Meet Lakeville North High School football coach Brian Vossen
LAKEVILLE, Minn. — Brian Vossen is the current head football coach of Lakeville North High School.
Vossen, who lives in Lakeville, is also a graduate of Lakeville High School and graduated in the year 1998. Being a Panther himself, he played defensive end and had the opportunity as a middle linebacker when he played for Mankato State his senior year.
His journey as a football coach started after his graduation in 2003. He was employed as the defensive line coach at Lakeville High School.
Vossen was then promoted to become a head coach in 2010. Although Lakeville High School split into North and South, North went through a rough time after the split with their average performance. Vossen wanted more for the team than just going to the state tournament. His passion pushed the team forward. Even though the Panthers did not reach the tournament their first season, by 2011 onwards the team successfully made obvious progress with their consistently good games.
Vossen is here to stay at Lakeville as his goal for the team is to make it a powerhouse that holds its place and is feared in the field. He wants his student athletes to be able to win at everything in life, to teach them not to give up and live life with kindness.
Vossen, a passionate football coach, spoke with BVM Sports recently. He spoke about his passion for the sport, merging the aspects of life and football. He talked about his inspirations and motivations, as well as the strategies and principles he takes with himself to the field.
Football is an important part of your life, but what does it mean to you personally?
“I used football to push myself in almost every area of my life from the time I was a kid until now. As a coach, it has forced me to think about the lessons I want my children to learn from me. It has held me accountable as a father, a husband and an employee. Football has taught me to lead with confidence and character. Since I was eight years old it has been at the forefront of my thoughts every day, finding ways to play/coach the game of football better has pushed me every day of my life.”
Things you learn in the game can also be effective in practical life. How do you connect the two? And how do you interchange the lessons you learn in each aspect?
“Where do I begin? I suppose the first thing you learn in the game of football is that it takes every person working together for a play to be successful. If one guy takes a play off, you hurt the rest of your team. It teaches you to be loyal to your teammates and stay disciplined in your job. You become responsible for your role in every single play. Once you have developed that work ethic, studied that playbook, practiced your job, you must learn humility. Only one person makes the tackle, the pass, the sack, or the touchdown. On every play, there are nine or 10 silent players that will not receive any credit for the success of that play. They not only need to accept it, but they need to celebrate the success of the one getting credit and swallow their pride. We live in a chest-pounding culture that wants immediate attention and pats on the back for everything they do. Football teaches kids to stay humble and loyally support those around them. You will get mentally, emotionally and physically knocked down and you have to learn to get back up. The game develops a level of resilience I have not found anywhere else in my life. That is the belief you will win the next play/game/rep regardless of what happened on the last one. I am not sure there is a more useful lesson you can learn at a young age to prepare you for life.
“Football games happen once per week. You don’t get to correct a loss the next night or a few days later. You have to spend an entire week learning all the lessons from a loss so you can avoid making them again against a new team. That alone takes a certain level of patience and mental fortitude. The week of preparation for one opponent is exhausting and the game plan often changes from week to week to take advantage of a new team’s weaknesses. I am not sure there is another game like it.”
Who was your inspiration when you started your football journey? How do you still keep that energy alive that you first felt?
“At a young age, I was inspired by all the NFL greats. I was a heavy kid and football gave a home to big guys on the line. I never cared if I touched the football, I just wanted a sport where I was accepted. Linemen are loved in the game of football. I looked up to big NFL players like Keith Millard and Christian Okoye and Jerome Bettis. When I got to middle school, I had a math teacher who was also an assistant coach on the high school football team, Dick Zeman. He specially inspired me to be my absolute best in every area of my life to be great in football. He treated people with kindness and loved his players and students. I knew I wanted to be a math teacher and football coach when I got older. Fortunately, I had other great coaching role models that showed me different ways to do it. I learned quickly in my career as a coach that I was not Dick Zeman. We have some similarities, but we are not the same and I needed other influences in my life to help me figure out what type of coach I was going to be.
“As for energy, I get that from the kids. I am inspired by their efforts to be their best and it reminds me to continue doing the same.”
Motivation is a big part of life, of course, but how do you motivate your team?
“By being honest. I don’t prepare special speeches anymore. I feel the room and speak from the heart of what I see. I believe in brutal honesty when communicating with athletes. But I am a passionate guy, so I want them to feel that energy when they do something great. You succeed, you cannot be afraid to fail. I never make winning the game a goal in our program. The goal is to do all the things that make us winners and we expect the score to reflect it. When it doesn’t, we want to be able to look in the mirror and know we did all we could. We also have to be able to recognize that there are reasons for losses, and we need to be willing to humble ourselves and accept those lessons.”
How do you keep the consistency in your games?
“We prepare for everything. I run a defense that can easily transform around offenses. It’s based on a set of rules and principles. When an offense finds the weaknesses, we prepare for the proper adjustments. It’s a game of chess and my goal is to get the opposing offense to call the game wondering what we are doing as a defense. To do this, you have to take risks and play outside of tendency. You have to be brave enough to try something new even when the current plan is working. That team is working on adjustments to beat your current plan. We keep them guessing what we are doing when we are willing to change before they adjust.”
What is the principle that you firmly stand by in the field?
“Nobody will play harder than we will. Nobody will play with more aggression, violence and relentless effort. We want to beat you in a way that we beat the next opponent when they see the film. But we do this within the rules of the game and we recognize it takes all 11 of us on any given play. Every referee crew is different, so we want to be told to dial it back rather than have to yell at our players to crank it up.”
In the past, you have expressed your desire to choose high school coaching over college. Do you still stand by that decision? How is being a high school football coach more rewarding for you?
“I love this community. I grew up here and I am raising my kids here. I love the guys I coach with. I love the culture and the tradition that was here before me and what we have added to it. I love how my children are positively impacted by the people and players in this program. Being the head football coach for Lakeville North has forced me to be the absolute best person that I can be.”
What would your message be to your student athletes or football players in general?
“It will be the wins they experience as husbands, fathers, friends, bosses or employees that will matter most. Of course, we want to win football games and compete for championships. But every team will end their season with a loss, but one. Continue applying what you learn from this game in all other areas of your life and you will have undefeated futures.”
Finally, if you could change anything in your entire football career, what would that be?
“I have had tons of things I wish I had done differently. I wish I could recoach the close games with the knowledge I learned from them. But every one of those seasons I learned a lesson as a coach that will make our teams better in the future.”
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