Football / Life Lessons

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Coaching football has taught ME some very valuable lessons. These lessons held true at Gwinn, L'Anse, and here at Kingsford.

I have learned to never (ever) assume that players know what I'm talking about:

"We need to shift into cover three when they show us twins to the boundary."

Blank stares. Gotta put that on the white board, show it on the field, then show them on film VanDusen!

I have learned to over simplify things. A thinking teenager is a slow teenager. I want my players to play fast which means I have to make the thinking easy and/or non-existent.

More importantly, I hope to teach young men valuable lessons.  Not only about the game of football, but also about life.  Here are three lessons that have been prevalent this past season.  They are in no particular order, and this list is FAR from inclusive.

1) Master things that take no talent.  This isn't my quote, but I absolutely love it. In football, this means watching film, reading scouting reports, going hard every play, etc.  Every football coach I know has a story of a player who had the heart of a lion. He gave absolutely everything he had to the game, yet never got very far due to a lack of talent. That player is usually a coaches favorite, despite the lack of output.  This player, although they may not be a great football player, will succeed in life because they are attempting to master the things that take no skill. They will find their skill, whether it's being a plummer, lawyer, or teacher.  They will find out their skill and their mastery of talent-less skills will serve them well. of In life it can mean being to work on time, driving without distraction, and paying bills on time.

2) You play exactly how you practice. One of my favorite stories (I don't know if it's true or not...) comes out of Iraq in 2003.  A group of American Soldiers got into a small gunfight. Prior to getting back in their trucks and moving to the engagement area, a young Soldier stooped over and began picking up his brass. His sergeant yelled at him to get back in the truck and he did, but a VALUABLE lesson was learned.  In training, that Soldier would take the extra minute or two to pick up his brass, because when the training event was over, they would have to go pick it up anyway to turn it in.  He was fighting exactly how he trained.
In football, however you practice, that is how you play. Do you carry out your fakes? Do you block till the whistle? Do you force your players into a tight huddle?  Whatever you do on the practice field, expect it on game night.

3) You can't control what happens to you, you can only control your reaction to it. (Again, not mine, but I love it!) Last night, our quarterback rolls to his left on the second play of the game. He spies an open receiver, squares his hips, cocks the ball and begins his throwing motion. The ball slips out of his hand and the defender who was chasing him down from the back side had a gift land right in his hands. He returned it for a touchdown and we go down 6-0.  We couldn't control the rain making the ball slick. We couldn't control the defender ripping through a great block and pursuing from the backside.  We couldn't control the fact that he was able to take it back for six points.  All we could control was our reaction to it. 
So what did we do?  We got a great kick return. Ran three plays for 45 yards and a touchdown.  Then we scored the two point conversion. Now we are winning 6-8. I like that reaction.
In life all kinds of crazy things can happen. You can set the conditions to be in your favor, but at the end of the day, you can't control what happens to you. Flat tire. Car accident. Hail storm damaging your roof. What are you going to do about it?

I love football.
It is an amazing game and I have build some incredible relationships with coaches and players that I couldn't have anywhere else.

Aaron Rodgers was quoted in ESPN magazine as saying, "I hope I don't just do this."
He said that after winning the Super Bowl. (Read the Article Here)

I can reflect on the past 10 years of coaching and know that I do more than just football. Some days my day seems DOMINATED by football, and it is.  But I also know that those young men who snap their helmets on every week are learning lessons that will help them do more than, "this."

Hurricane!

This week we are learning a bout hurricanes.

Luckily, YOOPERS don't have to worry about hurricanes.  Lake Superior isn't warm enough to start the engine.

The three things needed for a hurricane to form are:
1) Warm water (Think bath water).
2) Warm, humid air.
3) Steady wind.

The warm water heats up the air above it and causes it to rise.  It is full of water.  When it gets high in the atmosphere, it spreads out and begins to cool. The space left by the warm, humid air leaving is quickly replaced. That air rises and begins the "engine."  Gusty wind will break the process apart before it can become a hurricane, but a steady wind will set the conditions for a massive, destructive storm.

Watch a good video here.

I was even able to find an Emergency Alert from the National Weather Service to make the "evacuation" more real.  I have a HUGE fan in my room to help keep it cool on hot days.  Today it rocked us like a Hurricane (I had too...). :)

In class we learned about how a hurricane is formed, we made a hurricane with bodies, and then we build hurricane proof shelters.

....then we blew them down!
Great lesson and great fun!

SICK AIR

I was able to take my son (7) and my dad to the SICK AIR motorcycle show in Escanaba this past weekend.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!  (A plethora of STEM things too!)

Follow the history here for a minute.
Jim Priestap and I were the Platoon Sergeant and Platoon Leader for 1st Platoon, 46 Military Police Company in Baghdad.  Jim was killed in Iraq and it is still something that haunts me to this day.
Jim was married to Connie.  Connie is now married to Scott Murray.
Scott is the main man in SICK AIR.
He is a truly talented dirt-bike rider, along with all of them fine young (some not so young....) riders that showcased their talents on Saturday.

Follow SICK AIR on Facebook.

The showmanship was amazing along with all of the riders.  They obviously love America, God, and their fans.

Here are a few of the highlights!

Late Start

For all my millions of blog readers I sincerely apologize!!
I thought about blogging over the summer, but I had my son almost every day that I didn't have Army obligations, which was GREAT!

On August 10 I tore my patella tendon, which put a damper on pretty much everything.  I had surgery on the 11th, and am in the process of recovery. It is very slow, but going well.

As you can imagine, starting the year off in a wheelchair has NOT been easy!  It has taught me a lot of humility and lessons in pride.  I have also used it as a, "I CAN" statement with my students. There is very little I can't do, teaching and coaching football isn't one of them!

STEM this year has started off great! I have a new room (much bigger) that is in the lower elementary portion of our building. This makes the walk for EK, K, and 1 much shorter which is easier on everyone.

I am taking a new approach to getting students excited about the task at hand. I have been using a short story (one about a mouse, one about my soccer playing friend) to engage the students into the "WHY" we are trying to do something. It has worked well so far and made the tasks more problem based and real as opposed to science based which is perfect for younger minds.

The 5th grade has been a BIG switch from last year. For one, they are at the middle school, which means I go to the middle school.  It's the last hour of the day, so it's nice for practice. The other big change in that I now have the same class for 5 days in a row. This has been fantastic because we can get more in-depth with he scientific method. We have been flying paper airplanes in a controlled environment (the hallway) and making hypothesis as to how far they will fly out my window. It has been a lot of fun and a lot of brain activity goes into figuring out what's happening.  It's been great!

I haven't been as active on Twitter (yet) as it's hard for me to get around.  Still...check it out: TWEET