From Gold to Friday Night Lights to a New Path

I've fallen into another cool assignment, and it's been a good challenge. I was asked to help out with an assembled traveling tackle football team run by Coach E, who I worked with on the 9th grade staff. He runs our local tackle football youth program. I came on Monday and was drafted to be the OL coach. It's been an interesting challenge for me because, as it seems to work, I'm learning more by having to script out all the blocking schemes and work with the different levels of boys. The thing I really LOVE about coaching was working with the boys last night. I went over plays with the OL (including our tight end who is an eighth-grader .... he's part smarts, part hellcat). We had to improvise a bit because my left guard and center were missing. The back-up center stepped in, though, and was able to get some good work. He caught on quickly, but when it came time to run through plays together, the other center showed up. Sadly, it wasn't as smooth because he had...

This week I've devoted some time to trying to say thank you to all the people in the high school football program who helped me, invested in me, and taught me something about what it means to being a good coach. I found myself literally crying last night while I wrote a few notes, and I think I'd probably start the dang waterworks again if I looked at them. I thought about the concept of "standing on the shoulders of giants" this summer when I was selected to TEAM USA. It certainly was not by all my own effort - so many phenomenal people have invested in me their time, talents, advice, wisdom, training, technique, and most of all confidence. It prompted me to check out where the saying came from: Wikipedia tells me this (and love the photo): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants I like the reference from the X-files : "If I have seen further than other men it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." I truly feel that...

The Class of 2014 made a statement in its last game of the season last week... and it was loud and proud. I thought we'd be a wreck as we arrived with not as much time before the game to warm up or do our normal routine, and the boys dressed in our lockerroom before we left. We've also only played two away games all year. I also rode the bus with the team, which was interesting, but so fun afterwards. We jumped out to an 8-0 lead, moving the ball swiftly down the field and scoring with the muddle pass to the side with a lone player. The defense forced our crosstown rival to punt right off the bat, setting up the first score and after they did it again, we drove the ball again downfield , looking for another six. Sadly, the ball carrier T fumbled and we turned over so close to our goal line. Coach L yelled at the boy - later Coach L told me that though he raised his voice, his words were something like this: "You will get the ball again and you will take care of it. We nee...

The varsity played a homecoming game on Oct. 22, and two things happened that day that I will never forget: The first (and least significant by far) was seeing a Blackhawk helicopter land on the field to deliver the game ball. A cool gesture, but definitely small compared to the second. Before the game, a man and his son knocked on the doors to the football complex. The man was like any other in the stands, and his son was in a wheelchair, clearly excited by all the hoopla going on in the stands, the band playing, the people walking by. The man asked me if I knew where one of our players was and if they were in the right spot to meet the team to walk on the field before the game. I told them they were - as they stood near the large doghouse door, where the varsity all files out. Before things got too hectic, I walked with the other coaches up to the press box to wait. The most memorable thing about that night was seeing our 50+ players WALK out onto the field, hand-in-hand, over to ou...

In our second-to-last game of the season, the boys learned how to fight. It's a skill that has to be learned, like poise, or winning. And once players are empowered, there's no going back. NS, who has come to most practices and is very passionate about playing but not the most talented kid on our roster, learned he was going to start on defensive line. Our best defensive lineman JL had been sick and kept out of school for half the day, rendering him ineligible to play in our game. If not for this, NS would probably not have had a chance to play much this game, but the effort and heart he gave in practice made him the likely candidate to fill in. NS made mistakes, he didn't make the same plays JL might have made, but he did play hard and at one point, I saw him drive an OL back into the play. He was fired up and he wasn't about to miss his chance. He gave his whole heart that day. At halftime, Coach L gave some good remarks. We had been playing well on both sides of the...