Best of 2025, Your Call - Patrick Daberkow, Head Coach, Concordia University (NE)

On this Best of 2025 episode of the Coach and Coordinator Network, we revisit a conversation that delivered applicable ideas for coaches looking to make practice more competitive and intentional. In this episode of Your Call, host Keith Grabowski sits down with Patrick Daberkow, head coach at Concordia University–Nebraska and co-founder of the Headset App, to break down the Dog Ball scoring system.

Coach Daberkow explains how he built, tested, and refined a practice competition model designed to reward the right behaviors, keep scores tight, and avoid runaway periods. The discussion details how offensive, defensive, and special teams plays are incorporated into the scoring system, and why decision-making pressure in practice must mirror what players face on game day.

The conversation also highlights how clear, efficient communication allows competition systems like Dog Ball to operate at full speed. Patrick shares how tools like the Headset App simplify practice and game-day communication, lower cost barriers, and help staffs rehearse real game-day mechanics throughout the week.

This Best of 2025 selection is paired with a Coach and Coordinator AI Companion built from this episode with Patrick Daberkow, designed to help coaches think through and create their own practice scoring systems using the same principles. For staffs looking to increase engagement, sharpen decision-making, and build competitive habits that translate to gameday, this episode is an essential listen.

Coach and Coordinator AI - Dog Ball Scoring

Chapters

• Why This Episode Made the Best of 2025

• The Purpose Behind Dog Ball Scoring

• Designing Competition Without Runaway Scores

• Rewarding Process Over Results

• Offensive and Defensive Scoring Mechanics

• Integrating Special Teams into Competition

• Decision-Making Under Practice Pressure

• Communication as the Engine of Competition

• Using the Headset App in Practice

• Building a Scoring System That Fits Your Program

  
  

  Connect on X:

  Keith Grabowski: @CoachKGrabowski

  Patrick Daberkow: @PatrickDaberkow

  
  

  Learn More About Our Partner:

  The Headset App, Sideline Communication at a Fraction of the Cost.

  Join the growing number of coaches making the switch and take your game-day decision-making to the next level.
  Download the Headset App and start coaching smarter!

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