On Saturday May 16, 106 youth football coaches from all over California and beyond attended Santa Clara High School for a day full of football instruction.
The morning kicked-off with two football theory sessions. The first session, positive coaching techniques, gave coaches a complete understanding of how they should go about strengthening team confidence. The second theory session was put on by the Positive Coaching Alliance and provided coaches with a variety of tools to keep youths interested in football and moving in the right direction off the field.
Following the theory sessions, coaches broke out into rotating chalk talk sessions that covered four different topics: offensive line play, passing game, linebacker play and player development. Each of the sessions lasted 50 minutes with two rotations.
"The San Francisco 49ers/USA Football Coaching School was a huge success reaching over 100 youth football coaches," said Bassel Faltas, who is the Northwest regional manager of USA Football. "The San Francisco 49ers care about the community and the youths who live in it. We are blessed to have the 49ers in our lives."
After lunch, the entire group traveled into the lecture hall for keynote speaker Al Everest, the 49ers special teams coordinator. Coach Everest began his presentation with a sneak preview of the 2008 49ers Special Teams highlight video, which will be shown to 49ers players at the beginning of training camp.
Everest went on to talk about 49ers Special Teams coverage and provided coaching points for success. In closing, Everest paid respect to all coaches in attendance and stressed the importance of their role as a youth football coach.
Coaches then made their way out to the Santa Clara High School football field for the on-field drill session portion of the coaching school. The drill session consisted of eight stations: quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, defensive backs, and the fundamentals of tackling.
At each station, college and high school football coaches displayed a wide array of drills, while utilizing college football players for demonstrations.
"All of our coaches enjoyed themselves and spoke very highly of the agenda and organization. It's extremely important for the 49ers to keep doing what they are doing," said Bob DeVore, president of the Salinas Cardinals. "We are all headed for a common goal and that is to teach these kids to make the right choices and to be good, upstanding adults later on in their lives, through the game of football."
Each attending coach received a USA Football Coaches Handbook, a USA Football t-shirt, a 49ers Youth Football t-shirt and an official certificate verifying completion of the program.
The 49ers would like to thank Santa Clara High School and head football coach Shinici Hirano and staff for all their support throughout the day and opening their doors to the 49ers. The 49ers would also like to thank all of the eight colleges, high school coaches and USA Football representatives who were on-hand for all their hard work and ongoing commitment to the game of football.
Coaches in attendance:
• Brian Davila, Wide Receivers Coach, Cabrillo College
• Bill Garrison, Head Football Coach, Cabrillo College
• Steve Henderson, Positive Coaching Alliance
• William Lenzner, Peak Performance Specialist
• Doug Morris, Head Football Coach, San Lorenzo Valley High School
• Jared Muela, Offensive Line Coach, Irvington High School
• Jim Perfumo, Defensive Line Coach, Cabrillo College
• Smo Soekardi, Linebackers Coach, Cabrillo College
