There is one thing for certain in football – mistakes are going to happen. From fumbles to holding calls to missed tackles and dropped passes, mistakes are part of the game. Though the coach can make all the calls, signals and shifts, the student-athletes are ones carrying out the plays, so mistakes are going to happen.

Coaches need to be prepared for how they are going to handle those mistakes when they occur. Are you going to lose your cool? Fly off the handle? Berate a 12-to-15-year-old for throwing the ball inside, when he knows to throw it deep outside?

Keeping an even composure on the football field is a fine art, especially when your defense gives up a first down with an offside call. But how can we teach this game if we are blowing a gasket? The answer? Practice.

Yes, coaches need practice, too. Alongside all of the calls, signals and shifts that coaches make, they need to be practicing down and distance situations, substitutions and injuries. But coaches must practice even more on talking and relating to players.

Players are going to mess up. If you don’t think so, then get ready because it will happen to all coaches eventually. How a coach handles those flips and flops will determine his or her success – or failure – as a coach.

To gain some perspective, rewind the tape to when you were living out your glory days on the field. How did you feel when you made a mistake and the coach let you have it? You probably didn’t thank the coach for using choice expletives to describe and chide your fault.

Players know when they have made costly mistakes. You can read it in their body language. The head goes down, they slump and you can see it in their eyes.

It is in this moment of disappointment that we can help build young men or break them.

Most coaches have yelled at players at some point, but did they learn anything from doing that? In this situation when a player has made a costly mistake and is disappointed, the coach can use this moment to teach the player that although it may have hurt the team, redemption is one play away.

My first year as a head coach running the spread offense, my quarterback threw five interceptions in a game. I wasn’t upset. I couldn’t be. We were outmanned in a game, no question. But I wanted my young quarterback to learn. I could have put in a backup, or changed our game plan, but I didn’t. I wanted him to get better for the next game, the next year. Five picks later, he was a better player for it. Ask him, and he will tell you the same.

You see, I wasn’t throwing in the towel; I was giving him a chance to learn and an opportunity to understand that I believed in him, that I thought he could do it.

So many times, we are quick to toss players to the sideline. Yes, do this, so you can coach them. But don’t quarantine a kid to the sideline thinking it’s going to make him better. Coach him for a few plays. Let him see things from your perspective, literally, as you walk him through plays as you watch. Then, give the kid a green light to make a play. That’s why he was out there in the first place, wasn’t it?

Obviously, there is a fine line between coaching a kid up, and giving away a game. It’s give and take that we must learn. No one wants to lose, but I never want a player to walk away from the game because his coach forgot he was coaching and teaching kids.

Give the player a second chance – a chance to make up for a mistake. No one wants to make up for it more than the player himself. Let the player know that you believe in him. If every player who made a mistake wasn’t given a second chance, there would be no football players – or participants in any other sports for that matter.

Give them a second chance – after all, someone gave you one.