El Segundo Youth Football and Cheer
El Segundo Midget #1 in the Nation 2006!
El Segundo Eagles Jr. Midget #3 in the Nation 2004!
El Segundo youth coach finds himself speaking alongside some of college football's biggest names at prestigious Nike Coaches Clinic.
By Mike Waldner
Staff columnist Daily Breeze Sunday, March 25, 2007
How's this for a lineup of speakers for the Nike Coach of the Year Southern California Coaches Clinic Saturday at USC?
Mike Stoops, Mike Price, Greg Robinson, Rocky Long and Shawn Slocum.
And Dean Pliaconis.
Excuse me?
Stoops is the Arizona coach, Price is the UTEP coach who took Washington State to the Rose Bowl, Robinson is the Syracuse coach, Long is the former UCLA defensive coordinator who is now the New Mexico coach and Slocum is special teams coach for the Green Bay Packers.
Pliaconis?
He's coach of the American Youth Football El Segundo Eagles.
Stoops, Price, Robinson, Long, Slocum AND Pliaconis.
How about that?
"Are you sure?" Pliaconis asked when Dennis Slutak, USC's director of football operations, called with the invitation to speak.
The Trojans were sure.
"I was just floored," Pliaconis said.
"We want your angle," Slutak said.
They wanted his angle not just because his Midget Division A Eagles won a national title. They wanted his angle because he gets it.
The clinic was for high school and youth coaches. The morning started in an auditorium with Long talking about "tight exit smoke (or was it "tight end smoke?"), "banjoing back" and how NFL linebackers "jive and shuck or they run" rather than take on blockers one-on-one.
Then they broke into meeting rooms. The coaches listening to Pliaconis found themselves with an intense, passionate, understanding businessman, the owner of Plycon Van Lines, headquartered in Torrance, who is an intense, passionate, understanding youth coach.
"I've seen him work," said Nick Holt, USC's defensive coordinator.
Along with his professional view, Holt looks at Pliaconis as a parent. His son, young Nick, played for the Eagles.
"He does a tremendous job with kids," Holt said.
That's the critical component. Youth sports are supposed to be about the children.
The first words out of Pliaconis' mouth were, "You've got to be kidding me."
Only he did not say kidding. The man is a trucker. His comment was a tad on the earthy side. The men in the room bonded with him immediately.
You've got to be kidding him that he actually was speaking at the clinic at USC, that his little team from El Segundo actually won a national championship and about life in general.
"One of my buddies e-mailed me a copy of the notice about the clinic," he said. "My name was blown up real big. Stoops' name was small."
What would the guys drinking coffee at the truck stop back in his days as a driver think of this?
Pliaconis talked a little about his veer option offense, about intense, organized practices, about challenging and pushing the kids and about winning. That's all part of the package.
He has film of his games and of the opposition. He has a computer program that spits out tendencies of the team they are playing.
Parents of his players signed their boys up at the Velocity Sports Performance center in Redondo Beach to learn the proper way to warm up and train.
When he talked about high-rep, high-energy practices it could have been USC coach Pete Carroll talking.
"I don't believe in putting limits on kids," he said. "They'll surprise you."
But his most important message was his philosophy of coaching children.
"I think of crazy ways to motivate," he said.
It's about having fun.
It's about respecting the opposition.
It's about the players becoming a family and loving one another.
It's about getting the parents involved. It's about having grandparents attending the games.
The coaches in the room were paying as close attention as they had to defensive guru Long.
Pliaconis talked about how, when he switched from the wishbone to the veer, he "hooked up with Joe Mendoza, who was the offensive coordinator at Carson High in its heyday. I spent three nights a week with him taking notes. We looked at film, the old reel-to-reel stuff."
How does he find the time and still run his business?
"This is how I relax," he said.
Some people play golf or tennis. Others watch television. Or read. Or take long walks by the ocean as the sun sets. Pliaconis coaches youth football.
"I love kids and I've found my niche," he said.
Again and again his message came back to that one word.
"You've got to play with love in your heart," he said.
It's really not complicated.
"Winning is nice," Pliaconis said. "But you've got to love one another."
The coaches in the room got it. They broke out in spontaneous applause at the close of the session.
El Segundo Youth
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Eagles in the News:
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The Daily Breeze
USA Football on the Torrance Game
- El Segundo Youth Football Midget Team Captures PCC Title
- Eagles Bring National Football Title to El Segundo
- Coach Dean Speaks To College Coaches at USC Clinic
