REDZONE - ifm Razorbacks Football Magazine - No. 1 - english

INTERVIEW with
JOHN GILLIGAN
Gaby: Welcome back to
Ravensburg. How did it come that
you decided to come back?
John: It‘s a beautiful place. I had great
memories of Ravensburg when I was here
before. Great members of people. Great
memories of football, great memories of
the town, great memories of our fans. And
it‘s always easy to come back. It was easy
to come back to a beautiful place to people
that I like. But a lot of work coming up.
Gaby: You have been head coach for a few
years now. In your opinion, what‘s the most
important quantities to be a head coach?
John: Ravensburg is known for Ravensburger,
big Puzzle company. And so, as a
head coach, you must figure out how to put
the puzzle together. There‘s a lot of pieces.
More so now in GFL1 than there was in GFL2
when I was here. And that‘s my job as a
head coach, is how to figure out how to put
the puzzle together. The right coaches, the
right players, the right schemes. Figuring
out all the different pieces of the puzzle
and how you make it work. And that‘s a 24
hour task. I think that‘s the biggest thing a
head coach does, is figure out how to put
together the pieces of the puzzle.
Gaby: What are your goals for the 2024
season?
John: Well, I think every goal every
coach have is to play for a championship.
Why play the game if you‘re not going to
play for a championship? But realistically,
I think we have to figure out the different
pieces of the puzzle we have. Do we have
the right coaches? Do we have the right
players? Do we have the right facilities?
Do we have the right budget to play in GFL1.
When I was here before I played in GFL2, so
we had four import players. Everybody else
was the local players. Now half our team is
import players, so figure it out.
If we have the resources. If we don‘t have
the resources and working with the board,
working with Frank, working with the different
board members to figure out how do
we get those resources that we need to be
successful.
Gaby: How do you prepare on game day.
Do you have special Rituals?
John: No. Game Day is pretty easy. Because
the work that coaches do, that happens
during the week. That happens for us.
It happens on Sunday when we watch film
and we pregame and we plan, and then on
Monday, as we go through it Tuesday when
we practice. So to answer your question, during
the week. That‘s where we do all of our
work. And on game day. It‘s just sit back and
watch it happen. If you‘ve done your work
right during the week then it‘s very nice to
watch everything happen on Saturday or
Sunday on game day. I know a lot of people
get all excited and intense. Maybe the players
do. But as coaches, I find it. You spend
all your energy during the week and then on
game day there‘s. Not much energy that you
spend. You just watch the game, and you
make corrections where you need to make
corrections, and you do. What you can do as
a coach to help your players be successful.