Caldwell Happy To Have College, High School Coaches Watch Lions Practice
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Groups of coaches from colleges and high schools dotted the sidelines of the outdoor field at the Detroit Lions facility in Allen Park as the team went through its sixth OTA practice Thursday.
Among the schools represented were Wayne State University, Alma College and Northville High School. For previous practices, the Lions have hosted coaches from Michigan and Michigan State, among others.
Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said he is happy to have coaches at various levels watch the team practice. He welcomes college and high school coaches because he remembers the impact that visiting an NFL team had on his own career when late Oakland Raiders owner and general manager Al Davis extended him that courtesy.
Caldwell recalls the year as 1981. He was coaching defensive backs at the time and wanted to learn more about bump-and-run coverage. The pro teams doing it best were the Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Davis not only allowed Caldwell to come watch practice - some teams told him no - but Davis escorted Caldwell around for three days.
"We'd walk over there with drill work, go through it, and at nighttime he'd come back in ... and he and I would watch film from 10 o'clock at night until the wee hours of the morning, go back to the hotel, get some sleep, come back and do it all over again," Caldwell said. "Three days in a row, and this was a guy who was running the whole operation.
"So from that experience I really believe in allowing guys to come in and see what we do," Caldwell added. "I think that's the way it should be. It helped me out tremendously in my career."
Caldwell said he does not get to spend as much time as he would like with coaches who visit, but the conversations they do have are productive ones.
"Often times, like last week, we had coaches that were in from John Carroll, and often times you'll find yourself getting as much information from them as you give," Caldwell said. "They had some pretty unique things that they did. Tom Arth is the head coach at John Carroll, actually played for us. He was a quarterback at Indianapolis. Obviously, most of these guys know someone on our staff, but there's a great exchange of information along the way."
Northville High School coach Matt Ladach was one of the coaches in attendance Thursday, and he and fellow coach Darrell Adkins were watching intently the offensive line drills led by Jeremiah Washburn and Terry Heffernan.
Ladach met Washburn because their kids play on the same baseball team, and Washburn invited Ladach out to practice. For Ladach and Adkins, watching a professional practice provided a chance to compare their teaching techniques and drills with those being used at the highest level.
"What's important for us, and we were talking, we had some of our kids go to a college camp last weekend, and when they came back, they said, 'Hey Coach, all the drills that we did, and all the things the things that Coach said is the same stuff that you were teaching us!'" Ladach said.
"It really made us feel good about what we're doing, just kind of reiterating that, yeah, we are teaching the most up-to-date things, and we come out here and we hear Coach Hef and Coach Washburn say some of the same things, and just to see them teach it to a different level of an athlete, it just further reiterates that what we're doing is positive," Ladach added.
