O Line Skills

Former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse recently wrote a Wall Street Journal article entitled America Needs Its Boys to Play Football. In it, he makes the case that young men need opportunities to develop strength, ambition, perseverance, self-mastery, and community—and that football, when done right, can help provide them.

There is a tendency in our culture to talk about masculinity through the lens of what can go wrong. Certainly, young men need to understand that strength without character, power without self-control, and aggression without purpose can become destructive.

But the answer to destructive masculinity isn’t to convince young men that strength itself is the problem. It is to teach them what strength is for.

A strong man doesn’t need to prove his strength in every situation. He knows when to compete and when to walk away. He knows when to speak and when to listen. He knows when to lead and when to follow.

He understands that protecting someone is different from controlling them. He understands that having power creates responsibility. He knows that discipline is not weakness and that real confidence doesn’t require constant validation.

And he understands that the strongest person in the room is often the person with the greatest ability to control himself.

That is what football can teach when it is done right.

Football gives young men a place to compete. It allows them to test themselves physically and mentally. It teaches them to push through discomfort, control their emotions, accept coaching, sacrifice for teammates, and keep working when things aren’t going their way. It gives all that energy, ambition, competitiveness, and strength somewhere productive to go.

We don’t need to take strength away from young men. We need to give their strength direction.

Young men need to learn how to be strong—not ashamed of their strength, afraid of their ambition, or apologetic for their competitiveness, energy, or desire to become better.

They need to learn what strength is for.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

“If it’s important to them, it needs to be important to you.”

I’ve tried to live by that philosophy with my family and with my employer. This weekend, I was reminded that it applies to my team as well.

Friday night’s win turned out to be a milestone victory for me—my 95th win as head coach at St. Johnsbury Academy, making me the winningest football coach in school history.

It wasn’t a milestone I had been keeping track of.

Our players had.

As we broke the post-game huddle, one of our captains began to turn the focus toward the milestone. Recognizing where he was going, I tried to put a quick end to it.

I told them to keep the focus where it belonged: on what they had just accomplished.

We had gone on the road and beaten a tough, well-coached team that had beaten us a year earlier in the state championship game. That was the accomplishment I wanted them to celebrate.

Then I looked at their faces.

They were disappointed.

Our captain looked at me and said, “But Coach, we got you a present.”

In that moment, I realized something.

I had decided what should be important. They were trying to tell me what was important to them.

So, I made it important to me.

I conceded to their request, and they presented me with their gift—a big, cold chain with a medal and a photo of me on it.

We celebrated together, then boarded the bus for the long ride home.

The gift itself will always mean something to me. But what means even more is why they gave it to me.

They were proud of what they had accomplished, but they also wanted to recognize someone they felt had been part of their journey. They wanted to celebrate something that mattered to them.

As coaches, we spend a lot of time teaching our players what we think is important. We establish standards. We teach discipline, toughness, accountability, teamwork, and the countless details required to play the game the right way.

But coaching is also about understanding your players.

Sometimes, they remind us that the things we think are important aren’t always the things they think are important. And sometimes, the best thing a coach can do is stop, listen, and let the players have their moment.

That cold chain and medal will eventually find their way into a box somewhere with other keepsakes from a long career. But the memory of those players standing there saying, “But Coach, we got you a present,” will stay with me forever.

If it’s important to them, it needs to be important to you.

Sometimes, our players teach us as much as we teach them.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

One of our coaches recently shared an idea from Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz. In On War, Clausewitz described what he called a “remarkable trinity”—three different forces that interact to shape the character and conduct of war: the people, the military, and the government.

High school football is certainly not war, but the concept translates surprisingly well.

As coaches, we spend a tremendous amount of time preparing our football team. We develop schemes, teach fundamentals, watch film, lift weights, practice, correct mistakes, and prepare our players for Friday night. But the more I thought about Clausewitz’s trinity, the more I realized something important:

A football team can only be as strong as the community that supports it.

At St. Johnsbury Academy, our own remarkable trinity is our players and coaches, our school and administration, and our parents, alumni, and community. Each has a different responsibility. But when all three are pulling in the same direction, the results can be pretty special.

One of the common threads among successful high school football programs in Vermont isn’t simply talent. It isn’t simply coaching. It is the environment surrounding the program.

Successful programs have communities that believe in them. They have parents who support them. They have administrations that understand their value. They have alumni who remain connected. And they have players who take pride in wearing the uniform.

At St. Johnsbury Academy, we talk often about our football family. That phrase isn’t simply a slogan. A family works because everyone understands that they have a role.

Coaches coach. Players play. Parents support. Teachers educate. Administrators provide leadership and resources. Alumni stay connected. The community believes.

None of those roles replaces another, and none succeeds entirely on its own.

We can build the best game plan in the state, but we still need players willing to execute it. Talented players still need coaches willing to teach them, challenge them, and demand more from them. Great players and coaches still need a school willing to support the program. And even with all of those things in place, there is something different about playing on Friday night in front of a community that genuinely cares about Hilltopper Football.

That’s our remarkable trinity.

The strength of the team.
The support of the school.
The commitment of our families and community.

Three different parts, each with a different role. But when all three believe in one another, support one another, and pull in the same direction, they become something much stronger than any one of them could be alone.

That’s what it means to be a football family.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

Every team begins the season undefeated.

After Week 1, only half of those teams remain undefeated. But whether you won or lost, the most important thing is that Week 1 is over.

A high school football season is a lot like playing the front nine at your local golf course. Each week is a different hole, presenting a different challenge. Some are short par 3s, where a lack of focus can quickly put you in trouble. Others are long, demanding par 4s that require precision and execution. And some are par 5s that require patience, discipline, and the ability to put multiple parts of your game together.

The beauty of golf is that no matter what happened on the first hole, the next tee gives you a fresh opportunity. You may have birdied the first or made double bogey, but when you step onto the second tee box, Hole #1 is behind you. The score is already on the card.

Football is the same way.

Put Hole #1 behind you.

We were fortunate enough to birdie the first hole. We earned a win, but that score is now on the card. We can’t change it, and we can’t play it again. More importantly, it doesn’t give us a single stroke on the next hole.

Now our attention turns to Hole #2.

A new opponent. A new challenge. A new game.

We will prepare for it mentally and physically, embrace the challenge, and then go play it the right way.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

A great school is more than classrooms and buildings. It is a community, and athletics provides some of the best opportunities for that community to come together.

Schools can sometimes feel divided by grades, dorms, teams, activities, and interests. Students have different friend groups. Faculty work in different departments. Families have different schedules. Everyone has their own world.

But Friday night football under the lights has a way of bringing those worlds together.

The first football game of the season gives students from different backgrounds a common experience. It gives teachers an opportunity to see their students in a different environment. It gives alumni a reason to return and reconnect. It gives families a chance to share in the energy and traditions of the school. And it gives everyone an opportunity to be part of something larger than themselves.

For one night, the lights come on, the stands fill, the music plays, the cheerleaders cheer, and the team takes the field. Students, teachers, families, and alumni may arrive for different reasons, but for a few hours, they are all part of the same community.

That is one of the great things about high school athletics. The scoreboard will tell us who won the game, but some of what happens on a Friday night is more important than the final score.

We show up. We cheer together. We represent our school together.

And in doing so, we remind one another: You are part of this. You belong here.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

“On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, on other days, on other fields, will bear the fruits of victory.” — General Douglas MacArthur

There may be no better description of the value of a preseason football scrimmage.

A scrimmage is not a championship game. There is no trophy awarded at the end of the day. The score, if there even is one, will not appear in the standings. Weeks from now, no one will remember who “won” the scrimmage.

And that is precisely the point.

The purpose of a preseason scrimmage is not to prove what we are. It is to discover what we need to become.

For the first time, players have an opportunity to test themselves against someone wearing a different uniform. Coaches get to see how their team responds when the opponent doesn’t know the script, doesn’t run the defense we practiced against, and is trying to win every rep.

That is where the seeds are sown.

The opponent in a preseason scrimmage is not the enemy. In many ways, they are helping us prepare for the battles ahead. They provide something our own scout team cannot completely replicate: unfamiliarity, uncertainty, and genuine competition.

They force us to react rather than simply rehearse.

That is the meaning of friendly strife.

We compete. We play hard. We challenge one another physically and mentally. But when the day is over, both teams should leave better than when they arrived.

The scrimmage gives us something every team needs before the season begins: an honest assessment of where we are.

Did we tackle?

Did we communicate?

Did we align correctly and make the right reads?

Did we play with discipline?

Did we handle adversity?

Did we finish plays?

Did we play with the energy, effort, and enthusiasm our program demands?

Those are the questions that matter.

The video from a preseason scrimmage can be one of the most valuable teaching tools of the season because it gives us a truthful picture of where we are—not where we hope to be.

Every rep is information. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn. Every correction is a chance to improve. Every difficult moment is an opportunity to grow.

But identifying the lesson is not enough.

On the fields of friendly strife, we sow the seeds. What we do next determines whether they ever bear fruit.

Our job is to return to work. Make the corrections. Fix the technique. Improve the communication. Raise the standard. Get better every day.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

At a recent professional development clinic, I shared with a group of coaches—and later with our players—that playing football, and coaching any sport, is a Sisyphean task. The nature of sport is that the work is never finished.

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, the King of Corinth, was condemned by Zeus to an eternal punishment: pushing a massive boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down and begin again. Like Sisyphus, athletes and coaches continually push toward something they can never permanently achieve. There is always another practice, another opponent, another season. Even after a great victory, the next day comes, and we are back to pushing the rock again.

But the value isn’t in finally reaching the top of the hill. It is in becoming stronger while pushing the stone.

The Sisyphean task isn’t meaningless because it repeats. It is meaningful because we choose to keep pushing. We show up, do the work, pursue improvement, and then come back and do it again.

The ball will be kicked off again. The whistle will blow again. The rock and the hill will be waiting.

So we push the rock.

Again.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

And just like that… summer is over and another football season begins.

At our preseason “Meet the Coaches,” for both parents and players, one of the most important things we discuss has very little to do with football. It is about having the courage to give—and receive—honest feedback.

Too often, people soften feedback because they care more about how the conversation feels than whether the problem gets resolved or the issue gets addressed. Honest feedback can be uncomfortable. But growth often is.

As coaches, our responsibility is not to tell players what they want to hear. Our responsibility is to help them become better football players, better students, better teammates, and ultimately better young men. Those conversations are not always easy, but avoiding them doesn’t help the player.

When a coach gives direct feedback, the message should never be, “I am trying to criticize you.” The message should be, “I believe you are capable of more, and I am willing to tell you what you need to do to get there.”

A coach who doesn’t care can simply allow a player to continue making the same mistakes. That’s easier. There is no difficult conversation. There is no uncomfortable moment. But that isn’t coaching.

There is another equally important part of the equation: the ability to receive feedback.

Many people say they want honest feedback. What they really mean is that they want feedback delivered in a way that never makes them uncomfortable. They want affirmation, not information. Those are two very different things.

Constructive criticism may not always feel good. A player may disagree with it or be disappointed by it. But maturity requires moving beyond that initial reaction and asking a more important question: What can I do with this information to get better?

Parents play an important role in helping young athletes learn that lesson. Being corrected is not the same as being attacked. Coaches will not always tell players—or their parents—what they want to hear. We owe it to our players to be honest with them.

Parents need to trust that when a coach gives their son difficult feedback, it comes from a desire to help him succeed. Coaches need to trust that parents will help their sons respond constructively rather than protect them from every uncomfortable experience. And players need to trust that they can hear the truth, learn from it, and come back tomorrow determined to improve.

That kind of trust creates an environment where people can grow.

Exceptional results happen when people care enough to give honest feedback—and when others are courageous enough to hear it, own it, and do something about it.

NFL Hall of Fame Coach Tom Landry used to say, “Coaches make their players do things they don’t necessarily want to do in practice, so they can achieve things they never thought they were capable of in games.” Those kinds of results are born of candid and honest feedback with a goal of making each individual and the entire team their very best!

Regardless of your role on our team (player, staff, faculty, etc…) if I seem to hold you to a higher standard, it’s because I believe in your potential.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

How we do things matters more than what we do.

As teams across the country report to training camp, they will all run drills, lift weights, install offenses, teach defenses, and develop special teams. The what of football is remarkably similar from one program to the next. The difference between average programs and exceptional ones is rarely found in what they do. It is found in how they do it.

Culture is built in the details.

Two teams can run the exact same drill. One jogs from station to station, goes through the motions, and waits for the whistle to end the rep. The other sprints between stations, finishes through the echo of the whistle, encourages teammates, and demands excellence from one another. The drill is identical. The outcome is not.

The standard is never the drill itself. The standard is how the drill is executed.

Successful programs understand that excellence is a habit. It doesn’t magically appear on Friday nights. It is developed in practice, in the weight room, in the classroom, and in every repetition. We communicate. We compete. We finish. We pay attention to details. We hold one another accountable. Those habits become our identity.

Anyone can build impressive facilities, purchase the latest technology, or install the newest offensive or defensive scheme. Those are resources—not culture. Culture is built through consistency. It is refusing to cut corners. It is doing the little things right when no one is watching. Every action either reinforces the standard or erodes it.

Our philosophy is simple: games are not won on Friday nights. They are won in the thousands of decisions players make long before kickoff—decisions about effort, discipline, preparation, attitude, and accountability.

When players fully embrace how we do things, the what becomes far less important. Whether we’re running a fundamental drill for the hundredth time, studying film, lifting weights, or practicing indoors on a rainy day, our standard never changes.

We work hard.

We work smart.

We are tough.

Long after our players forget the plays they ran or the drills they completed, they will remember the standards they lived by. More importantly, those standards will continue to shape them as students, leaders, husbands, fathers, coworkers, and members of their communities.

That is why how we do things will always matter more than what we do.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

The 2026 North East Kingdom 7v7 Tournament, Strongman Competition, and O-Line Challenge were a tremendous success for everyone involved—players, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers, and spectators alike.

Our student-athletes had the opportunity to showcase the skill, strength, and commitment they developed throughout the summer. The level of competition was outstanding, and it was rewarding to see their offseason work on display.

A special thank you goes to our football parents, who operated a very professional and courteous concession stand while serving hundreds of attendees throughout the day. Their dedication and countless hours of volunteer service played a significant role in making the event possible while reflecting great credit on themselves and our program.

The combination of all these elements created a tremendous showcase for St. Johnsbury Academy, and all the students, faculty, staff, and community contribute to the North East Kingdom.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time!