Bowling Strikes - Again and Again

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The full text of “Bowling Strikes - Again and Again” by Joe Chinn, from the Vol 1 — Summer 2023 issue.

It's not hard to understand. When you score many times in every game you are most likely going to win many of those games. But, the question is, as every football coach knows, How do you that? How do you create that high scoring offense, and becomes the Highest Scoring High School Football Team in the nation? Joe Chinn, head coach at Bowling Green High School, has found some of the answers to that question.

In 2022, Coach Chinn's Bobcats scored an amazing 64 points per game and made it to the State Championship final game. BOWLING STRIKES! Again & Again BOWLING STRIKES! Again & Again Joe Chinn, Head Coach Bowling Green

What are the Coach Chinn's Keys To Success for building this kind of high scoring, successful pro - gram. Priorities going into a season: 1. Creating Your Plan for Success for your Coaches & players = the Team to Get better each week. Use every practice, scrimmage and game to get better so at the end of the year you are playing your best. Plan for it, talk about it and do it. 2.

Prioritize the fundamentals: hitting our land - marks in the backfield, firing off the ball on the OL, tackling well and having great pursuit angles...practice these things every day. 3.Keep everything simple/understandable, don't overload and strive to be really great at the things you do and execute at a high level. 4..Make it enjoyable and a memorable experience, since for most players this will be their last season.

One particularly good idea is prior to the season, during Spring, upcoming seniors and returning starters get together and decide on goals for the coming season. Team goals for each week. Slogans for shirts and helmets, song for taking the field, disciplines for skipping or late to practice, all designed to give them ownership of the program. Tell Seniors this is their team and allow them to have a say in these things help reinforce this idea.

Our Team The Bobcat offense is a split back veer option team out of 22 personnel. The offense revolves primarily around outside veer, along with a midline option and inside veer. Complimenting the option game, we also run inside trap, counter, power and Iso. Run first at about 80% and pass 20%. The offensive line loves to be aggressive every play and being able to efficiently run downhill opens up the passing game.

Offense We want to control the line of scrimmage and move with tempo. Modify your game plan to your specific opponent......always be prepared to use something different if they are taking away your first option. because every team gives us a different defense than we were expecting. We try to predict what front they will give us and what coverage but most of the time we rely on running the ball and playing to our strengths.

We are always looking at how they line up to determine how we will attack i.e. 4 front, 5 front, 6front .If they are trying to take away the veer, we go with more counters and traps. If tight DEs we utilize quick pitch. Crowding the box = we use play action to keep their secondary honest. And PLAY FAST and go with what is working to stay in manageable downs and move the chains. Defense What are their key plays and how do we stop what they are most comfortable doing first.

We look to stop their bread-and-butter plays, and different ways to get pressure on their QB. Another big consideration we make on defense is we look at formations and if there is any specific formation that we need to create an automatic check to. Our biggest goal is to stop the run first. Win early downs and force throw on 3rd and longs. Being able to bring pressure is pressure is key. If their QB is their best athlete, make him give it as much as possible.

Know their play makers and keep the ball out of their hands. We try to make sure our best is on their best, give extra coverage to their best WR Another Key To Success and a big in-game goal is to win the Turnover battle. Coach Chinn also attributes much success to the Special Teams unit, especially the kickoff team. Their most important goal is for the oppo - nent's average start position to be the 25.

I think there are many factors that played into our team's scoring and offensive success. One our players bought into what we are doing on offense. They believed in what we were doing and went out every game and exe - cuted. We had talented players and a great offensive line (all 5 plus 1 TE earned All-Conference, and 2 were All State). Everyone on the team knew their role and did a great job of executing it, and that also goes for our scout team.

Everyday in practice they gave us a great look which helped us to get better each and every week. An - other factor I think was our ability to gain yards nearly every play and execute in our play action passing game. Being able to run the ball effectively and couple that with keeping teams honest by having success throwing the ball was key to our success. One big tip would be for coaches is that they need to take time for themselves and family. Make sure to priori - tize family time!

Go to T ball Game, dance recitals, date with your wife. Can’t take that time for granted. As far as coaching advice I think it's important to build relationships with the kids and always recruit. Be out in the hallways and talk to kids every day. Show interest in their other sports, grades and activities. Always encourage multi-sport athletes. And at the end of every year do a self-evaluation. Look at ways you can improve, and it doesn’t have to be something drastic.

This can be ways you improve as a coach personally, better drills for your position group, if you're a coordinator how to get better at calling plays or directing your side of the ball. Could be tweaks to make practice more efficient or ways to improve your weights program. Never stop trying to get better. We try to make practices as efficient as possible and get the most reps possible.

Most of our kids play both ways and are on all the special teams, so we have to make sure that we get reps in all those areas as much as we can. Once games start, we do not practice very long (hour and half at most). But that hour and half is very fast paced. There is not very much standing around and we coach on the fly. We hardly if ever condition in the traditional sense. We get our conditioning in by playing at game pace, or through drills.

Some drills we will use for conditioning are kickoff cover - age (everyone even lineman go), defensive pursuit drills, offensive plays on air. Intangibles that I think helps our team success is that our kids strive to be great. They know what it takes to get better and have bought into that. Over the past three years we have had 90% attendance to voluntary summer workouts because they know that off season lifting is important to getting bet - ter.

We aren’t having to beg and drag kids to get them there, they are doing it on their own or their teammates are getting them there. Every player knows their role and takes ownership of that role. That could be a scout team player or special teams' player. They understand that this is a team game that every person is important to our success.

As far as coaching goals and career goals, I want to just keep getting better every day, every week and every year. There are always ways to improve as a coach or to improve as a program. I love coaching at a small school and in a small community. There is something special about kids playing both ways every Friday and seeing the whole town come out and line the track during big games. Community support at small rural schools is some - thing special and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Joe Chinn - Head Coach Bowling Green I took over the program going into the 2020 season. In the previous 3 seasons we had won 14 games, but were re - building from a 1-9 season in 2016 My first year we were more Pro Style, which I think was a good stepping stone for us. We had been spread for a number of years, so I think spending a year running the I formation (Iso, Power, Counter) was a good stepping stone from the program.

But the past two years we have been spilt back veer and I could not be more happy with where we are as a team and program. In those two years we are 23-2 on varsity and 14-0 for our JV. Back to back district champs. In 2021 we had the highest points per average in Class 2 in MO with 49 per game. Then in 2022 we led the nation in points per game with nearly 65.

With great sorrow we commem - orate the passing of our longtime friend and fellow traveler, Rex Lard - ner, who moved on to the Higher League this past June. Rex was a very endearing teammate for nearly 25 years and brightened every day with his kindness and generosity. Rex Lardner was a fine man and we treasure his memory. Rex, as an editor of AFM, through the years, connected with and interviewed hundreds of football coaches across the country in the production of scores of magazine issues.

Additionally, he facilitated and helped produce the AFM Video Football library of over 400 coaching instruc - tional DVDs. Rex was Notre Dame Alum, he loved his Fight - ing Irish and would always gather on game day at a local Irish pub for the Notre Dame Football Games. We miss you Rex, Go Irish! LOST AFM TEAMMATE

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