Story Written By: Damon Cook @ CHSAANow.com
AURORA, Colo. — Mitch Hulse doesn't have much coaching experience outside of some youth football, baseball and being a strength coach. But, when the opportunity to coach Mullen flag football arose, he decided to take on that challenge.
While his ultimate goal is to have fun, he's managed to achieve a 10-3 record in Mullen's inaugural flag football season.
Mitch Hulse
Previous Coaching Experience: No high school experience
Record at Mullen: 10-3
Record as a Head Coach: 10-3
Did you expect to start 10-3 in your first season as a flag football program?
No, our expectations were to have a ton of fun, and to make sure that the girls wanted to come back next year. We just wanted to build this new sport, and win, lose or draw, we wanted to make it a lot of fun and wanted people to get excited about it. The winning was just a bonus to all that.
How have you seen the girls come together and have fun every time they step on the field?
That was kind of the expectation. We said from day one, 'you're not supposed to judge anyone. This is new to all of us, no one's done this before.' If this were a sport that's been established and that people have been playing for years, it's easier to figure out who's good and who's not, but the expectation from day one is to be super positive, to love on each other and be good teammates, and that's what we've done really well. We've built this culture of good, quality teammates and being excited for each other. We got beat pretty bad Monday night and until the last second ran off the clock, they were excited. They're like, 'hey, go score another touchdown.' And so they've really bought into the idea of 'this is a culture thing, not an individual sport.'
How have you seen the flag football community as a whole try and build that culture?
It's been awesome to see and to talk with the other coaches at the end of the game, or before the game, to just be like, 'hey, you know, what struggles did you have? What has been fun for you?' We played a team the other day, and I talked to their coach before the game, and he was like, 'we were not the same team from week one,' and I was like 'us either, we figured stuff out.'
We watched film on our team playing two months ago, and they're a completely different team. So it's been cool, not only to see the culture adapt, but the game adapt from week-to-week. The things that worked week one didn't work last week. And so it's been a weird, but fun challenge to adapt every week and to put new plays in and be like, 'well, that worked, and we'll use that again. And, holy cow, we could never use that again. So scrap it, burn it and throw it away.'
How fun is it as a coach to see that progress each week?
Oh, man, it's awesome. We're not working on big, groundbreaking stuff. We're working on the little things that just make a huge, drastic difference. I told our athletic director the first week of the season, I said, 'we're going to be really, really good at the little things.' And that's from catching to throwing, to lining up, to breaking the huddle. That was one of the first things we worked on was: everyone says, 'ready break' all together, because that matters. With these girls not having a background in this sport, it's been cool to establish those things early on. And again, that was my goal, was to build this culture of quality teammates doing things the right way, and doing those little things right. Now, doing the little things right has led us to a little bit of success. It's been a blast. It's been fun. I don't think there's a better word to describe what this has been, other than just a lot of fun.
How have you seen the girls bring an eagerness to learn a new sport this season?
With my girls, I don't think competitiveness was the challenge. It's always been there. I've watched them play soccer, I've watched them play basketball, I used to work up in our weight room, so I would see them come through every week. The competitiveness was always there. It's just putting them in the right positions to succeed.
We experimented with a couple girls trying new positions. We said, 'hey, try linebacker, try safety, try running back, try this.' Because we have found value in every single girl. But that's been part of the challenge too, is, 'where do you succeed?' There's no one that came in that was like, 'I'm a quarterback' — well, actually, the first day of practice we had 30 quarterbacks, and now we're three. It's been fun to see them want to get better and try different things.
I teach a PE class, and the girls that are in my class now, instead of shooting the hoops or kicking a soccer ball around, they're throwing a football around because they're just like, 'this is fun, this is new, and we want to get better at it.'
How much fun has it been seeing those girls learn new positions and a new sport that they've never played before in their life?
There's nothing like football that you can play in other sports. We had a game where we were down 12-13 with two minutes left, and our offense ran a two-minute drill to go win the game at the buzzer. And I promise, if I asked them now, the girls don't know what a two-minute drill is, but they did it. They haven't experienced something like a last second drive or an extra point that matters.
We went into double overtime against Arapahoe, and it's just a different concept. Only one person gets the ball at a time. Not everyone gets touches. It's, 'hey, you got to get yourself open, and you getting open opens up your teammates.' So just the late game dramatics, the late game plays can't be replicated in other sports like football... it's been cool to see them get excited.
There are some pictures out there of our girls just going nuts, hands up and jumping around because they love it. They love being there and they love competing. Going back to what we started with, they're doing it for each other. They're so excited for each other, catching a touchdown, so excited for each other pulling flags... that has been fun.
What have your players taught you this season?
A different way to look at things. They've never watched football. I asked them the other day, I was like, 'who went home and watched the Broncos game?' And none of them did. So they've taught me that, you know, you can't always explain things one way. Change it so they understand it a little bit better. And it's challenged me to look at the game differently, and to just take a step back sometimes and be like, 'hey, you know they don't know, so how can I get them to relate to what I'm trying to get through to them?'
We had our powder puff flag football game, and the football boys were the coaches, and they were like, 'coach Mitch, how do you coach these girls? They don't know what we're saying.' And I'm like, 'yeah, because you're yelling football plays.' We've worked on running specific flag football stuff in the way that they understand it. So they just taught me to take every moment with a grain of salt, and to get excited, and to not get too down. They're looking at me to have all the answers, and sometimes I don't. They just love having an adult in their life that wants them to succeed.
