The calendar has finally turned. Spring Ball is over. School is winding down. The weather is getting warmer. The grills are coming out. Vacation plans are getting finalized.
For most people, summer is a chance to slow down. For football coaches? Not so much.
Now, before anyone thinks I’m advocating for twelve-hour football days all summer long, let me be clear—that’s the exact opposite of what I’m saying.
Summer isn’t about grinding yourself into the ground before August ever arrives. Summer is about preparation. It’s about laying the foundation so that when preseason finally rolls around, you’re not scrambling to figure things out. You’re simply putting the finishing touches on work that’s already been done.
The beauty of coaching JV football is that our priorities are a little different than they are at the Varsity level. Sure, we’re trying to prepare for a season, but we’re also preparing ourselves to become better teachers, better organizers, and better developers of young athletes.
Over the years, I’ve found that there are five things every JV coach should be prioritizing once the summer months arrive.
Not installing fifty new plays.
Not finding fifteen new blitzes.
Not redesigning your entire playbook.
Those things can wait. These five priorities can’t.
1. Spend Time With Your Family
Let’s start with the one that has absolutely nothing to do with football: Your family.
One of the hardest parts about being a football coach isn’t the long practices or the Friday nights. It’s what those things take you away from.
Once August arrives, football becomes all-consuming. Practices, film, meetings, game planning, scouting, Saturday breakdowns, Sunday planning, weight room, youth camps; by the time the season is over, there are days where you genuinely feel like an absentee husband or father.
It’s part of coaching. That doesn’t make it easy. That’s why summer matters so much.
This is the time to intentionally invest in the people who sacrifice just as much as you do every football season.
Go camping.
Take a weekend trip.
Spend an afternoon at the beach.
Have family game nights.
Cook dinner together.
Take your kids fishing.
Go get ice cream.
Sit around a fire pit.
Do absolutely nothing together.
It honestly doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is that you’re present.
Football coaches are really good at scheduling practices, but sometimes we need to get just as intentional about scheduling family time. Because when August comes, everyone in your house is going to make sacrifices. The least we can do is make sure they know how much we appreciate them before that season begins.
Football will always be there. Your kids won’t always be little.
Don’t miss that.
2. Get Kids to Show Up
If there is one thing that can make or break a JV offseason, it’s participation.
Here’s the reality.
You’re probably not going to dramatically increase a player’s squat max over the next six weeks. You’re probably not going to fully install your offense. You’re probably not going to create perfect football players before camp.
None of that happens if kids aren’t there. Summer isn’t about perfection. It’s about participation.
Because development only happens when players keep showing up.
So how do you get them there?
Make football fun. Yes, I said fun. Sometimes coaches hear that word and immediately think we’re lowering standards. We’re not. Fun and discipline can absolutely coexist.
Competition periods.
Small-sided games.
Skill challenges.
Team competitions.
Cookouts after workouts.
Player versus coach competitions.
Leadership opportunities.
Anything that keeps kids excited to return tomorrow. The trick is balancing fun with purpose. Every activity should still teach football. Every competition should still build something. Every workout should still move players forward.
But if kids are smiling while they’re developing? You’ve found the sweet spot.
The goal of summer isn’t to have the hardest workouts. It’s to have the highest attendance. Because attendance compounds.
The more often kids show up together, the stronger your team becomes. Not just physically, but mentally, socially and culturally as well.
3. Run Clinics With Your Staff
One of my favorite parts of every offseason has nothing to do with players. It’s getting coaches together.
From the youngest youth coaches all the way up through Varsity, summer is the perfect time to connect as a staff. We took that opportunity this past week with our program at our first annual South Jeff Coaches Clinic, going over practice frameworks, drills, our new offense, tackling, and defensive structure. It was awesome. Just a bunch of people getting together to talk football, watch film, teach drills, discuss techniques, ask questions, and share ideas.
Sometimes the best clinic you’ll attend all year is the one held in your own field house. Everybody brings something different to the table. Youth coaches understand how beginners learn. Modified coaches see players during critical developmental years. JV coaches bridge development into varsity expectations. Varsity coaches understand the complete vision of the program.
Imagine what happens when all of those perspectives come together.
Alignment. That’s what happens.
Every clinic becomes another opportunity to make sure everyone is speaking the same language.
Maybe your offensive line coach demonstrates a better way to teach pull steps.
Maybe your youth coaches discover a drill that simplifies tackling.
Maybe your Varsity coordinator adjusts terminology to make communication easier throughout the program.
Those conversations matter. Because alignment isn’t created in August. It’s created during conversations like those.
By the time camp starts, everyone should already know what the standard looks like.
4. Trim Your Drill Library
If you’re anything like me, clinic season probably left you with about 600 screenshots on your phone. Every speaker had the next great drill. Every presentation had another must-have circuit. Every social media post introduced another revolutionary way to teach football.
Here’s the problem: you can’t run them all.
And honestly? You shouldn’t try.
Summer is the perfect time to go through your drill library and ask one simple question: Does this help us become better at what we actually do? If the answer is no, cut it. At the JV level, simplicity wins. Your drills should reflect your scheme.
If you’re a gap-scheme team, your drills should reinforce gap-scheme techniques.
If you teach Hawk Tackling, your tackling drills should reinforce Hawk Tackling.
Everything should connect.
The second thing to consider is practicality. Let’s be honest, most JV programs aren’t swimming in equipment. We don’t have Crowther sleds. We don’t have six tackling rings. We don’t have GPS systems. We don’t have enough cones because somebody always forgets to pick them up after practice.
Build drills that work with what you actually have. The simpler the setup, the more reps your players get. And reps beat fancy equipment every single time.
I’ve become a huge believer in having a condensed drill library. Maybe five or six drills per position. Maybe three or four team drills. That’s it.
Run them well.
Coach them hard.
Repeat them often.
Players become confident when they know what’s expected. Coaches become better teachers because they master those drills.
And practices flow so much smoother.
Remember, we’re developing football players—not trying to win Drill of the Year.
5. Build Your Practice Framework
This might be the most important thing you do all summer.
Develop your practice framework now. Not in August. Not after your first scrimmage.
Now.
One of the biggest mistakes young coaches make is planning every practice from scratch.
Monday arrives.
Open the laptop.
Start building.
Repeat.
That’s exhausting.
Instead, create a framework. Know your individual periods. Know your group periods. Know your team periods. Know where conditioning fits. Know your transitions. Know who’s coaching what. Know where every coach is supposed to be.
Once that framework exists, practice planning becomes incredibly simple. Instead of rebuilding the house every day, you’re just rearranging the furniture.
Need to emphasize tackling? Swap in a tackling drill.
Need to improve Power? Plug Power into inside run.
Need more passing? Adjust your group periods.
Everything else stays the same. The framework becomes your foundation.
It also helps your coaching staff tremendously. Assistant coaches know what they’re responsible for. Position coaches know what drills they’re running. Everyone arrives prepared. Nothing wastes more practice time than coaches asking each other, “What are we doing next?”
Your players notice organization. More importantly, they notice disorganization.
A consistent practice structure creates confidence. Players know where they’re going. Coaches know what they’re teaching. Practice becomes efficient. And efficient practices create developed football players.
Summer Builds Fall
People often say championships are won in the offseason. I don’t know if that’s entirely true.
Championships are won because of thousands of decisions made over months and years. Summer is simply one piece of that puzzle. But it’s an important piece.
Summer is where relationships grow. Summer is where attendance grows. Summer is where coaches reconnect. Summer is where systems become aligned. Summer is where practice plans are refined. Summer is where families get one last uninterrupted stretch before football consumes everyone’s calendar.
Don’t waste it.
Invest in your family.
Get your kids involved.
Develop your staff.
Simplify your teaching.
Build your practice structure.
Because before long, August will be here. The whistle will blow. The pads will come on. And all of the little things you invested in over the summer will quietly begin paying dividends.
That’s the beauty of coaching. The work nobody sees is often what makes the biggest difference when everybody is watching.
Enjoy your summer.
Use it wisely.
And when the season finally arrives, you’ll be thankful you spent these months preparing instead of scrambling.
Teach it. Rep it. Build it. That’s the JV Way.
