Coach Bill Kramer - Naples High School, Football Texas' El Paso Diablos-GM Matt LaBranche - Independent League Baseball

Golden Eagles finish their season 15-0 & the Class 3A state title with a 17-10 victory over St. Augustine, FL. Name: Bill Kramer Sports: Head football coach for Naples High School SPI Product: Advanced Years in Sport: Head coach at Naples High School for past ten years; wide receiver at Liberty University during college Hometown: San Jose, California

Head Football Coach Bill Kramer

While other head coaches focus all their energy on getting the win, head football coach of Naples High School, Bill Kramer, has one mission for his team: use the sport of football to help make good citizens.

After attending Liberty University and teaching and coaching at American High School in Miami, Florida, Kramer accepted an offer to coach at Naples and for the past ten years his team has done a complete 180. Since 1998, Naples High School's football program has compiled a winning record of 96-27 with a playoff record of 19-6 and has the unique distinction of being the only school in southwest Florida's history to win two state championships. Kramer himself has won numerous awards as head coach including several Coach of the Year awards and was named one of the "Young Guns" by American Football Monthly magazine for top six football coaches in Florida under 45.

As a teacher, Kramer interacts with students on a daily basis. He said it's this cross-over that lends itself to being a good coach.

"I like to learn how people are motivated...once I started coaching, initially, I was competitive and a lot of it was about winning," he said. "But then I found that football was a great tool to get guys to class on time and help them be good students."

It's this philosophy, as Kramer calls it, which separates his team from other teams in Florida. His coaching staff has agreed, he says, that football will be used as a tool and the team will not be judged by the scoreboard, but by its vertical and horizontal relationships. 

"We are servant leaders. If it's all about getting a ring, then when we are losing. If it's not about creating good citizens for this country then it doesn't matter, you can have the ring," he said.

Kramer's coaching staff instills one message to their players: What are we about whether we win or lose? What will our players take with them after they win the championship? 

"The staff at Naples High School uses football to motivate young men to be on time, work hard everyday, make commitments and keep them, and do what is best for them and their future even when they do not feel like it," he said. "We believe that the relationships that we have with our players are much more important than what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. Each coach on our staff knows that he has a creator who will hold him accountable for how he is growing the young men in his charge."

In order to keep this lofty goal, players and coaches eat together regularly during the week-and not just at McDonalds. Players visit coach's homes once a week, enabling them to see how their coaches are not merely just coaches, but fathers and husbands as well.

"It gives us an opportunity to model how a man should talk to and treat his wife and kids, and it allows us to talk to our players about what is going on in their lives individually and collectively," Kramer said.

It's this team collectivity that makes his team so successful he says. Every few years Kramer has his team come up with important mental aspects of the game that they deem imperative to team success. The number-one answer his team has given the past few years has always been commitment, he says.

"After selecting the word, the kids define it so that everyone is on the same page. What does commitment mean? You don't miss a workout? Or you don't take days off? Or does commitment mean you stay after practice and throw every day? Being on the same page prevents interpersonal conflicts," he said.

Other important aspects to the mental component of the game Kramer says are courage, selflessness, and accountability. With these aspects in mind, Kramer hopes that using sportsDrive's Sports Performance Indicator assessment tools will help with their "total picture person."

"You have to be technical and tactical. Motivation is huge. Psychology is huge. In an effort to connect and segue where you are and where you want to be, the test fits as a tool and I hope it will be a tool that enables us to individually and collectively move towards that common goal quicker. Then, once we get and maintain excellence over time, that's huge and that's what it's all about."