plays

Dave Cisar- Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams that has enabled his personal teams to win 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues at all levels and age groups while retaining 90% of his kids.

His book ?Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan? was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His DVDs and book have been used by teams nationwide to run integrity based programs that win championships. His web site is Football Practice

If it's your first camping trip of the season or you are a first timer, you want to make sure that you have the necessary camping gear and equipment. Some equipment can be rather expensive, but you should be able to get the best from your purchase by being knowledgeable. Even though you can buy cheaper gear, typically cheap camping gear falls apart quicker and is less dependable, so that is not always the way to go.

Camping Gear And Your Budget

If you, like most people, have limited budgets, you will need to plan carefully before you go to shop for your camping gear.You need to do some research on things like the climatic conditions of the places you intend on visiting.

If you know about your trip in advance, of course, you will be able to spread out your purchases over a longer period of time. That way you will be able to take advantage of sales at your local sporting goods store and online. Keep in mind that most sporting goods companies online will have sales and coupons also. Visit many camping supply websites and offline stores to do your research and get the best deals.

There is also no point in skimping on essential items like survival equipment and first aid equipment. By visiting a number of different stores and sites should allow you to get more competitive prices and maybe some good bargains as well.

Ways To Save Money On Your Camping Equipment

To save money, there is always the option of checking out local resale outlets where you can buy used and also discounted items. There are those who may have bought camping gear only to return them for one reason or another. These items can then be had at discounted prices, and it is also a good way of finding dishes, grills, heaters and tents as well as sleeping bags at hugely discounted prices. And don't forget eBay as a resource.

There are some times when it just doesn't pay to buy shoddy goods because they are cheap, this is true in camping gear as well as other things. Some forethought and good planning should help you get better priced goods. In any case, you need to be well organized and after research and comparisons should end up with camping gear at affordable prices.

To conclude, here is a partial list of camping gear and advice: You will need fresh water or someway to make it , compass AND GPS (and know how to use it), cell phone, signal mirror, toilet paper, food, lighter, whistle, insect repellent, sun screen, ID and a first aid kit.

Survival Tabs

I ran across these survival tabs while looking for hiking gear, but if you are going camping, hiking will probably be on your agenda as well. There are people lost every year in wilderness areas, even in places like off the Appalachian trail, that these tabs could help. Imagine if you were lost and were able to survive on these tabs without feeling so hungry, getting most of your daily required vitamins. While hiking, camping, or even boating, stuff happens. Being able to carry around something like these tabs seems like a great idea.

So, wherever you like to enjoy the great outdoors, prepare ahead of time for all emergencies, and go enjoy.

How do you decide which Camping gear is right for you. There is a wide range of prices, sizes and quality for tents and other camping gear. Check out articles on camping at http://www.camping.outdooradventuretoday.com

What is its purpose? - The sole constitutional purpose of a revaluation is to spread the property tax burden equitably among all property owners within a municipality.

What if its not done? - Generally, delays in updating assessments to reflect changing physical and economic conditions lead to Malassessment. Properties once similar in value became dissimilar. Owners of properties with rising value became accustomed to paying a lesser share of the tax burden than would otherwise be the case and after reassessment “suffer” sharply higher property tax payments. Other property owners “benefit” from decreased taxes because the value of their property has declined or only slightly increased - these taxpayers have been paying a higher tax than they should have been.

What causes Malassessment? - Each property in the same municipality with the same market value at a given point in time should be paying the same amount in property taxes. Malassessments or inequitable assessments result from the following situations causing a lack of assessment uniformity:

? changes in neighborhood characteristics

? changes made to individual properties

? fluctuation in the economy (inflation, recession)

? changes in style and custom (desirability of architecture, size of house)

? changes in zoning which can either enhance or affect value adversely.

What is wrong here? - Assessors are asked to find “the price” at which a willing buyer and willing seller would agree to transfer a piece of property on October first. Well, common sense tells you there is a whole range of prices at which a willing buyer and a willing seller could transact a sale. So assessments are only predictions, and even the best predictions go astray. The need for a reassessment or revaluation, therefore, grows with the passage of time that erodes the old information based upon which the original assessments were made. Statewide in New Jersey, these assessment predictions or estimates constitute the tax base on which 2/5ths of all our state and local taxes are collected. Its on this set of predictions that local governments in New Jersey collected $19.6 billion in 2005.

Is there a better way? - Yes, first we must realize we have an indefensible tax structure that places too much weight on a property tax base that at best is only a set of predictions. Second, we must make provision for accurate regular assessments by strengthening and beefing up the assessment function with a sound investment in computers, assessment data base management and appraisal education resources for assessors.

Biography: Gerald ?Jerry' Dowgin “The Property Tax Doctor” and the author of the Homeowner's Assessment Review Guide (http://www.propertytaxdoctor.com) a former tax assessor worked in the field of public finance at the State and local levels in New Jersey for more than three decades until his retirement in 2001. As a Supervising Tax Analyst in the Office of Research and Statistics in the Division of Taxation in the New Jersey Department of Treasury he worked principally on local property tax issues. Then he joined the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) in 1983 and served as the Secretary to the New Jersey Property Tax Assessment Study Commission for four years. While working in the OLS, Local Government Section he researched, drafted, and estimated the cost of the Senior Property Tax Freeze Bill which was signed onto law and worked on legislation that became law that virtually stopped the tax assessment practice of “Spot Assessments” in New Jersey that had treated many property taxpayers unfairly

Its all about pride, glory, and bragging rights as nations compete in the most universal sport. It can be insulting when people from other countries brag about how their country's team defeated yours! Pride and a love for sport has sparked me to write this as I saw my beloved Australian Socceroos bow out of the World Cup after their best ever result.

Since the World Cup started in 1930 at Uruguay, Australia qualified for the event in 1974 where they lost every match remaining goalless the entire event. Early in 2006, Australia's streets were empty and there was silence through out the nation as they versed Uruguay for a place in the 2006 World Cup. We qualified for the second time in history after defeating Uruguay in a chair-gripping penalty shoot-out. The silence was shattered as every patriot, sport-loving Aussie, roared in happiness.

Tim Cahill broke Australia's goalless World Cup history when he scored a double against Japan to lead his country to their first victory in the event. On top of the world, the Socceroos versed Brazil and were defeated 0-2 in what well known sport commentators referred to as a match Australia outplayed the number one soccer nation. After drawing with Croatia and moving into the second round of the World Cup, Australia faced soccer giants Italy.

The second round match kicked off and remained goalless for 92 minutes. In the 92nd minute and 50th second, with 10 seconds remaining in the game, Italian Fabio Grosso dribbled the ball into the penalty box. Australian Lucas Neill went to the ground as he tried to tackle the Italian, but a second later Fabio tripped (or FELL!) over the Australian defender. The referee, who shall remain nameless to preserve what little safety he has left, awarded the free kick. Francesco Totti then made a lovely penalty shot to qualify Italy into the quarter-finals and to remove every Australian's dream of a World Cup quarter-final birth.

So why have I lectured you on a nation's soccer history you probably don't care at all about?

A few days after experiencing my nation's dramatic soccer loss, I felt hopeless, empty, with a tonne of frustration and anger. I take my international sporting events seriously.

I know I'm being overly expressive about it all, but there are vital life lessons that you need to learn. I was aware of these lessons before experiencing my 'soccer outburst' but everyone needs to be frequently reminded of them.

Life, or soccer in my case, gets the better of us most of the time. We let past experiences attach onto our backs and into our minds pulling our current actions and thoughts backwards. Our past experiences hold us back.

What I'm talking about is 'letting go' or 'moving on'.

It is often either a control issue: something bad happened that negatively affects your life and you desire to influence it. You live in a false sense of hope and control wishing or thinking you could have changed the problem.OrIt is problem focused: the problem persists in your mind causing lingering pain simply because you focus on the problem and it remains until you are able to let it go and move on.

My beloved Socceroos would have faced the control issue. In the last 10 seconds in what has taken over 76 years to happen, a harsh call was made and they were removed from the competition. 39 972 106 minutes had passed since the first World Cup and the last 10 seconds determined the end result. The last 10 seconds! I'd calculated the time since the first World Cup to the penalty shoot because this is essentially the opportunity the Socceroos have had for World Cup success.

Whether the call was right or not is beyond my point here. It is a harsh world. I couldn't agree more with “the worst thing, will happen at the worst time”. The Socceroos, namely Lucas Neill, would be asking themselves “what if… what if this happened? What if another referee was in the game? What if I had done this?” I guarantee they would have been living in a false sense of control thinking about what they could have done to prevent the loss from occurring by not letting go of history. They are after all, only humans.

I on the other hand, was problem focused. The Socceroos had a superb World Cup and gained the respect as a soccer nation. But no! I complained and whinged for days, unable to move on. Argh! The game was 0-0 until the last 10 seconds! You can learn not only from my focus on the bad result, but also the pain I endured because I did not let go of the past.

Even if you think it's funny because I take the World Cup seriously, try and relate to how you dwell on bad results and don't let go of the past.

There's no way Australia is going into the quarter-finals so why have a little sulk about it? Remember the saying “there's no point crying over spilt milk”? I'm sure you would have heard of the saying before but we let our emotions overpower our logic, dominating our commonsense that history cannot be changed. Heck, I know this well and truly yet Australia bowing out of the World Cup infuriated me for days. We all need to be frequently reminded that history is exactly history. Nothing can be done about the past.

What you do need to take from the past is the lessons you learn. It would be foolish to make a mistake, endure the pain, and learn nothing from it to prevent the same problem from occurring again. I'm sure the Socceroos and all other soccer nations have learned from their World Cup experience.

What you don't need is to take the past with you by not letting go. An examples is not forgiving someone for the pain they've caused you. You are willing to cling onto the unhappiness and pain of a past problem by not forgiving the person that hurt you.

You live in truth and happiness by accepting what you can currently control through living in the present and letting go of the past. Nothing good happens with an unhealthy bondage to past negative events.

It's time to let go of the past that's been holding you back from living a full and happy life. Don't be afraid or lazy to comeback and read this as you're guaranteed to let your emotions dominate your logic and let the past control your happiness again and again. Let go of the past and live in happiness.

I'm now happy for Italy and congratulate them in qualifying for the quarter-finals. The worst possible call from an Aussie's point of view was made at the worst time. The Socceroos didn't make it and I accept that. Well done Italy.

This is a sample of what you can get by subscribing to Joshua Uebergang's free effective communication skills and self development newsletter. Also, visit our finding the key to happiness section.

Football betting always only involves 3 outcomes, Home win, Draw, away win. Therefore you have a 33.33% chance of being correct before you start. By using some research and the correct football betting system you can make yourself a decent living with the volume of football that is played now.

The first element to make money, and this for me goes for all sports betting, is to stop doing accumulators. An accumulator is a bet on three or four teams sometimes more and as each wins your bet rides on and can result in a huge payout. Obviously as you football bet rides on the more chance you have of hitting a loser and the whole bet is lost. I can never understand people who place this type of sports bet. Why watch three teams win only to lose it all when the fourth team loses.

So I would avoid any system that involves accumulators. Another football betting system to avoid which is doing the rounds on google is Ubet4me. This football system revolves around you receiving selections and then placing a bet for yourself and a ?125 bet for the system seller. So he has your money for the system, then you risk your money placing his bets. Football odds can be fairly small so a few losers and you are chasing losses. This system has been around in horse racing for years.

The best way to win at football is to research individual bets and place your stake down when you have a wealth of favourable information. Each week there are some stand out football bets, and the general public as a whole bet on football with opinion not with the correct research.

I have made a lot of money betting on football that it has enabled me to stop working and do it full time. Football betting changes every season as bookmakers look to eek out more profits. Buying a system and being left to your own devices is next to useless. I personally email every match I trade on to my system buyers. I help them online using messenger services and give them daily support to help them achieve full time incomes from soccer.

If a system is sold to you on a buy it and that's your lot basis I can guarantee you it does not work. Successful betting on football or any sports betting is about research and well thought out bets. Don't bet for recreation bet to win. If you want any advice or help please visit the website in my resource box.

Ian Erskine is a professional gambler, famous for winning over ?1 million pounds on betting exchanges.Keeping a low profile for years he decided to share his system with a few people in 2007. He is currently investing his own money in a website to clean up online gambling scams and systems. This site will launch in summer 2007. If you wish him to review a gambling product before purchase, just ask.

http://www.ftsincome.co.uk

www.1gamblingforum.com Win a trip to Las Vegas

Unfortunately our world has shifted to a blame others society. It seems like anytime anything goes wrong, we want to blame others for the problem, no one is ever at fault for anything. Criminals are never at fault, it had to do with their environment and childhood. Our society even has a booming blame others economy with lawyers at the ready to sue companies with deep pockets for our own ineptness. Just think of the elderly lady that spilled hot coffee on her lap in a moving car and won millions or the man that ate petroleum jelly and got sick because the jar didn?t say ?not edible?. Our society has become a world of excuse makers and some football coaches are right there arm-in-arm with them.

When a football team loses, we hear a litany of excuses from coaches, it was the referees fault, the players fault, the weathers fault, we were missing players, the other team cheated, we have no size, we have no speed, we have no athletes, our kids won?t hit, our kids aren?t aggressive, the other team got lucky, our kids didn?t make plays, we are just trying to have fun, we don?t have enough players, the kids didn?t ?want? it, we didn?t execute, we practice less than the other team, etc etc etc. Many of the excuses I hear border on the bizarre and should be in the National Enquirer, but in the end are nothing more than ?the dog ate my homework?. Many football coaches are some of the biggest excuse makers out there and that includes many paid High School coaches. I often wonder why the losing coach has all these problems, when the weather is real bad for his team, is his opponent playing on a different field with different weather? Doesn?t the opponent have kids that are ill or out too or does that ONLY happen with his team?

In 2005 we beat a team that had not lost in 5 years, their excuse was one of their kids was ill. In that game I started my 4th string tailback, my first teamer broke his arm in game 5, my second teamer banged up his knee in game 10. The night before the big game, our 3rd teamer was swimming at the hotel pool, slipped on the wet tile and pulled his groin. Our 4th teamer had played little at tailback and was our starting right guard. He knew our base 6 plays and that morning we got 6 more in that morning in the hotel lobby.

During the game our usually heavy tailback attack was limited to 4-5 carries and limited our passing and counter game. I didn?t bother to tell the other coach our best 3 players didn?t play. The funny thing was we had them under ?mercy rule? in the second quarter, but you know how excuse makers are. In 2002 we played a local team and had them down 44-0 in the 3rd quarter, after the game they were real clear that they were missing #54 and with him there at linebacker it would have been ?a totally different game?. In youth football it seems some losing coaches are either delusional or really are clueless about the impact of a single player. In youth football we all have nearly identical constraints and struggle with the same problems. We all have missing players, we all have ill player, we all have injured players. What message does that send to your team when they hear that kind of talk? They learn that football is a one player game and if you lose, to make excuses.

While it may be true that your team lacks size or lacks speed or you have half the number of players as your opposition, it is the coaches job to choose schemes and strategies to lessen those advantages. If a coach claims to have all the above problems yet chooses to run the same offense and defense everyone else in his league is running, he has no chance to compete. He is choosing by his own free will not to field teams that will compete.

If everyone runs basically the same thing (most do) the team with the best players is going to come out on top every week. Since the coach makes the decision which scheme to run and which methods used to implement it, he is responsible for the results the scheme that he chose produced. I don?t think there is a rule in any league that you MUST run offense X, it is the coaches free choice. I don?t think there is a masked man in the coaches office holding someone hostage with a gun to his head that if coach doesn?t run X offence that the hostage will be shot. The scheme is the coaches choice, hence he bears responsibility for making a good choice there or a poor one. Not all schemes and practice methods are created equal, some work much better for a particular group and others for other groups. The key is to choose which is best for the group you have or how we did it, for the grouping of kids we USUALLY got.

There are a number of schemes and methods one can use if you are in a situation where you have no size or speed. Competing one on one with a similar scheme as your opponent may not be the best choice, yet it is what we most often see in youth football. Why not choose a system that does not require lots of one-on-one blocking or a tremendous amount of speed? Why not choose system that doesn?t rely on big playmakers? Why not choose a system that eats up the clock and keeps your slow and small defense off the field? The reason why not is because many coaches are too close minded about moving on to something new or refuse to put in the time to learn how to run something different than what they have run in the past. But that choice is their decision and their responsibility.

Now I?m not saying you can take any group of players and make them a 10-0 team, I am saying each team has it?s own unique potential range. The problem is very few teams ever play to the top of their potential range. I have 10-12 teams in my organization that plays in a league with 60+ teams. Each year I assign a potential based on a quick look at the talent levels of the team they often look like this: 4-6 to 7-3, 2-8 to 5-5, 8-2 to 10-0. they are ranges of potential that particular team has. Our best coached teams almost always play to or above the potential and our worst coached teams play to the bottom of the potential range, regardless of the age group or the team they are assigned.

My first youth football coaching position was coaching in a league with a ?blind? draft. You chose players based on two factors, his birthdate and weight. You didn?t know the players name or anything else pretty blind draw for the most part. One would think that would create a very even playing field, yet one team, the Dolphins either won the League every year or finished second. How could this team get so ?lucky? every year if we all had the same talent levels due to the blind draft? Interestingly enough my last year in that league the Dolphins coaching staff moved on to other interests and the new coaches failed miserably, finishing in last place.

Wouldn?t it be reasonable to say that the reason the team had done so well in the past was because of great coaching? Or did they just get lucky each and every one of the five years I coached against them? However, rarely if ever do you hear a coach say ?I got out coached?, it is the litany of excuses cited above. The perennial losing coach will always chalk it up to luck of the draw or players. Because to do otherwise would mean he was not doing a good job. By him making it all about luck, it means the poor guy was just unlucky enough to not have that winning lotto ticket. You often find this type is the green eyed jealousy type that disparages those successful coaches, trying to bring them down to his level by piling on supposed extra benefits the winning program has over his. These guys aren?t very fun to be around and rarely excel at anything meaningful in life. They are the ones that pay attention to what others are doing instead of controlling what they can control, their own team.

In 2004 I started a brand new program in a rural area near Hickman, Nebraska. The existing youth program often fielded teams of 40-60 players on one team. The four years prior to when I got there, they had won a grand total of 4-5 games. Their thought was the more players they had, the better chance of finding that star that would carry the team. I was told all the winning my teams had done in Omaha wouldn?t matter here, this was a basketball and cross country town.

My first year there, we fielded a team of 24 kids of which only 2 had played before and they were bench warmers for their previous team. At age 8-10 we only had 1 player above 100 lbs and I had 13 eight year olds. Our entire starting backfield was 8 years old and my whole team minus 2 kids are rookies. My coaching staff included just one coach that had coached football before. We were a motley crew and really struggled in a league of teams that had all been around for 10-20 years. Slowly but surely we improved and ended up 11-0. We played all the kids in each game and we cut no one.

The next two years while many of the players moved up to the older ranks I stayed with that team and we went 12-0 and 11-1, ?mercy ruling? over 80% of our opponents. Why the difference in outcomes? Scheme and Priorities.

While quite often player mistakes do play a pivotal role in lost games, what leads up to these player mistakes? Let?s say that a team lost and there were pivotal errors that included a team jumping offsides on offense, poor open field tackling and too many negative yardage plays. The head coach is responsible for not only making choices on schemes but also prioritizing practice time as well as the methods used in implementing skill development. If a team is having a problem with the snap count that is simple to resolve, go on a set count every time and to make sure the other team is not jumping your count, have a ?no play? in place where your players do nothing but draw the other team offsides. Don Markham at Bloomington High School in California set a National Scoring Record of 880 points in a 14 game season with that same simple snap count method. As to the open field tackling, maybe that coach is spending his valuable practice time doing lots of time wasting cals, agility drills, scrimmaging or endless conditioning instead of working on open field tackling. Many of the negative yardage plays could be negated by tightening up the splits and running inside more to name just a few. There are countless ways to address those types of problems.

When a team does poorly who should one react? Tyrone Willingham told those of us attending the Nike Clinic in Chantilly, Virginia that the coach should take responsibility for his team playing poorly. Coach was very impressive as he carefully laid out the fact that the buck should and does stop with the head coach. It is the head coach that chooses the schemes and sets the priorities as well as the player selection and coaching delegating duties. It should be the responsibility of the head coach to accept blame and deflect harassment of his players and coaches. So publicly he takes responsibility, he does so privately as well but privately he does work to make sure that the coaches and players understand their role and what they need to do to correct the problems.

What a great lesson to teach a young man he sees someone fail, they admit they failed and take responsibility for it, then set in place a plan to make sure those same things do not happen again. In the last 64 games, my teams have lost twice, both times the fault was with me either in preparation the week before, or in game management. On both occasions I told the players it was my fault and why, I even had them all point at the person whose fault it was we lost the game, they all pointed at me.

I did tell them what we would do differently to make sure we didn?t make those types of mistakes in the future. However, I can confidently say during that stretch we won many a game against teams much bigger and talented than us. Hopefully the kids learned a bit about taking responsibility and that empty excuse making serves only to sooth the ego of the loser and delays any real progress from being made.

Last season my coaches learned a great lesson. Before our loss in 2006, I had told one of my assistants to see how our kicker was doing before the game. Our kicker had been a bit spotty the last few games but had been very good earlier in the year. I said if he looked strong and was hitting at 66% of his practice kicks we would kick our extra point which is worth 2 points. During pre-game coach told me he was hitting about 60% or so and the wind was negligible. I asked coach what he thought we should do, he said kick. I agreed and when we scored our first TD we kicked and missed. The game ended in a tie and we lost it on the last play of the game in OT. I never mentioned the kick, coach said ?I?m sorry? I asked him ?about what??. I told him I decided if we were going to kick or not and I had made a number of other coaching errors in the game and in the week of preparation, the decision and fault was mine alone.

The very next week we had a backup defensive end have to start a game due to an injury. This player got called for lining up off-sides 4 times. The reason he was lining up off-sides is because the same coach had the defensive end using the down marker stick as a landmark. The only problem was the field was poorly marked and the down marker was quite often way off. This coach apologized to the team and player publicly after the game, accepting responsibility for the player lining up off-sides. The next week he made sure this player was coached properly for the next game. I was about as pleased about that turn of events as I was about any championship we?ve won.

Can a team be well coached and finish 2-9? Sure but it is VERY rare. You may have a ?perfect storm? situation a 1-1000 ?perfect storm?. The problem is I see guys going 1-10, 2-9, 3-8 year after year after year with the same tired old system and silly priorities, systems and priorities that the head coach chooses. The unbelievable thing is at the High School level many of these guys keep getting hired and recycled to other schools where they do the exact same thing.

If coaching didn?t matter and it was all about Jimmys and Joes there wouldn?t be a need for coaches. What is amazing is to see guys like Don Markham or Dr John Ward go to losing program after losing program and turn each and every one of them around. No five year plans, they are going from 0-fer to playing for District or State Titles. The year Don?s team set the national scoring record and won 14 games, the previous year under a different coach they won 1 game and scored just a handful of points! Dr Ward has done the same with a long list of hapless programs he has turned around and both do it with offenses that are a bit contrarian, the Double Wing and Single Wing.

The next time you hear a coach whining and making excuses ask him what he is doing to combat the supposed excuse. Ask him if his entire plan for getting better is wishing and hoping the football fairy is going to give him better football players next year. What a great plan because if that plan fails he can point his finger at the football fairy instead of himself.

When your team plays well, give credit to your players and assistant coaches, when your team loses or plays poorly do the right thing and take PERSONAL responsibility. Don?t be a ?dog ate the homework? guy. When your team loses don?t make excuses, give the other team, their players and coaches the credit. Be a teacher not an enabling excuse maker. Don?t worry about the opposition make your team the best they can be, your players will be better for it 10-20 years from now.

150 free youth football coaching tips for you here: Youth Football

Copyright 2007 Cisar Management, all rights reserved

Dave Cisar- Founder and President of Screaming Eagles in Omaha and Lincoln, areas in Nebraska a youth football program serving over 400 boys age 6-14. With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams that has enabled his personal teams to win 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues at all levels and age groups while retaining 90% of his kids.

Dave is a trainer of youth football coaches nationwide. He has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized, while having fun and retaining players. His book ?Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan? was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His DVDs and book have been used by teams nationwide to run integrity based programs that win championships. His web site is http://www.winningyouthfootball.com and he can be reached at dacisar@aol.com

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