December 18, 2009

Final Blog for 2009

How time flies!  Our 2500 mile trip to Louisiana, buying a new house, organizing a new staff, developing a sound off-season football program, organizing a new teaching assignment, getting my tongue used to Louisiana cooking, etc. – seems all of the above happened yesterday instead of 6 months age.

We are excited about 2010.  We are excited about Abbeville and VC.  We are excited about our life in SW Louisiana.  The students and athletes at our school are enjoyable to teach and coach.  It is stimulating and exciting to strategize for our school and football plans.

The following events from 2009 will continue for 2010.

1. Football poster with past, present, and future players posing with vintage cars, modern trucks, and bikes.
2. Several football summer camps – especially for the younger ages
3. Legacy night – presentation of wings for off-season commitments
4. Ladies night football 102 with Coach Beverlin (raised $2000 for academics).  Funds will continue to be used for school leadership program.
5. Inviting mothers, faculty to be a part of our Friday night pre-game locker talk.
6. Continue nursing home involvement
7. Pasta feed each Wednesday
8. 5:45 AM weight-training at Body Quest
9. Work-day projects on weekends.

In conclusion, new information will be forthcoming in the spring.  Spring, summer camps, football schedules, coaching staff (increasing 2 more), jamboree, scrimmage will be detailed.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and GO EAGLES!!

Good things, sometimes great things, happen when you begin to dwell on brainstorming, people, evaluations, analysis, hard work, faith, research … nothing happens when you revert to being a baby.  Our football team grew up this year from 0 – 10 to a play-off team.  Why?  Setback, Comeback!!  Our win, 28 – 0 over Hanson, was sweet in that it made us one of the 32 teams to make the play-offs.  Power rating is awesome!  You are awarded for playing stiff competition.  This format is conducive to how to compete in life – Be the Best You Can Be – no matter where you are.

Our coaching staff is also awesome.  George, Danny, and Eric are men of character and care about people.  Our support staffs of many people are extremely loyal and hardworking.  Our VC family is the best – always there, always cheering, always working to make our school better, always positive.

Congrats VC Football Players!!

November 2, 2009

First, 9-week grades came out, and our football players excelled.  We had 19 players out of 43 with a 3.0 GPA or higher and 5 or 6 more with a 2.8 GPA.  We are excited about this progress especially when this past summer we had only 7 players above a 3.0 GPA.  As a coaching staff, we constantly remind them that you are a student first and an athlete second.  Good job!

Friday nights’ game was tough – driving rain, mud, and a very talented football team.  Last year they put up 66 points against us.  This time the score was 28 – 6.  It was 6 to 6 at halftime.  All these facts are important when we assess our football team – we continue to play hard!

This coming Thursday we play a team as young as we are.  If we win, we should be in the play-offs.  As a coach with a young team you only want to finish your season on an upbeat feeling.  Making the play-offs would be huge psychologically.

My wife and I went to LSU this weekend.  What an environment – 90,000 enthusiastic fans, a real Bengal Tiger on the field, 200-some band members, the Golden Girls, Billy Cannon and the 50^th anniversary of his famous Halloween punt return, WOW!  For a football junkie like me, this was truly heaven.  And to top it off, our Godsons who play for 5^th ranked Boise State, Kellen and Kirby Moore, hooked up on a 62-yard TD.  Kellen is #1 in the nation in passing efficiency (NCAA).  This Friday, we get to travel to Louisiana Tech, pick up their Dad at the airport, and join him watching both Kellen and Kirby play.  Joan and I cannot wait to see their family and watch Boise State continue their undefeated season.  Additionally, we really know the Boise State coaching staff well, and it will feel good to congratulate them on their continued success.

Joan says, “Sorry, Terry Bradshaw, usually I would cheer for LA Tech, but this is family.”

October 24, 2009

Tough Loss, Coaching Mistake

First, the coaching mistake…for many years, I have always felt that if you have a game on a day when you have no school, make sure you have practice in the A.M.  The reason is that you want to run a schedule similar to a school day and keep your players from lying in bed till noon.  Well, we had an unexpected day off on Friday when a tremendous storm came through Thursday.  We couldn’t practice and the rain came so hard that our school got flooded.  School was called off Friday.  We did not have an A.M. practice because I did not have a plan on how to contact all of our players.

The first thing I noticed 1 ½ hours before game time was our kids seemed flat.  Listless might be a better description.  Yet, we only lost 7 – 3 and held our opponent to the fewest yards that they had all year.  One thing that has stuck out all year is that our players do not quit – they play hard!

We still have a shot at the play-offs.  Injuries have finally arrived and we will have to work out some player moves there.  However, mental errors were huge in our 7 – 3 loss.  Focus on our position responsibilities will be our emphasis this coming week.  Playing hard but forgetting your responsibility in a team sport like football will give you nothing but close games where you end up with “coulda, woulda, shoulda” feelings that we could have won, but we did not because of “little things.”

Homecoming was AWESOME!  Our little school community is into it:  parade, bonfire, powder puff, a golf scramble (raised $13,000), and a “community” participating in the Homecoming Dance.  At the dance, I witnessed grandparents, parents, small children, alumni, teachers, etc. there in our small gym with beautiful decorations.  Handsome men and beautiful women all sharing their high school Homecoming with the V.C. family.  My highlight was slow dancing with an 8-year old girl.  The music was country western and I could actually hear the words.  I walked out of the gym after “burning up the dance floor” thinking, how lucky am I to experience this past week?  V.C., you are something else!

Many positives in our 27 – 23 loss to a very talented Central Catholic football team – 23 first downs, 59 rushing plays, 79 offensive plays in all, four freshmen and seven sophomores playing with no fear, Senior leadership everywhere, overcoming some very difficult calls – TD called back – three of our best players not playing at the close of the game, but we did not QUIT!!

After 41 years of coaching, you would think I would be mature and reasonable after a close loss… no, still seething like a hungry Tiger, anxious to kick something – I didn’t – anxious to say bad verbs – I didn’t – it never leaves you, losing sucks!

Homecoming is this week.  Always a coach’s nightmare!  Will the players focus on football or concentrate on limousines, tux’s, parties, pretty girls, bonfire, parade, powder puff game, etc?  It’s a great time of their lives for our young people.  I am sure that all will figure everything out for the week – play hard and have a ball at Homecoming.

Monday night will be our last time for Football 101 which is for ladies only…except this time men can come too.  We will have raised close to $2,000 from the five Monday classes with all proceeds going to academics.

We only had the ball for 9 or 10 snaps in the second half.  A powerful running game by the other team kept our offense off the field.  We are still making youthful mistakes – but the reality is that we are very small and size does matter in the trenches.  When we looked at our tape Saturday morning we found that one important attribute – we played hard and with courage.

Our fourth Ladies Night is coming up.  We have made around $1200.  The money is going to a specific, academic goal:  a total of 48 civics leadership students are going to use the money for their school renovation projects.  Each of our groups is assigned areas of the school to paint, create motivational murals, etc. so that we can enhance our school’s physical appearance.  I am really excited about this because, as their civics teacher, the students are really understanding the make-up of a good citizen – work for the “common good.”

Congratulations to our granddaughter, Hannah Jo, who has made the Olympic Development Soccer Team for the state of Washington.

The month of October is crucial for Louisiana football.  During this time, teams play schools that are in their district.   District success determines play-offs.  Our next 5 games will be more intense and passionate.

Down 13 – 7 at half made things look bleak.  Why?  We could not stop their double-wing.  Two small adjustments on our defensive game plan gave us an edge that shut down their power running with minus 5 yards for the 2^nd half!

Football is played though with 3 phases – offense, defense, special teams.  Offensively, we had 2 huge turnovers that cost us 2 TD’s.  One TD was called back because of 5 men in the backfield; another was a fumble on their 12 yard line.  Special teams had 2 long kickoff returns that were critical to field position.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda, it does not matter, we lost 17 – 20.  The important fact is that our team is playing hard for four quarters and getting better.

Ladies night out was again a huge hit.  We have raised nearly $1,000 in 2 meetings.  Three more to go with men allowed to come to the last one.

Erath’s facilities and homecoming details were fantastic.  It truly was a fun night centered around young people – royalty, decorations, parade, families, and a band with good music.  Erath’s athletic complex for football made me jealous – a local company donated the money to build the structure after the old one was ruined by water in a hurricane.  I noticed that the new building had legs so that flooding would be less likely.

Although the loss was disappointing, my week had some really good moments.  First, the inaugural “Ladies Night Out”, where I teach about football, went better than we ever hoped for.  Forty-eight women came and laughed, clapped, asked questions, etc.  It was a huge hit and we made $480 for our school’s academics.  We continue this class for 4 more Mondays.

But the best moment came through an e-mail Friday.  A player that I coached in Washington communicated to me that he just found out that I was coaching in Louisiana and was coming down to see me and the game.  Wow!  Zach Miller is a captain in the Air Force – flying B-52’s, and hoping to train as a pilot in the Stealth bomber unit.  He’s an Air Force Academy graduate who made 500 parachute jumps in 3 years at the academy so he could jump into a National Championship game with the game ball, etc.  He drove 3.5 hours to visit and then drove back the next day with his baby girl and pregnant wife, all to see me for a few moments.  I am truly blessed and humbled to receive such a tremendous human being and a true American hero.

Players are playing with intensity and great team chemistry.  Mistakes are glaring like all young teams, but our theme, “Setback – comeback” is prevailing – these kids DO NOT QUIT!!

Before we left for our game a deputy sheriff walked into my office.  Immediately, bad thoughts entered my mind – who messed up, did someone get into an accident, etc.?  My mind relaxed when he said that he was escorting our bus out of town.  WOW!  An escort for us!

Anyway, we left town with the sheriff’s department cruiser, the bus, equipment trailer, and lots of cars in a caravan winding through small towns and fields of sugar cane and rice.  I felt like we were in the movie, “Hoosiers.”  I soon found out that they do this for all teams traveling, even all the way to Lake Charles.  I wonder if other states do this.

Today in our paper is an interesting stat about how many players from Louisiana are playing in the NFL.  The number was an astounding 41!  There are tons of FAST athletes in this football crazy state.

Our “Ladies Night Out” is starting this Monday (9-14-09).  For 5 weeks, yours truly is going to teach FB 101 at a local restaurant from 7 to 8:30 pm to women only.  Cost is $10 each night.  All proceeds goes to academics.  My wife said that she cannot wait because she is going to impersonate Archie Manning on a snap from me as the center.  This night should be a lot of fun and help women to re-connect with their significant others.

Finally, we welcomed another grandchild to our brood.  A beautiful granddaughter born to our 2^nd oldest daughter Dana, and her husband Kenney Bennett.  The young beauty is named Stella Hart Bennett.  The name sound Hollywoodish – they live in Huntington Beach, CA.

Our visit to Ronnie Griffith’s grave did not work out.  We decided that we we’ll wait till football is over and then do it right for a great young man.