Usa Football Coach And Coordinator Podcast

On this Best of 2025 episode of the Coach and Coordinator Network, we revisit a conversation that delivered applicable ideas for coaches looking to make practice more competitive and intentional. In this episode of Your Call, host Keith Grabowski sits down with Patrick Daberkow, head coach at Concordia University–Nebraska and co-founder of the Headset App, to break down the Dog Ball scoring system. Coach Daberkow explains how he built, tested, and refined a practice competition model designed to reward the right behaviors, keep scores tight, and avoid runaway periods. The discussion details how offensive, defensive, and special teams plays are incorporated into the scoring system, and why decision-making pressure in practice must mirror what players face on game day. The conversation also highlights how clear, efficient communication allows competition systems like Dog Ball to operate at full speed. Patrick shares how tools like the Headset App simplify practice and game-day communication, lower cost b