New season preparation

There is no such thing as a summer vacation for a football coach. Even when the coach is with his wife and family, the X’s and O’s running through his head don’t stand for kisses and hugs.

“We’re learning that real quick here,” Craig Whitney said with a chuckle. After six seasons as an assistant, Whitney stepped into the head coaching job at West Valley this spring, replacing Tim Trout. His summer has been spent preparing for his first season as a head coach.

And it’s a full schedule.

“We had a little spring camp at the high school, and we’ll have a team camp at the end of July,” he said. “We have the weight room open two times a day, from 9 to 11 in the morning and again from 5 to 7 at night. On Wednesdays, we’re involved in a little passing tournament where we do seven-on-seven in the mornings. Then on Tuesday and Thursdays our skill kids get together and we do a little bit of passing practice.

“We’re giving the kids lots of opportunity to work out and practice, and we have a lot of kids who are extremely busy with baseball and basketball and wrestling.”

Summer is a busy time for a high school athlete, Whitney said. “It’s not just the coaches who are busy,” he said. “It’s the families and it’s everybody involved.”

Whitney said he’s sensitive to the demands placed on multisport athletes, especially during the summer.

“We want kids to be involved in as many things as they can,” Whitney said. “That’s what the high school experience is all about.

“Once we get into August and practice starts, then we’ll start asking a little more from them.”

In the meantime, Whitney is making plans and planning out schedules. It’s critical, he said, that his coaching staff squeeze the most out of every minute his players are on the practice field.

“We don’t have a lot of kids, and we will have a lot of kids that we’ll be asking to play both ways,” he said. “We have to make sure that we don’t shortchange them at all during practice, that they get every opportunity to excel.”

To make that happen, the new coach has made some personal sacrifices.

“Well, my golf game is not as good as it should be,” he laughed. “Last year by this time I’d probably played golf 30 times. This year I’ve gotten out, maybe, four times.”

The added responsibility of being a head coach puts an added burden on a family, and Whitney said his wife, MaryAnn, has been a huge asset. “My wife understands that this is a little bit different game and she’s tremendously supportive,” he said. “She is a nice sounding board for me. She makes it doable.

“Without (the family) support, it would be real difficult to do this kind of a job.”

Whitney said he and his family will take a vacation before he blows the whistle for the start of fall practice Aug. 18.

Most of the coaching staff from last year remains intact — n asset for which Whitney is appreciative.

But, he says, his biggest advantage comes from having been at West Valley.

“I know our school, I know our kids and I know the situation we’re in,” he said. “We have a pretty good plan and we’re going to put it into action and see how we’ll do.

“We’re just going to work as hard as we possibly can. And we’re going to give the kids every opportunity to be successful.”