Coach ,

In order to be successful on special teams, creating buy-in from everyone involved is the priority. To create a culture of successful special teams, many special teams coordinators create a recognition system.

Whether it is through social media, helmet decals, candy bars or other awards, recognizing the efforts of those on special teams will go a long way to creating a culture of excellence only teams.

Before we get into the ideas on how to award performance. Let’s take a look at the mindset and belief necessary to have a strong special teams. 

Tony Coaxum, special teams coordinator at the Citadel emphasizes the importance of the role on special teams. Here is what he shares with about “your role” with his players:

How to Create Belief - Dan DaPrato STC at New Mexico believes “How you do anything is how you do everything.” He thinks this creates a “magic potion” of belief that helps them excel on teams. 

Christian Vitale has coached at both the collegiate and high school level, and he talks about the importance of recognizing top performance and rewarding it in this video:

Princeton is known for elite education and performance but they do not take that for granted. They develop their identity on special teams by pointing out the guys who do things the right way and incentivizing performance through their awards system. 

Tigers Special Teams Coordinator Mike Mendenhall explains his philosophy and how he looks for the “crafty vets” as the guys who lay the foundation for teams performance:

Setting weekly goals and awarding daily, weekly and yearly performance is a big part of the special teams culture that Justin Lustig creates. Now the STC at Penn State, Coach Lustig shares the goals they track as well as how they recognize their top performers through social media and other ways:

As you head into summer, preparing how you will create buy-in and recognize performance can go a long way in helping you win more games this fall. The ideas shared here provide a great foundation for you to build upon.

Always be growing!

-Coach Grabowski