The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1938-10-27
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPORTLICHT
BY DILLON GRAHAM
APP Feature Service Writer
IT'S CRICKET TO. spy IN
FOOTBALL,

GTlQ1IOIl 1dIlS SS1QOIIl I1C0A VI
football scouts, but these legit-
innate spies are just as valuable
to a winning team as that big,
bruising tackle, or that halfback
with the slippery hips.
Football scouts are the only
spies who have any social stand
ing. They are wined, dined and
given choice seats by their rivals.
It's quite cricket-in football
to spy on your neighbor. The
scouts, generally assistant coach
es, are scattered about almost all
of our stadia these fall Saturday
afternoons.
The scouts prefer press box To-
cations, but some like to sit be-
hind the goal posts to watch
blocking assignments, the open
ing and closing of holes.
Everybody Has EN-
Every team has one or more
scouts. Some teams scout their
opponents once or twice. Where
the rivalry is intense, scouts spy
more often. Army scouts Navy
in every game, and vice versa.
Army has had as many as six
scouts scouting a Navy-Notre
Dame contest, with three watch
ing each team.
Some head coaches want de-
tailed reports. Others are content
with salient facts from their
scouts. 1.-The thing we are pri-
marily interested in is the per-
sonnet of the other team in rela-
ton to our own personnel, one
coach said. Scouts reports COW
err the condition of the field,
wind, temperature, etc.
Covering personnel, the scouts
watch for any tell-tale traits. For
example, does a lineman charge
and then float, on does he charge
all the way through? Can one of
our ends handle the opposing
tackle, or should we have the
haifback help the end block
him?
Signal Stealers
OF course, the human equation
enters in, and a lineman may be
an entirely different man from
one game to the next. Scouts
watch backs to see whether the
passer or punter spits on his
hands or has any other manner
ism to show when he is going to
throw or kick and when he is
going to run.
Sometimes ends are ordered to
float in one game and to crash
in the next, so reports brought
home by the scouts can not be
100 percent accurate.
Next to personnel, formations
and plays are charted by the
scouts. The scout and the coaching
staff try to anticipate all the
plays that may be run. off a GER
tain formation, as well as those
that are actually used in a par
ticular game.
A scout may report to his
coach: when / saw them, they
didn't lateral off this play, but
they can, so we should watch for
it and provide for it,.
These reports are supplement-
ed, where possible by movies of
the previous years game between
the home club and its opponent.
Each school is allowed to take
movies OF each game in which it
plays. Scouting a forthcoming
rival by camera is not ethical and
is not done.
Scouting Own Teams
Coaches watch closely movies
ofstheirl teams most recent game
to scout" their own team-to see
where their players were tipping,
committing themselves, to con-
firm or cancel impressions re-
ceived at the game.
After a scout has made all his
notes in his notebook during a
game, he returns home and pre-
pares a concise report for his
head coach. The coach goes over
this report and decides how his
attack should function best
against this particular team.
Then the team gets a black
board drill on opponents plays
and the way to stop 'em, or how
to go through the enemy de-
| Tense. The team is coached on
the field. too. Sometimes the
scout takes charge of a scruE
team, teaches it the rivals plays
and then Scrimmages il with the
varsity to give the first team &C
tual experience in what 10 ex.
pect.
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