The guest on today’s Coach and Coordinator podcast is Geron Stokes, head coach of Minster High School (Ohio). Stokes is in his sixth season coaching the Wildcats. Minster is coming off winning the Ohio Division VII state championship last season. This is Minster’s second state championship in four seasons, as they won in Stokes’ second year at the helm in 2014. In five seasons, Stokes has compiled a 49-19 record as head coach at Minster, including four straight seasons of 10 or more wins.

Before coming to Minster, Stokes was the head coach at Urbana High School (Ohio) for four seasons. He held a 29-13 record with Urbana while leading them to three conference titles and two appearances in the Ohio state playoffs. He was also named District Coach of the Year during the 2012 season. Stokes was first hired as a head coach at Urbana, his alma mater, when he was 24 years old. He played quarterback in college and graduated from Wittenberg University in Ohio.

On today’s show, Stokes and host Keith Grabowski talk about how he sets up an efficient practice, getting his players to work hard and translating that to results on Friday nights.

Show Notes

1:20 Journey into coaching

3:03 How he and his coaching staff looked to improve

5:13 Learning from different coaching staffs

6:34 Building the football program around practice

9:12 Helping the players understand practice

12:49 Creating accountability within the team

15:40 Practice tips learned from other coaches

19:17 Condensing space to help the energy in practice

20:43 Feedback from outside sources evaluating practice

22:57 Being efficient with time and language with your team

25:22 Ways of evaluating their practice

27:13 New drills and techniques for practice this season

29:42 Getting the most out of your scout team

32:05 Gauging the amount of contact used in practices

33:15 Timing of practice and having two-way players

35:10 Translating practices form off-season to in-season

36:58 Allowing time for each period of practice

38:49 Shortening practices as the season goes on

39:58 The Winning Edge