The Use of Formations to Gain an Advantage

Garrison High School has a long tradition of a winning football program. We have been in the playoffs 28 times and won 22 district championships. This was the first time in my coaching career that I had taken over a program that had a winning tradition and the opportunity was there to make a good program great instead of trying to turn an unsuccessful program into a winning program. I was hired in July of 1999 and had only a few weeks to familiarize myself with my coaches and players. I spent the time between mid-July and the beginning of practice in early August teaching the very basics of our offense and defense. The first season we learned everything on the run. We had a great season going 12-1 and getting beat in the third round of the playoffs. In my second season, with a very small senior class, we won 7 games and lost 5 while being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.