The First Season
By Adam Knoll | October 21, 2009 at 12:38 AM EDT | No Comments
Well, thats the end. A 20-12 victory over the Central Falcons and really, thats it. Tomorrow is a lift day, Thursday the equipment gets turned in. I never really liked how a high school season just...ends. Figure it this way, you have to get emotional for a game, enter a state of mind where your focus cannot break. As a player, you are asked to give everything for a short window with the promise of working toward a goal. Well, with the Freshman, at any team, there is no real goal. There is no trophy, there is no playoffs. 4 players get to play a little JV ball, four out of 51. Thats it, everybody else, hand in your stuff, seasons done.
I know I make it seem to be horrible, and a bit cruel. It is, to a point, but more realistically it's abrupt more than anything. It's a taste, here's what organized football is, you want more, come back next year. Football can be a drug to those that need it; the competative, those who need structure, those that need to be part of a team. What most miss is that, it's the same for the coaches. The year is over, three months of teaching, cajoling, yelling, scheming, crying (tearing really)... a year of the most thrilling highs, and lows. It ends, so soon, like falling off a cliff. I have nothing to do tomorrow.
Well, beside be a full time student, father and owner of a football team :)
This was my first season as a coach, I'd always wanted to do it, thought I'd be good at it. Coach Kieser gave me a real shot to prove myself, and the kids gave me the rope to not hang myslef. Right of the bat I was astonished at how much the kids wanted, needed, to hang onto whatever was being taught to them. At the begining, I held tight to the Freshman group almost as hard as they held onto me. It was a very interesting tightrope. Understand, a new coach is in a position of authority, trying to open up the potential of thier kids. Well, imagine being in the position where the ONLY kids you knew more than was the Freshman, because, well, they are the only ones who dont know more of the playbook than you. Early on I had a difficult time teaching even a JV guy the way to do this or that because, well, he knew the book more. So that was interesting. That and thier seemed to be a real difference between how much a freshman wants to learn and what a JV kid thinks he knows. Teaching a kid and bartering with another can be quite a drastic difference.
Another wake up call is how easy it is to run a team of 50 with 3 guys, and how hard it is at the same time. To be honest, it can be done quite well, we just proved it. However, keeping 50 guys in line the entire season is borderline ridiculous. Every week, somebody was doing something idiotic, and it was only because they didnt know better. On the practice field, we can control impulses...mostly. Out of our range and they tended to do wierd things.
The seasons definite high was the victory over Waterford. They are pretty much the juggernaut of the region and beating them was a cloud over all of us. The score ended at 18-14, but really, it wasnt even that close. Our kids wanted it more. The lowest point was our singular loss to Burlington. Not only did we lose to a team that was far inferior, but we got shut out as well. Every team needs a learning moment, ours came at the expense of a perfect season.
Along the way, I made some rookie mistakes as well. Not kneeling down at the end of the Waterford gave singed some respect. We were on our 5 with about a minute left. Perfect take a knee moment, but Waterford had a timeout left, and I was afraid of kneeling for a saftey aftera few plays. I chose to try to run out of the jam and we coughed up the ball. Mistake? Maybe, we won, but it didnt feel as good after as it would have if we would have ended cleanly. For being an O coordinator, being shut out on the A-team gashed at my head for a few days. We had a dropped ball in the endzone, but really, Burlington just outplayed us. The White team is a unit I'll have to do better with. A winless record for them, worse yet we scored 28 total points with that group. Mostly they played other teams starters, yet still, the offense was retched.
Yet, as much as I think I'll remember about the year, I think I'll remember just how unique it is to go out to a school every day, and stand outside and teach kids about life and commitment while doing something you love. Football is a mere metaphor for most of lifes core values, the chance to put them in action will be one I'll always be thankful to have had. I look forward to doing it again, my main regret is that if I stay a freshman coach, I will not get to spend the time with the kids I got to know over these past few months. Yet thats a minor blight upon a perfect object for me, I finally got to do something I always wanted to do, and it was better than I ever thought it could be. Perhaps thats the way my father felt when he was teaching me baseball when I was growing up. Perhaps I'll do the same with my son.
Lastly, Id like to thank the kids who, while I was teaching them, they made the entire thing worth the effort. We had some 'goofballs' as coach would ut it, and they made every day a joy. I remember very well early on in the season, we had been doing the same routine for about two weeks. Get outside, stretch, do drills, make em perfect. We dont move on till we are perfect. The Wilmot Panthers do Panther Jacks, jumping jacks in unison while spelling Panthers, a tradition that started in the (blah)... The kids were horrible at them (as the varsity still is), yet every day, the constant do overs of them was making them better. All of a sudden, one day, the entire squad hit a groove, and the rythm and sound matched perfectly. At that moment, I knew they had learned something, Coach saw it to and we shared a smile.
This job, is awesome.
The Long Road Home
By Adam Knoll | October 09, 2009 at 02:25 PM EDT | No Comments
I dont know why it is, but when traveling for an away game, the way to the game takes way less time than the way back. Even after a win, the feeling is 'I just want to get back', even with 50 kids singing 'Ain't no Mountain High Enough' in truly horrible tones. They wanted me to turn on the radio, I refused.
I paid for it....
See, Im a coach now at Wilmot High School. I am the offensive coach for the Undefeated Freshman Panthers (Sidebar: Nic Purtee is also a coach on that squad, he runs the defensive backs and the special teams). Last night was another good win for us as a team, we went out and physically manhandled Delevan, at least on offense. It was a week after winning our biggest game of the year, against the hated Waterford Wolverines. The feeling was we might be going into the game too soft, expiriencing the dreaded Letdown Week after a big game. We didnt, but not without problems.
Our defense gave up the most points in any game up to that point (full disclosure, one of the scores went through a d-backs hands, actually bounced off...). It was not the sunny and warm win we are accustomed to. However, the team as a whole didnt play bad. You take away the three big passing touchdowns and really Delevan didnt do much.
Yet thats the big problem for most kids to understand, ecspecially as they are getting ready to graduate from our freshman program: One or two plays like that will decide a game in the higher levels. On the bright side they seemed to brush it off fairly well. At this stage they are way more interested in what hijinks they can get themselves into (and they do. On this gameday, one of our starting O-Linemen found himslef in the hospital by getting suckerpunched in the face by a kid he had gloated a bit too much to. A week ago we lost another lineman to a broken toe, one he gained by triping over...a book. Certainly not one he was reading).
So it can be understood that when the kids asked if they could listen to music during the ride home, I was a bit indecisive. On one hand, they came out and throtled another opponent (38-12 at halftime), yet they gave up big plays, and didnt play the brand of ball we require. Understand, Waterford scored 14 on us, both with the help from our offensive turnovers. The Delevan squad (with 15 guys) scored 12 points legitimately, without help from us (except of course, blown coverages). So I was torn, and left it up to a vote. asked 5 guys, all kids I would call leaders on the team, and the vote came out 3-2, we should not listen to music. I felt it was the right choice, and good for the kids, they knew what it was we wanted to see; players, not grab ass.
Yet this led to the most dreaded version of song singing ever. And I'm sure the busdriver didnt appreciate it. She laughed along gamely, but she was only 123 years old. I noted to the kid (singing DIRECTLY into my ear) that I have a two year old son, I can handle bad songstyles by a bunch of 15 year olds. It turned out to be true, and they died down, just like I thought they would. 5 minutes later, I put the music on. They, after all, are only kids, playing a game for fun. The lesson was learned, both on the field and upon my patience.
Sometimes, the long ride home needs to be fun.
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