Coaching Juniors can be challenging to manage substitutions within a drive due to attention span. It is much more manageable to substitute between drives. One approach is to create Offensive and Defensive groupings in advance, such that throughout the groupings, each player is getting a reasonable number of opportunities at each position (understanding that a fewer number of players will play Quarterback). Using some of the spreadsheet lineup approaches shared, you can map out the groupings, and then tally: total number of times on Offense vs. Defense, number of times in an Offensive Skill Position vs. Line, Defensive Skill Position vs. Line, etc… and make sure it is reasonably balanced. Having about 5 groupings on each of offense and defense works well to strike a good balance.

Also try to minimize players sitting out two drives in a row. For example you may have Offense 1, Defense 1, Offense 2, Defense 2, etc... If your team starts the game on Offense, you would want to avoid a player sitting out in both Offense 1 and Defense 1. It is not a perfect system as there can be game-time variations (the other team has a particularly long drive on offensive, a game that winds up with fewer drives to make it through all of rotations), but works well on average. You can always dynamically mix things up, such as changing out the defensive rotation mid-drive for a long drive, or making occasional mid-drive substitutions.

Team sizes vary by year based on registrations. For larger teams of 12 (or more), another approach is to balance your team into two groups that normally play together, Group A and B. Group A plays offense in the first half, Group B defense, and then they switch. Each group should have a mix of more experienced and less experienced players, and if there is an extra slot (i.e. 6 players in each group, but we play 7v7), your most experienced players can fill in.

The Flag Football Playmaker X iPad app works very well with a per-drive rotation scheme. In the app you can enter each of the rotations, and assign players to their positions in the rotation. With a single click, all of the plays in your playbook are updated to show the player’s assignments based on the current rotation. This way when you pull up plays in the huddle, whether on offense or defense, the players see their initials right on the play and can easily tell what their position will be. This removes a lot of confusion in the huddle especially dealing with the younger kids in Juniors.  Additionally, the plays can be animated so players better understand and visualize their routes or key blocks.

Your assistant coach can help manage substitutions, especially showing those sitting out a given drive what their positions will be when they enter the game next. Players substituting in can be assigned to tell a player on the field that they are subbing out.

The Flag Football Playmaker X app also makes it easy to design plays, and categorize such as “Run, Pass, 2-pt Conversion, QB Run”. In game time, when you are out of runs and need a pass play, it is nice to be able to quickly filter your playbook for Pass plays only, or maybe you have some simpler plays to get certain kids involved and want to be able to quickly call up one of those when a specific player is in a specific skill position.