How a former Lawyer got his priorities straight and became a successful Football Coach
Revs: a program with a n't deter Gobble.
Erie Gobble.
Gobble left a promising law practice after two years to pursue his dream of coaching football. Although some believe letes to field a junior varsity team and scheduling a season of opponents for the following year. Not an case of famine they’d be a good source of protein, easy task, as students with aspirations of pla Gobble knew that he had the plan and the passion to school football tended to avoid enrolling at" become a success on the gridiron. private school known for its fine arts program.
Most He acted on that passion in 1997, leaving his of the athletes Gobble was able to recruit for his first law firm to coach football at a high school with one season had never even played the game, let alone been on a football team.
Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, New Jersey. Gobble’s and he was recruited by another school. The only Despite these obstacles, the Trinity Titans won half their battles this year with worthy opponents on the playing field. It was a good start, but next year Fielding a football team was an especially challenging task at Trinity because the school hadn't had a football team for 15 years. In fact, many of the athletes who joined the team had never even played the game! my wife and I returned from our trip to Samoa to adopt our son, Joe called and said, and Trinity really is going to start a football program. Would you come down and talk to us?” BES: How did your meeting go?
Gobble: Once I got down to Trinity and met the headmaster, Dr. Thomas Aycock, and saw the atmosthe challenges will become even greater when the Titans field a varsity team.
In this exclusive interview, Coach Gobble explains why he became a coach and how he resurof the place, I got excited about the idea of starting something from scratch. I wanted to teach kids to love the game of football and create an atmosphere in which high school football was put in rected a football program. the right perspective.
BFS: What made you leave a successful law practice?
BES: The school’s website displays some amazing artwork from the students. How does the school Gobble: I was working at a great firm and I really inspire such creativity? liked the people I was working with, but I wasn’t Gobble: It’s incredible, isn’t it? passionate about my work. 1 wanted to do something is “Discover Your Path.” and that’s a huge part of the that would have me jumping out of bed every morneveryday experience here. They don’t try to mold a ing.
BES: Why did you decide to leave Seton Hall Prep, which had a winning football program, to ate about and good at, and pursue it as far as you can come to Trinity? dence you gain from pursuing what you're passionate Gobble: A couple reasons. The first is that my wife about will carry over into becoming a more rounded and I adopted a child in February 2003. We are both from Virginia and our families still live there, and we high school kid should be. The idea is to find something that you're passionand we'll support you in that. And the self-confiperson. In BFS terms, I think it’s very much akin to “playing the song you were meant to play.”
liked the idea of our son growing up amongst his grandparents and cousins. Also, Joe Monaco, my good friend, college roommate and teammate, was on the staff at Trinity, and I knew he really wanted to start a football program there. Shortly after hockey are two of the biggest sports for girls at Trinity, and athletes from both these sports work hard in the weightroom.
At top left, two Trinity athletes show off their Be An 11! T-shirts. At right an athlete performs a BFS core lift, the parallel squat; and at bottom left athletes perform an auxiliary exercise, the lunge. four defensive linemen and four linebackers. So, how many defensive backs do we have?” Silence. 1 looked around to see if it was because they were being polite and were raising their hands before they spoke, but all ] was getting was blank stares. Most of the guys came in with no real concept of the game.
BFS: What's this tradition about gathering around a circle on campus? Gobble: Yes, it’s a tradition that takes place at the geographical heart and spiritual center of the campus. Every morning the headmaster stands at the center of that circle and greets every student and teacher as they come in to go to their first-period class. At lunchtime, the students gather there, and there are typically student performers, such as musicians, who provide entertainment.
BES: What are the challenges of starting a program from scratch?
Gobble: | was so fortunate that the school had the BES: Was there any concern that the team would get creamed or embarrassed that first year? Gobble: The rest of the school thought we would get blown out every game, but that didn’t seem to have occurred to the kids who went out for the team. In fact, during the first week ofclasses we hosted a scrimmage with another JV team from a local school that had won the state championship. It was a controlled scrimmage in that we would run ten plays and then they would run ten plays, and so on. Everyone came out to see this—I watch a car accident. Our own fans seemed positive that our kids were going to get demolished!
After 30 plays apiece neither team had scored. The next day several seniors came up to me individually and said,” foresight to hire a football coach a year before there I went to the scrimmage because I thought it might was a football team. I was able to stir up interest and be funny, but you guys were really good!” sell the program from the inside. And I had kids saying, “Well, it sounds fun,” and they’d come back the BFS: As the season went on, how did the community respond? a tight end?” had 40 kids come out for football, and about 30 of them had never played any sort of football before. I'll never forget, at a summer camp we held in August, talks I said, “We run a “4-4”
Soccer has always been a popular sport at Trinity, whose schoo! motto is "Discover Your Path."
Gobble: Before | answer, consider that the school is BFS: So in addition to doing a two-day clinic at justifiably proud of its programs in music and fine your school, John did a Be An 11? arts, and the people throughout the Richmond metropolitan area know of the school’s academic reputation. But with athletics, the prevailing attitude was, Gobble: Right. John did a coaches’ clinic during the school day and taught our coaches how to use our shiny new equipment and then how to coach the kids “Oh yeah, they have some sports teams, too.” What football has done is to get everybody excited about athletics. The campus bookstore manager said that on a Friday.
The parents of one of our players paid orders for Trinity athletic apparel were greater than something really special for this new upswing in athever before because the football team created such a swell of school pride that people wanted to walk letics. for the entire weekend because they wanted to do wearing Trinity on their backs. ter going on 25 years, BES: How did you hear about BFS?
15 of those at Trinity.
He said the Be An 11! vious school I saw the magazine, read through it, and then started looking forward to each is: ie. I'd thought that anywhere.
BFS would be a great way to start a football program. When I got to Trinity I called BFS and was put BFS: Was the Be An I1 what you expected? through to John Robowtham. From there we set up a Be An II clinic, and that just turned out to be magic.
Gobble: It was terrific.
BFS: How did you implement the BFS program? high school students that he had ever seen, anywhere.
Gobble: When I got here last year there was a small He thought what made it so great, and I agree, was area that had weight equipment in it. It had a universal machine that had been broken “since the 80s,” so came away feeling a real ease and connection. John that John’s message was so sincere that everyone I was told, and a couple of yard-sale Bowflexes—and really primed them for success. that was it! So the first thing I did before I even started looking at football equipment or talking about BFS: What specific things did John do during the football to kids was to work on getting a weightroom Be An 11 seminar that impressed you? going. The athletic booster club agreed to fund it.
Gobble: He had people break up into teams in a BES: How did you go about designing the weightgoal-setting exercise, and the football players set a room? goal that they weren’t going to have a losing record That “concept-to-completion” phrase BFS uses in the magazines made an impression on me, so | sent John these guys are caught up in the moment, and they're a layout of the area and he helped design it. The weightroom was completed just days before John arrived, so no kid in the school had been on a lifting achieve. But in fact they did achieve it, and what's in their first season.
I was thinking at the time that setting a goal that they are not going to be able to even more impressive is that the goal was always in the back of their minds. As we were walking into the program until John came. And that, to me, was great because everyone learned the exact same thing at the top, they said to me, “We accomplished our goal exact same time. All sports participated. It was an locker room after the win that put our record over the clinic last spring!” ideal situation because there was none of the territorialism that can happen with coaches of different BFS: What was the reaction to the “Nellie” video? sports or different seasons.
No kids had been lifting in any season, so you didn’t have to compete for their loyalty when you were introducing something new.
Gobble: There were a lot of people who were glad that the lights were dimmed, because people were pretty choked up. I have since bought the Nellie video for the school and shown it again in the Strength and Leadership class, and it went over realteacher gave his seniors an assignment to design the ly, really well. I had the kids tell me in a writing helmet logo and football uniforms, and he involved me Yes, last spring the International Baccalaureate art exercise how the video affected them, and T got many in the grading.
I guess it doesn’t happen too often that well-thought-out and passionate responses about how the fine arts department asks the head football coach to they would treat people who are different in our comhelp grade senior art projects. munity. BFS: What are your expectations for next year?
BFS: There are many other weight training programs that are more complex than BFS. Do you see yourself moving on to more advanced periodization programs?
Gobble: We won games all this year that people didn’t expect us to win. We're going to try and keep that going. From a football standpoint, we'll be taking a huge step up by going from a junior varsity schedule to Gobble: We’re not planning on changing. We had a varsity schedule. The level of competition is going to our first summer workout right after John came. We greatly improve. We'll only have three seniors on our had soccer, football, baseball and basketball players from the boys’ side; and field hockey, lacrosse and team next year; and from an experience standpoint, swimmers from the girls’ side. The kids are excited about the program and are working hard.
been in the weight program for only a year, so it might they'll only be sophomores. Also, our players will have be two seasons before we can expect to be successful from a standpoint of wins and losses. ‘The guys have a BES: Are your workout sessions coed? Gobble: At first we thought we should have separate girls’ and boys’ nights. We had the boys lift on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the girls lift on ‘Tuesday and Thursday. We did this because we thought that they would learn weightlifting at differsense of that, and at this early stage they have been incredibly patient. They're willing to put the time and effort in to be winners. They're 11's!
BFS: How did your previous career help you in coaching? ent speeds. Our assumption was incorrect, because Gobble: As a lawyer, I was taught to be organized and the girls did it faster than the guys did. Also, their efÏcient in every minute of the workday. That’s how form improved sooner than the guys’, and so we we set up practice. We know exactly what we’re going quickly realized that we could do regular coed classto do in every 5 minute period—where everybody is es three nights a week. going to be and what equipment needs to be there BFS: Do you have any weight training classes as another profession before I became a coach gave me a part of the regular curriculum?
great perspective on what's important to me and my when we get there. More importantly, working in Gobble: This year Trinity allowed me to develop a new elective called Strength and Leadership. The leadership part is three days a week in the classroom, where we work on things like attitude, responsibility and self-image—the Be An I] Guidebook is our textfamily. I'll never get rich working at a high school, but 1 know that now I’m doing what is exactly right for me in my personal and professional life. When I was a lawyer, that was just what I did for a living, and now that I’m a coach it’s who [am as a person. BR” book.
The other two days a week are strength days, which is the BFS in-season program. So there’s your strength and leadership! The students enrolled are not all football players, but they all are athletes.
BFS: I hear your art department helped with the football program.
Titans this year was to not have a losing season. Having accomplished this goal, next year they plan to take their program to the next level by going from a junior varsity schedule to a varsity schedule.
BFS CLINICIAN STAFF This proup represents some of the best, mas successful coaches in the country. orn (OR), John Rowbotham (UT), Bob Rowbotham (UT), Mark Beckham (CA), Ray Cosenza (MA), Rick Bojak (UT), Len Walencikowski (FL), Evan Ayres (WA), Rick Tomberlin (GA), Matt Merry (LA), Bob Doyle (OH), Middle Row: Jeff Sellers (IN), Ariderson (UT), Doug Ekmark (MN), Front Row: Bob Bozied (CO)
BES CEO, Dr. Greg Shepard (UT). Not Pictured: Patty Hagemeyer (CO) and Doug Holland (LA).
You have access to them to do a BFS Clinic at your school! (see following two pages)
From BFS Magazine — January/February 2005. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
