High school football: Practicing good habits with new coach at Hockinson

Ben Nelson, the new head coach for Hockinson football, shook hands with every player on the team after a recent practice. Nelson said there is a renewed emphasis on a commitment to practice, which will lead to more success for the program. Photo by Paul Valencia

Ben Nelson is putting an emphasis on improving practice habits, hoping to turn around the Hockinson Hawks and leading them back to their winning ways

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

It is a fresh start for Hockinson football, and it all starts with practice.

Ben Nelson was hired in March as the new head coach, and immediately he started meeting with team leaders, trying to determine what had been missing in recent years.

Hockinson has an incredible, storied history of success, yet the program has now endured three consecutive losing seasons.

“We had a lot of conversations about what we have to do in order to change, to get different results,” Nelson said. “The biggest: Practice. We have to have better practice habits. There has to be a different action step in how we attack practice.”

There cannot be a day off for a team that went 1-8 last season. Every practice has to have purpose, every day of the week leading into Friday night football.

“I’m blessed to have a really good staff,” Nelson said. “We have a good plan in place, ensuring every single one of our kids is getting reps.”

Two-way starters or first-year players all get an opportunity every day, the coach added.

That plays into the larger mission for the new coach, to get a chance to work with so many people.

“Coaching is the greatest vehicle for trying to make young men into better adults,” Nelson said. “I really appreciate that aspect of coaching.”

In fact, he emphasized that when he interviewed for the job. It is so much more than wins and losses on a football field.

Of course, those do matter, as well. And Nelson has a plan. Beyond better practice habits, Nelson is looking forward to taking advantage of a small community with big dreams. Hockinson is, after all, a district with one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school.

“There is a really cool opportunity to create a full K-through-12 program,” Nelson said, noting that he is working with youth football organizations and is also thrilled that the middle school has its own football team, as well. “That’s one of the aspects that intrigued me the most, creating that vision.”

Nelson has worked as an offensive coordinator at Woodland and at Battle Ground. This is his first head coaching job. He worked on the same staff with Sean McDonald (now at Mountain View) and Glen Flanagan at Woodland, and with Mike Woodward in Battle Ground.

“I have a lot of really good mentors in my life who prepared me for understanding what a head coaching job is,” Nelson said. “Even with that, there’s still things you just don’t know until you are in the actual role. But I do feel very blessed to have had mentors who have carried me through to this point to have as smooth a transition as possible.”

Throughout the summer and into the first week of official fall season practice, a few things have popped up that reminded Nelson that he is, indeed, the head coach now.

“All positive. Nothing that caught me off guard,” he said with a smile.

He is in charge now, but he also relies on his assistant coaches.

All of the coaches will be working to bring something new to the field — at least new to the Hawks.

“When it comes to Xs and Os on the field, we’re going to mold and adapt to what we have to do to fit the strengths of our kids,” Nelson said, referring to the slot-T offense. “We have a really good offensive line and a really good stable of running backs. This year will be a little bit more run heavy.”

The coaches are also trying to emphasize the importance of reacting. Not everything will go perfect, he told the team at a practice this week, but a team’s success is determined by how players and coaches respond when a mistake is made.

Again, it’s a life lesson. Nelson said 90 percent of life is how you respond. It is the same on the football field.

“What we want the community to see is that our kids play for each other, and they are also very gritty,” Nelson said.