Zone-option football

We’re a week into preseason camp for Pop Warner football and we’re slowly progressing toward some very interesting portions of camp. We’ve got 31 kids on the 5th grade team that are eventually going to be split into two teams, A and B team.

I’ve learned that the returning dads and players from last year’s championship team are almost certainly going to comprise the core of the A-team group. A former classmate of mine from high school who coached in high school football for a while might be the best overall coach, but he’s newer and his kid is newer, so he’s likely to end up in charge of the B-team.

My kid and I seem destined for that as well. The B-team had coach, who I’ve learned worked with Cody Alexander of Match Quarters at his last high school job, told me he would like to put me in charge of the B-team offense while he focuses on defense. My mind has been on fire ever since, working through the likely makeup of our team and considering what tactics to major in.

For the first week, one of the main points of emphasis in early practices has been shotgun meshes between the quarterbacks and running backs in the inside zone-read game. I’ve been off to the side working with receivers, so I can tell you from first-hand observation the B-team is not going to be as stacked with a ton of passing options or lethal deep threat wideouts. We’re going to need a good plan for ball-control and running it. It sounds like zone-option1 is going to be the name of the game.