Huddle Up

About the Book

I decided to write this book when a young family member told me that he had planned to go into coaching. I wondered if he realized that this profession involved a lot more than what the fans see on Friday night. After I started writing about the boring stuff involving rules and regulations, X’s and O’s, game preparation, etc. I decided to just tell stories from my experience and to try to weave them in to some kind of message that a young coach could use to formulate a coaching philosophy of his own.

High school coaches are in a unique position of authority and it is imperative that they understand the responsibility that goes with that position. I mention in this book that players will remember things that a coach says, and does, long after the coach has forgotten what he said. A coach will spend almost as much time with his players as will their parents. He will be with the young people at some of their highest points and at some of their lowest points. He will exalt with them and he will cry with them and his counsel will quite possibly stick with them for a lifetime. This is certainly not an attempt to overstate the importance of a coach in a young person’s life but the coach is in a position of influence and he must take it seriously.

About the Author

George W Jefferson is a native of Greenville, Mississippi. He was an All-State football player at Greenville High School in 1952 and continued his playing career at Sunflower Junior College (now Mississippi Delta CC) and at The University of Wyoming. He is a member of the Sports Hall of Fame at both schools. Jefferson coached high school football and track at 6 different schools in Mississippi, Georgia, and Kentucky for 35 years. He has been the Assistant to the Principal at Riverside Military Academy since 1994.