From Gold to Friday Night Lights to a New Path

This week has been hard for me - lots going on during my work hours - and didn't make it to practice on time once . For me, this is crazy. We had a terrible practice as receivers on Monday during offensive individual time - I made them run around 140 yards and then they had about eight wind sprints as a team. They were not happy. I was disappointed. The difficult thing is trying to coach up and keep a group of seven kids interested and motivated to work hard, when they are all at such a wide level. One in particular gets under my skin because he is constantly begging to play. In my experience, I get it but as a coach, if you want to play, you work HARDER, not ask more. I have one player who absolutely never complains but he also does not understand all of what we are doing. If we get to be in a smaller group, he's the one who'll often ask very small detail questions - for example, at the midpoint of the season: "Why does the receiver point to the ref when he's on t...

I found this photo and I love it because it reminds me of the fight we had on our hands three weeks ago on Varsity. An hour or so to the Northeast was the opponent we were expected to beat. But, as things go in football especially, things are not usually as they appear. It was a dogfight - after our varsity guys went up three touchdowns, we allowed them back in the game to tie at 21s for halftime. A shutout in the fourth quarter left us to play for overtime - always a little risky in high school and college. It was a tough loss all around - the 12 th straight for our program since last season - and one that hit everyone especially hard. I guess being in all types of games myself as a player and now going through the gamut as a coach, the feelings are pretty much the same. As a coach, you have no choice but to see a little more objectively the events that transpire, or the missed opportunities both as a result of what you could have done, and what your players could have done. It'...

Tonight's project: Paint chalkboard at house. I have our offensive plan for the season - need to review all the formations and get alignment, assignment and execution straightened out for my guys. Hope today's practice is less ugly than yesterday... tough with only four receivers but they are getting in shape! Need to study some DL tactics but Coach F and I work pretty well together. And so the season begins.

I am ridiculously proud of the women pictured above - Sonic (12) and Knuckles (41) led our team this year - they drafted plays, watched films, scripted offense, dealt with personal issues between players and groups, encouraged, sacrificed, inspired and absolutely dominated our opponents on offense, defense and special teams. To Maine and Def.... thank you.

I'm not usually a fan of replicating other people's work, but this is meaningful to me now: "You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game —life or football— the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. ... And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's w...

Right now, I miss Coach Mac from Team USA. He's the guy that reminds you to savor the moments, no matter how small. To think about the preparation, to put your jersey on one more time. To remember that the name on the front is more important than the one on the back. To write in your journal about how you felt each day of the experience. I have had a very tumultuous 2011 season personally, but I'm ecstatic to be ending where we wanted to be: the championship game. 10 days, 5 more practices, 1 more game. Seems like January was just yesterday - but then again, these last few months have been very hard for lots of reasons. Personalities, situations, snafus - you-name-it and it probably went into this season for our team. I even got into it with Sheila during a game. Sugar Ray did earn her nickname in her last season, which I can appreciate. It's been a hard road, but one I wouldn't want to walk without a few people I started down this road with five years ago. It...

Lately there's been a bit of excessive awkwardness. Right now the awkward comes in waves - washing my hair, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, eating food in front of others - everything is hard when you can't use your thumb on your dominant hand. Luckily, there are some moments of humor: Sponsor I work with in the Northeast: how's football? ME: Pretty good – I fell straight on my thumb last night so typing is a little tough – my hand is swollen like an orange, so cross your fingers because we have a playoff game Saturday! Sponsor: it would have been more authentic if you had a couple typos below - hope you heal up soon. What's the record? ME: Haha ! You crack me up … my English teacher mother would be appalled if she knew I sent out mistake-ridden emails….even with a thumb injury …. Not sure if I've ever mentioned Josh in the blog but he's the to-be DH (dear/darling husband) although I kind of like the abbreviation for designated hitter in the baseball sen...