MVP TROPHY CRITERIA FOR WINNER

"HOW DO YOU DETERMINE YOUR TEAMS MVP. I WANT IT TO BE OPEN FOR EVERYONE, BACKS AND LINEMAN. ANY SUGGESTIONS. I THINK DC TOUCHED ON THIS IN AN EARLIER POST DURING THE SUMMER. SOMETHING ABOUT BUYING THE BIGGEST TROPHY AND USE IT AS A CARROT FOR THE KIDS."

Yes. We buy a big trophy for about $ 20-25 with MVP on it and leave it by the waterjug with a parent to guard it. We don't actually award it to the team's truly most valuable player because, if we did, it would go to the top stud. We use the trophy as a player motivator and the use occurred to me one year when I agreed to take over the worst team in the league and discovered that - Yes - they truly were the worst. Still, they played their hearts out until they hit 0-4. The moment that happened and they knew they were out of the playoffs, they gave up and played FLAT. It was the first, and last, time I had ever witnessed this. I vowed that would never happen again. I didn't care that they stunk up the field so long as they didn't give up. Since they gave up and played flat when they realized they were out of the running for the league trophy, I figured the solution was to keep them all in the running for the MVP trophy. It worked. My boys bust their guts for that trophy. I'd like to be able to say that they're still playing like tigers when behind 70-0 but, the fact is that since I introduced the trophy we've never been behind by more than 13 points. The MVP trophy effected them in ways I hadn't foreseen. I still have that same team and they've gone from the bottom to the top. There are many, many reasons for this but I can identify that the trophy had a HUGE impact on error rates. The number of mistakes by position dropped DRAMATICALLY - In some cases by up to 20 times with the ADD kids. Kids who weren't carrying the ball and who didn't consider themselves important to the play, now played picture perfect.

I don't know if this is what you want but, if it is, you have to CAREFULLY DESIGN your award system so that the competition is so tight that, going into the last game, 80% of your players are still in the running for the trophy. It's still too close to call the winner. This must be done or, otherwise, those who know they are out of the running will play FLAT which defeats the purpose of the trophy. Also, the kids must know they are in the running for it in order to be motivated. This requires a SCORECARD. Our scorecard is with helmet stars. The player with the most helmet stars on his helmet at the end of the season wins the trophy. On Mondays, after film evaluation of Saturday's game, I am literally mobbed by my players for those helmet stars. They are of HUGE IMPORTANCE to the players. Ten times more than you imagine. For those ten minutes there is TOTAL DISRUPTION OF PRACTICE. It's madness and mayhem. Incredibly, at least 25% of the players will know EXACTLY how many stars they have coming because they are keeping track of them during the game and out on the field. That shows you the importance they attach to those stars.

So now you have this HUGE carrot for your players. This carrot though creates the incentive for your players to "hotdog" out on the field and that's BAD. I discovered this the hard way when my corners began dropping off their coverage in order to play the run because we were handing out helmet stars for tackles. So you MUST DESIGN your awards to produce the desired POSITIVE behavior and not negative, "hotdogging" behavior.

Okay! Let's use an actual award system of mine to show how we create the desired behavior as well as the desired result of 80% of the players still being in the running for the trophy in the last game. We'll use "Tiny Tim", "Fat Freddy", and "All American Sam" as the example. Tiny Tim is 48 pounds in a 150 pound league. "Fat Freddy" is 150 pounds of walking jello. "All American Sam" has it all. Every five minutes he's in the endzone scoring another TD. Here's how I balance them out. "Tiny Tim" in the DC46 plays corner, usually sharing the spot with another "Tiny Tim" (This is where I put my little guys). "Tiny Tim" gets a helmet star if 1) He covers his man every play 2) He intercepts a pass 3) He knocks down a pass 4) No one throws to his man. So let's say he covers his man every play who is never thrown to. That's two helmet stars to Tiny Tim. However, since Tiny Tim only played half time (he shared his position) I double the number of stars to reflect what he would have gotten had he played full time. So Tiny Tim, who never made a tackle, never made an interception, and never knocked down a pass, has 4 helmet stars. Okay! Let's go to "Fat Freddy". "Fat Freddy' is such a slob he never plays a down of defense, plays offensive tackle only, and then shares the spot with a kid that can actually block. "Fat Freddy" can get a helmet star for 1) No mistakes (blocking right defender) 2) pancake blocks 3) wedge plays that go 10 yards. At the end of the game "Fat Freddy" makes no pancake blocks and no wedge plays for 10 or more yards. His only accomplishment was to block the right guy. That's one helmet star. However, since he only played one fourth time (zero defense and half offense) I multiply his stars by four. So he too, like "Tiny Tim", has four helmet stars. Okay! It's "All American Sam's" turn. Oops! This running back can only earn stars for pancake blocks, catching passes, and tackles - none for TD's or first downs. We tell 'All American Sam" his reward for scoring TD's is experienced as he does it. We want to award the 10 other guys who made their blocks that made his TD possible. So now "All American Sam" goes out and makes four GREAT tackles from linebacker. His reward? Four helmet stars. He's tied with "Tiny Tim" and "Fat Freddy". Going into the last game, at this rate, the race is on for who will finish with the most stars. So what have I got? I've got a tiny tike out there WHO ALWAYS COVERS HIS MAN. I've got a Dorito eater that ALWAYS BLOCKS THE RIGHT MAN. There's an old addage in football that says "The team that makes the fewest mistakes wins". Who is making MISTAKES on my team? No one. Advantage mine. I've watched ADD kids drop their error rate from 20% to 1% in just one week.

So who does win the trophy? Last year it was a "tiny tike" cornerback who played half time at his position - but the kid had 7 INT's which equated to 14 helmet stars just in themselves. The winner before that, and for three years in a row, was our right guard and, in second place behind him for all three years was our center. No running back has ever won. Why not? Because I give awards for actions above and beyond the call of duty. The heroes on my team make the block that let the runner score the TD. They didn't have the greatest physical skill like "All American Sam", but they MADE THE BEST USE OF WHAT THEY HAD - And they NEVER, EVER give up. The helmet stars keep them going. As long as there's one last down left in the game to play, there's a chance of winning one more star, regardless of the score on the scoreboard. So they play their hearts out.

There are two more additions to this. One is that you can make it so that 80% of your kids finish up the season as winners. We have team jackets for the players. However, you can't get a team jacket until you've collected 30 helmet stars. Guess what? Every kid that gets his 30 helmet stars buys the jacket and they wear it with pride because they EARNED IT. They wear their trophy.

Second, you don't have to do this. Many, many teams go out and win simply because, for them, winning is a tradition. They don't need helmet stars to play with pride. They play with pride because they EXPECT to win. MVP trophies are a gimmick to turn around a losing team. True winners don't need gimmicks. I could stop the helmet stars tomorrow and still win. But the kids are hooked on them and they're great for the benchwarmers. As an example of not needing a trophy, Coach JB sent me film of his team for my evaluation. He doesn't use gimmicks and his players play like they are demon possessed. You see the runner turning the corner and a defending linebacker homing in on him and then, suddenly, BOOM! Here comes somebody flying from out of nowhere to take him out. And then the next play it happens again. And the play after that too. JB's kids play with REAL INTENSITY. How he does it I don't know. But he's not using an MVP trophy.