From Gold to Friday Night Lights to a New Path

When I went to Columbus the other weekend, I stayed with Lisa, a good friend who is a world-class competitor in dog agility and a dog trainer, who was adopting a border collie puppy. She was in charge of watching the litter (of only four, all boys, five-weeks old) for a week, so while I was there, I helped socialize and look after them. We had to rename them all to keep track … one in particular was my favorite because he scrambled out of my arms to the end of the couch, plopped down and proceeded to watch the NFL game on tv. The markings on his head (above), combined with a funny quip from Coach S this season in the press box (“Boys, I just need someone who can carry the tater!”) resulted in his nickname of “Tater.” The best part: my friend decided little Tater is the one she’s keeping from the litter. Instead of traveling to do agility, Tater will be a dedicated therapy dog – trained to go into nursing homes, hospitals and the like – to be a comfort to patients and their familie...

I know it is with a heavy heart that we all left the 2011 football season. It is never easy to end on a loss, especially one so contentious. I hope you know how much success we had as a team and as individuals. The joy of coaching for me happens when the lightbulbs illuminate in each of you, whether it’s on the field or off. That critical moment transfers potential into actual – theoretical into real. There are 100 examples from this season … and to the last minutes of our last game. I’ve written about joy and the role I think that plays in motivation, and I’ve experienced the heartache with each of you in failure, loss and regret. I hope that we’ve set a strong foundation for you as leaders of the future, each with a different skill set, each with a different motivation, but each with a lightbulb switched on. I hope you’ll take to heart the advice of Coach W and Coach L – we lose games in the weightroom, in the off-season, on the weekends. The will to win is defined by choices we all ...

In the past week, my emotions have gone from over the moon, to overwhelmed with fury. The week started with the national news carrying Pinckney , Mich., senior Brianna Amat who was named homecoming queen at halftime and who, at game's end, kicked her team's winning field goal. Usually, I'm less than thrilled with journalists focusing on homecoming queens who happen to play football. It seemed, around 15 years ago, that the girls all either were kickers or they set an example unreachable for most other girls who might hear the story and be interested. After all, many more girls can play football than ever could be nominated homecoming queen. Still, as a girl who had the chance to play high school football, I looked for any story about another girl who shared my interest. In those days, there were few. In a Barbie world, Amat was honored by her classmates in her No. 12 jersey. I am willing to wager $100 that in ten years, she'll be more thrilled about how she helped he...

I wish I would have had my camera at yesterday's practice - our second-to-last with the freshmen this year. I think every player and every coach should get at least one day like it: steady rain, puddles and mud to paint white towels, pants and socks in a new shade of gray. My receivers were so excited to jump in puddles and get dirty that it made me laugh. How can you not appreciate the sentiments - and have a little fun? So, the deal was this: if you dropped the football or caught the ball with your shoulderpads , it was pushups / updowns / situps and if you wanted to do them in the puddle .... Of course this meant that almost all of them did take a bath in the mud - which I'm sure their moms & dads LOVED on the way home. The good news was that their practice clothes got washed for today (not a cloud in the sky) and the showers in the lockerroom were used probably for the first time in at least ten years. The other thing I can say is that we did the pursuit drill at th...

Realized looking back at the blog, that I never wrote about the Greeson Golf Tournament that I ran for the football program as a fundraiser in May. Here's a few images to capture the day:

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'...