By Mike Thompson
In an episode of the long running sitcom ‘Coach’, Craig T. Nelson’s character, Hayden Fox of the infamous Minnesota State College, decides to visit his daughter Kelly in New York City. Indroduced to one of her yuppie-type friends, the girl exclaimes, ‘Oh, so you’re a football coach, how exciting. But, let’s see, football season only last for about four months. What do you do the rest of the year?”
River City Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt could only smile when I relayed that little scenario in his office last week. “I’m always amazed at the number of people who think a coach just goes on a long vacation or gets another job between seasons.” Kidding aside, Wyatt hit the nail right on the head when he looked me straight in the eye from across his desk and said, “Now, brother, you and I know that just isn’t the case.”
Yes I do, and where to start? How about the fact that Wyatt is not only Coach of the team, but as General Manager of The Rage is involved in all of the marketing and promotional decisions that the team proposes for the coming year. Last week alone, myself, Coach Wyatt, Morris Groves, our Director of Operations and Scott Wilson, one of our majority owners, spent the better part of 2 days hammering out a CD presentation to promote our new season ticket package for 2006. Game highlights had to be incorporated with graphics and voice over, then the job is to go out and negotiate with a company to get the best price for mass production. One promotion will be to hand out the CD’s to qualified prospects at our inter-active football toss and promotional table at Baer Park at all Rams home games at the Edward Jones Dome this season. Talk about a built-in football crowd! Wyatt often has the final say in something like that and consequently, goes over everything with the proverbial fine tooth comb. That takes time and then couple that with player personnel decisions, and you’ve got a coach who probably ends up wishing he had more months in a given year!
“The one thing that keeps me motivated is the fact that this all is a labor of love, it’s what I’ve done for the past 25 years, it’s not all I know to do, but it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, and that makes all the difference when you’re plugging away day to day” stated Wyatt as he reviewed game film from the playoff game with Cincinnati, “like right now, I’m using this game and some others I’ve looked at to see where we need to improve, personnel wise. I’ve been in contact with teams from the NFL, the CFL, and we’ve developed a good working relationship with the Chicago Rush of the Arena League. The idea is to find out who’s been cut, and do we want to look at rookies or veterans when making decisions for The Rage. We have agents who send in film of prospects, and I’m in contact weekly with NFL Europe. All in all, my job is to staff this football team with the best players currently not playing in the NFL.”
There’s equipment to be re-conditioned and re-certified, and even though the season just came to an end, the NIFL is already getting a schedule in place for next season. With that comes travel and hotel concerns for Wyatt, who shops constantly for the best airfare, bus fare and hotel prices around the country. At the upcoming NIFL league meetings scheduled for September 14-17th in Las Vegas, it’s starting to look more and more like the league will be again shifting The Rage to the Pacific Conference of the NIFL, one in which it resided a few years ago when the franchise operated under different ownership. Coach Wyatt had thoughts on this as well, “it’s primarily for purposes of economics and travel issues, putting a lot of our games a little closer to home. I expect us to be in the Pacific North Division, and that means will will lose the rivalry type games we’ve had with Cincinnati and Dayton, although while not a home and away series, we should still be able to play those teams with inter-conference games. My feeling is it’ll be a huge plus for us.”
Among the issues to be discussed at the league meetings will be what new teams will be granted membership in the NIFL, an over-all review of league rules, the approval of any rule changes, and the garnering of national sponsorships for 2006. A national television deal is also being considered.
And while majority owners Tye Elliott and Scott Wilson will be on hand to represent the River City Rage in Vegas, don’t look for Coach Mike Wyatt to be there. He’s got enough to keep him busy right here at home, working on issues that provide the answer to the question ‘what exactly does a football coach do in the off-season’???
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