CANTON, Ohio (Aug. 2, 2002)—Dennis Green still has a song in his heart for youth football coaches. Green, who coached the Minnesota Vikings for 10 seasons, opened his talk at the NFL Youth Football Summit by singing the fight song from his junior high school in Harrisburg, Pa.—both verses.

“For a 53-year-old man to remember his junior high school fight song, that means something,” Green said. “All the types of programs—from Boys & Girls Club, Pop Warner, to junior high to high school—those were the types of programs that touched my life. They were about organized football. They were about discipline, desire, dedication, and determination. That’s what those coaches gave to me.”

Green used the story to make a point to the hundreds of youth and high school coaches attending the summit. Namely, that coaches are about more than managing players and drawing up plays. Youth coaches have to make young players want to be football players.

“As a coach, you have to create an atmosphere and an environment, and a climate that can make [football] special,” Green said. “You’re teaching, but are they learning? What examples can you use that can make them understand? In the right kind of atmosphere, environment, and climate, players can be made to understand very quickly.”

Green outlined a formula of S.M.A.R.T. goals—specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely—that coaches can follow to create team chemistry. He was asked how he handled individual players who posed a potential problem to his team’s makeup.

“Guys will be individuals, but it’s up to us to mold them into a team,” Green said. “I’ve always been about giving guys a second chance so long as we identify what our next goals are and how we’re going to meet them.”

Green, who won four division titles and earned eight playoff berths as the Vikings’ head coach, urged the youth and high school coaches not to base their success as coaches on wins and losses.

“It’s about taking young people, putting together a good team and taking on the other guys,” he said. “Coaches know that you can’t judge other coaches by their records. When you’re watching films and you see that his team is doing it right, then you know that coach is a good coach.”