LINCOLN -- Special teams are important to new Lincoln head football coach Don Harrison, who has played freshmen on varsity during his tenure at Newport.
Harrison graduated from Mena in 1999 where he played high school football for coach Joe Bunch. He cut his teeth learning coaching aspects of the sport from two of the best -- Gus Malzahn, currently head coach at Auburn University, when Malzahn was coaching at Shiloh Christian High School at Springdale; and Rick Jones, head coach at Greenwood.
"A lot of stuff I do comes from Coach Malzahn and Rick Jones at Greenwood," Harrison admits, saying he was frustrated by the lack of emphasis on special teams at the seventh-grade level.
"I went to the seventh-grade coaches at Newport and begged them to play special teams," Harrison said, adding, "Hopefully the peewee program here at Lincoln understands."
Although Arkansas rules allow for simulated kickoffs and punts with spotting of a dead ball during a change of possession, Harrison intends to develop special teams beginning with seventh-grade football at Lincoln, a habit that was re-enforced while working at Greenwood when Harrison guided the junior Bulldogs to four straight River Valley championships and a 37-2-1 record as head junior high coach from 2006-2009.
According to Harrison, teams among the River Valley junior high league would begin week one with simulated kicks and punts as well as spotting of the ball with an understanding that was going to change once there were enough practices to develop special teams.
"By week four or five, you had better have a kickoff team and a punt team cause we're playing live special teams," Harrison said.
"You've got to have kids play special teams to get where they understand what's going on and it's not a shock when they get to junior high football."
"Special teams is one-third of the game and special teams needs to be treated like it," Harrison said. "You have to practice special teams and your better players have to play special teams. I don't think special teams will win you a game but they darn sure will lose one for you."
Sports on 07/01/2015