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A young coach for young charges

At 18, T.J. Head doesn't play; he coaches kids half or a third his age. He has imparted lessons, and learned a few.

By BRIAN SUMERS
Published November 27, 2005

LECANTO - His booming coaching voice permeated the field.

When a young boy, maybe 4 feet tall and wearing a green Brett Favre jersey, dawdled during a drill, T.J. Head voiced his displeasure.

"Hustle up, buddy," he said loud enough for the neighboring soccer players to hear.

The coach was 18, a senior at Lecanto High School. His players were between 5 and 9 years old, playing flag football for the Bills of the Nature Coast Football League.

But for Head, an assistant coach for his uncle Kevin Blackshear, this youth league was like the NFL. And when the Bills beat the Patriots 12-0 on Nov. 19 to win the league's Super Bowl and cap an undefeated season, Head's players doused him with water to signify their appreciation.

Though he doesn't fit the profile of the 30-something dad coaching his kid, the Bills loved their youthful coach.

"He's phenomenal," said Janice Carroll, mother of 6-year-old Chad Carroll. "He's so dedicated to these kids. You just watch him. It's like he has an NFL team out there. He's very serious."

The pudgy teenager with the crew cut never played a down of organized football. He dabbled in Lecanto High spring football once, but didn't play in youth leagues or middle school.

Still, for four seasons, Head volunteered for the Nature Coast league, starting as a 15-year-old who served as an extra assistant and sometimes held the down marker during games.

This season, Head not only created and ran the Bills' intricate offense but worked as head referee for three games every Saturday. And he was commissioner of the league's older division, consisting of 9- to 13-year-olds.

At an age when his peers were working part-time shifts at the grocery store and hanging out with friends, Head dedicated three days and about 20 hours a week to coaching and administrative duties.

"I think to when I was my age," said Jen Burns, the team "mom" and mother of Kevin, 7. "I would have rather taken the three days a week and got a paying job."

But Head, who started coaching when Blackshear's grandson, Hunter Love, joined the team, said he relishes working with the kids. Though Hunter didn't play this year - he switched to tackle football - Head and his uncle continued coaching.

With help from Billy Bass, a teacher at Crystal River High and a former Pirates assistant coach, Head devised a 37-play playbook, running a variation of the Wing-T offense.

And the kids, whose attention spans hardly lasted through 90-minute practices, actually learned the plays.

When he said, "Wing Right, Full House, Scissors Left" in the huddle, the players knew where to go.

"He's a nice coach," said 9-year-old flanker Britny Vickers, as she gnawed on her red mouth guard. "He makes up good plays for us to get touchdowns."

When her son Chad started playing, Carroll said she figured Head was just a "really young dad."

But if Carroll had seen Head in his first year coaching, she might have thought differently. Back then, Head admits, he took things too seriously, perhaps because he didn't know how to relate to the kids.

The first season, during which which the Bills won just one game, was tough.

"That first year, he did a little more hollering than he does now," Blackshear said. "You felt like you had to do that to get the respect of the kids. As he's gotten along, he's found that he really doesn't need to do that."

One instance helped him change his ways. During a loss that first season, the players were being kids, yelling and goofing off, and Head yelled, "stop it!"

A parent from another team told him he shouldn't scream at the kids. Head gotthe message.

"He used to be meaner," said 9-year-old Cody Abele, who played four seasons under Head. "He would always make us run."

When two players started throwing dirt at each other in a practice this season, Head calmly sent both players on 200-yard run. When they returned, he brought both kids together to apologize, and that was the end of the incident.

Even for kids, the run was brief - a chance for them to clear their minds of the encounter.

"I think it takes a special person," Blackshear said. "You get people twice his age that can't handle it. Not everybody can handle being a coach. You may have the desire to be around football, but you don't have ability to deal with kids the way they should be dealt with."

This season, as a referee and commissioner, Head spent time lecturing parents on their behavior.

"You have instances where they get loud and go off and you just toss the yellow hankie," he said, referring to the penalty flag.

But Head didn't have trouble earning the respect of his players. He thoroughly scripted offensive practices, but always left time for the players to chase him around the field and just have fun.

And when it came time to play, the Bills were prepared. In a league where some coaches drew plays on the dirt, Head's offense appeared professional quality.

Most of the time, the formations were perfect.

"You have to remember this is the age when kids think farting is funny," Blackshear said during a practice. "But you watch, they're not offsides. They're running plays."

Though Blackshear was head coach and Bass also served as an assistant, most of the players treated Head no differently from the other coaches.

"They have no idea that he's a high school kid," said Burns, the team mom. "They see him as coach T.J."

He appreciated the autonomy his uncle gave him, but Head said he wasn't interested in taking Blackshear's job.

Once, with Blackshear gone, Head was in charge. The football stuff was easy, but it was picture day, and Head wasn't prepared to deal with the extra demands that go along with coaching kids.

"The parents would come up and say, "Where's his picture packet?' and stuff like that," he said. "It was pretty stressful."

With his 3.28 GPA, Head plans to be a firefighter after graduation and expects to join the National Guard. He knows he might have to take a few years off from youth football, but wants to return.

And in the future, despite his limited football career, he wants to coach middle school or high school football.

Head knows his competitive nature might be better suited to older kids. During some games this season, he would disagree with his uncle over when to let less-talented players carry the ball.

Blackshear usually wanted to get everyone involved when the Bills went up by two touchdowns. Head always wanted to score one more.

"That's the competitiveness of T.J.," Bass said. "He wants to do more scoring. Afterward, when he thought of it, he knew that Kevin was right."

Though Head had his fiery moments, his young players respected their coach.

Abele, the quarterback, says he'll miss playing for the Bills. Then he offered a summary of Head's talents.

"Let's see, he's funny, he's a good coach and he can sometimes be mean," he said.

--Brian Sumers can be reached at bsumers@sptimes.com or 564-3628.

[Last modified November 27, 2005, 01:18:21]