DC Wing-T player descriptions

We test every player for every position because we don't trust our "eyesight" to tell us what we need. When we watch football on TV, the OT's weigh 300 pounds. So you think, "Oh! I put my big, slow guys at OT". But that's not how youth ball works. Short and fast beats big and slow. In fact, it's very hard to find a place for "big and slow" to play in the DC Wing T. When we find "big and slow", we start tennis ball drilling him and frog hopping him. We don't expect to improve his speed but we'll try and improve his quickness.

OK! That said, we run the following skill tests:

1) 27 yard dash (3 times, throw out best and worst times)
2) Bear crawl (coordination)
3) Frog hops (weak knees?)
4) Stand up

1) Wingback: The most important position. The fastest player you have that can catch and has a decent "Hit score".

2) Halfback: Your "universal" player. Can run, block, and catch. Very nice if he can throw a "HB Pass".

3) Fullback and TE: Identical positions. Players with high "Hit scores" and "sumo" finishes. The difference is the TE catches and the FB doesn't. If both can catch, the fastest one goes to TE. If speed and catch are equal, the shorter one goes to FB.

4) Guards: Back up HB's. Test them by putting stacking one behind the other in a 3 point stance. Run a 5 yard pulling race to the right and then a 5 yard pulling race to the left. They may both tie to the right but, most often, one is faster to the left. Either way, your fastest puller to the left is your RG. The fastest puller to your right is you LG. If everything else is equal, highest "hit score" goes to LG.

5) Center: A back up FB type with a high centering score.

6) Right tackle: The winner of your sumo drill. But, failing that, a non-puller with a high hit score.

7) Left tackle: Your fastest remaining player that can block and pull left. This can be an undersized player ("stand up" test) with a good "sumo" finish.

8) QB: A fast kid that can throw. Most often chosen, not for his arm, as much as for the fact that he's too small to block. So he's QB by process of elimination. Should be able to throw a spiral 17-20 yards.

9) Split End: three players - Only one who needs to be able to catch. Don't hestitate to put a big, heavy "stand up" failure here if he can block someone who doesn't see him coming. A big tank can "decleat" a Will LBer who isn't looking and that is VERY EFFFECTIVE for runs to the left. Also, very intimidating to the defense to see a big kid out here. The third player here is your too small, too slow, too uncoordinated player who shouldn't be playing football but is. SE's have your worst hit scores and this one is your worst of your worst. The second player who can catch is also selected for low "hit score". Your LG and RG may have better hands than this SE, but you need blockers more than you need hands or you can't get the pass off.

ADJUSTMENTS FOR BALLCARRIER WEIGHT

If you have weight restrictions on your ballcarriers, such as 85 pounds, start reducing the height of your FB. You're looking for an 85 pound bowling ball. His shorter height gives him the leverage advantage ("Lowest man wins") when blocking and puts him "underneath" the LBers when running the ball. In this case, you now have somebody on your team that should be playing FB but, due to the weight rules, is not. This truck goes to either RT or C. Check his ability to snap. If he can snap PERFECT, put him at C and run wedge behind him. RT is next but only if he wins "sumo".

Substitutions: Oddly enough, you can substitute "Fat Freddy" at RT. Just run left, wedge, or "36 Power" when he's in there. Center is another position that can be subbed for if the sub has a good snap. It's alway critical that whoever snaps the ball, have a "top" centering score. I score them 1-3, with "1" being the best, and I personally take their snaps and score them. I'll probably get five kids with scores of #1. Three will probably go to other positions due to other skills too rare to ignore or for being too small to play center. But whoever is left over and gets the job is going to have a #1 score. Absolutely critical. You want that perfect snap "over and over and over again".

Examples of player selection:

Name                            Weight  Time     Hit    Snap    Throw  Catch   
                                   
Jonathon Allen  (FB)     105        5.0       21      Yes                   Yes                 
Timothy White  (TE)     102        4.6       22                   Yes      Yes*   
Travis Kafentzis  (HB)    91        4.9      18.6    Yes       Yes      Yes                 
Enrique Salas      (WB)    87        4.9      17.7                 Yes      Yes      
Brandon Kissler (QB)     76        5.0       15.2                 Yes      Yes
WB backup
Tyler Ines   (SE)           71        5.0      14.2                              Yes               
Derek Hanks  (SE)          66      5.3      12.5                                No
Ethan Honzik (RT)         121     7.2       16.8 
Austin Short (C)           116      5.4       21.5      Yes         
John Burford   (SE)       108      7.0      15.4
Taylor Boyce (LG)         96      5.3      18.1          Yes     Yes       Yes          
Jake Morby (TE)           88      5.5      16                      Yes        Yes
Backup QB
Trenton Dave (RG)         86     5.4      15.9                    Yes       Yes
Jarrod Howell (LG)*       90     5.1      17.6                                 Yes
Iziah Izaguirre (RT)         91     5.6      16.3                                 Yes
Anthony Screwup            91     5.9      15.4                   
Austin Tries  (LT)           92     5.4      17.0
Trent Wellenough  (RG)  89     5.7      15.6                                 Yes

These are my last year players, age 10. A few names have been changed to protect the guilty. Here are how the positions got handed out. Starting at WB, Salas got the job. He had the second fastest run time, behind Timmy White, but I didn't need that big of a "hit score" at WB as Timmy produced. Salas led the team in TD's. Next, HB: Kafentzis got the spot for his "hit score" (blocking/running) and ability to throw the HB pass. Next up, FB/TE: This is a "Hit score" position. It was between Allen, White, and Short and Short didn't want to carry the ball. White could have played FB but, in the case of a tie in "Hit scores" (They were pretty close), the faster one goes to TE. You put speed at TE so that, when he catches the ball, nobody catches him. Nobody could catch Timmy White. He was second in scoring TD's. He could also level any Sam LBer in the league. The Guard positions were next and went to kids with abilities close to Kafentzis. Immediately, you'll see Taylor Boyce at LG. With a "Hit Score" of 18, I had a "stud" sitting here ready to pull on "36 Toss". You'll see he shared time at the position with Jarrod Howell, also with a "hit score" of 18 and ready to pull. By comparison, both RG's dropped off to hit scores of 16. Then we go to center, Austin Short. Look at that hit score of 22. That's a boy you can run wedge behind all day. Next, comes RT. The actual winner of our "sumo" drill was Jonathon Allen, at FB (who averaged 5 yards per carry and won the MVP Award). So we had to drop down to find one. The two we put there had hit scores of 16-17, which is higher than the RG's. We want to control this position. Next up, LT. Here we want SPEED for "47 Speed". That went to Austin Tries. He had the same "hit score" as our RT's at 17, but was the fastest remaining player for tackle. He cleaned clock on "47 Speed" - Never missed his block and won the Rookie of the Year Award. Okay! At this point, we're starting to run out of "hit scores". We're down to "no blockers". That brings us to QB: that went to Kissler - the only kid left that could throw a ball besides Moreby (And since Moreby could block and catch too I let him play TE with White. No sense in putting a blocker and catcher at QB.). Last, SE: Look at Burford - 108 pounds. He's bigger than my FB. But slow as snails. So we let him crack "Will" LBers. They'd get hit by 108 pounds from the side. That's all Burford had going for him - 108 pounds. We ran the "Hitch and Lateral" to him for his fun. Then there's Derek Hanks. He's got the lowest "hit score" on the team. Blind as a bat, and can't catch. We let him run SE reverse on extra points. But the REAL SE was Ines. He caught the ball for us and had decent speed for "run after catch". He had two TD's.

We had two other players not shown, another FB and another HB with the same scores as the two shown above. Shown above is one player we tried to make a player out of, Anthony Screwup. We tried. We failed. He quit.