Coach brings unique perspective to football camp

June 3, 2005

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Frontiersman sports editor

PALMER - Some call it teaching football Derby style, but Brian Derby said he preaches the same things that coaches all over the world find important.

For more than eight years, Derby - a college coach and former University of Hawaii offensive lineman - has directed camps catering to offensive lineman. Last week, Derby took his clinic to Alaska for the first time, for a five-day camp at Colony High School.

Derby brought, not only experience, but a unique perspective to the Valley. He hails from Hawaii, which like Alaska, is segregated from most of the college football world. And he is also a college offensive line coach - in Japan.

Yes, football in Japan.

With a career as a player at the Division I level and experience coaching college football on two continents, Derby has blended the knowledge he has gained into his own style - which he relays to his players. He stresses quickness of the hands and feet. And to improve that quickness, Derby integrates other sports into football. He uses soccer drills to increase foot speed, and boxing drills to improve hand speed.

"If they can move the soccer ball around, they can use their feet (in football). In boxing, you are constantly moving your hands," Derby said. "For a lot of these kids, this is totally new to them."

Derby also incorporates plyometrics - exercises that focus on speed and quickness - into his drills. This, all in addition to working on techniques such as the placement of a lineman's hands, pulling and running through blocking schemes.

Derby has coached players from virtually every level of football - from youth to professional. What he teaches is the same, Derby said, the only difference is putting the lessons into terms each group can understand.

"The Derby style has been around for awhile. What I teach comes from many different coaches," Derby said. "Communication - that's the key."

Derby said he also gave the local coaches in attendance advice on methods and drills to run during their own practices.

"I put together what a practice should look like - what I like to do," Derby said. "I showed them how my system works."

Just days after the lineman in the Alaska camp were exposed to the new drills, he saw a ton of improvement.

"A thousand percent," Derby said. "It's amazing. They showed beautiful feet. They got off the ball, not just lunging forward."

Derby said, like Hawaii, Alaska could be a best kept secret, in terms of football talent. Just by coaching a small group of local players, Derby said he can see what kind of talent this state has.

Derby said he is already making plans for the second Derby camp in Alaska. After he was contacted by the Colony High School football booster club about coming to Alaska, Derby had few holes in his schedule, and had only little time to prepare for his trip. In the future, Derby said, he would like to attract lineman from all over the state.

"There is some awesome talent up here," Derby said. "I want to look at kids from all the different schools, try to get everyone better and put Alaska football on the map. It's like Hawaii, no one knows about all the good talent."