OK….we left Baltimore after a hard loss to John’s Hopkins. But, we saw great effort throughout the game and we showed a great deal of toughness from beginning til end. These are things that you can build on as a team.
We returned to Bethlehem thinking we did some things pretty well…..others not so much. We knew that we made many mistakes…but as long as we could see the effort we would feel pretty good.
Saturday evening after returning we would sit down and study the game videos. It is the best way to learn about your team.
As expected we saw many things that we need to attend to. But the mistakes – honestly they are certainly things we can repair. Also two valuable things really stuck out.
Things we corrected last week – they were not repeated this week. That is encouraging and this is truly what pleases you as a teacher. Plus you could see the team hustling and on defense there was great pursuit to the ball.
So we are making some good progress. Sometimes it is incremental. But, none-the-less we are getting better every day.
The expression….”the film does not lie” …..is certainly true. There are so many things you can learn with a few hours sitting at the computer watching video of a game.
As coaches we spend a lot of time studying film (video) because this is a key tool in our search for excellence. Although illusive – excellence is attainable.
I have heard you look for perfection – but most successful people and organizations talk about excellence and not perfection. Since perfection is impossible it is hard to use it as a goal.
To set a goal of being perfect may sound great on the outside….but the minute you fail (lose) – well that goal is shot and you can throw it out the window. Unfortunately in football half of the teams can eliminate perfection from their goal sheet after the first week of the season.
But, if you teach striving for excellence as we try to do – well that is attainable because you can always continue to fine tune your goals. In coaching for instance there are goals you set for the season, and then goals you look at weekly for each game, and then goals for each day. (That’s a lot of goals!)
When you look at your aspirations for a team you have to realize that every year that bunch of guys is different. For instance our goals for the team a year ago were different than for this squad.
Our team last year was an experienced bunch so we could see them in a different light than the 2017 edition of the Greyhounds. This year we have to approach the season differently since we have so many young players and have lost others thru attrition.
I have been in football since I was ten or so years old. (Been awesome by the way.) In that time I have never seen as many injuries as we have had this season. We have actually lost eleven players to season ending injuries.
That is truly mind boggling. Now, I am not complaining here. That is the hand we were dealt and we all have to band together and make the best of it. Again the phrase “No one said it was going to be easy….and no one said it was going to be fair” comes to mind.
But this situation, coupled with the fact that several key players – starters in a few cases – decided to leave the team before we even started puts us in a tough spot. Some thought they needed to play more – others felt they needed to study more still others were concerned about injury.
Personally I get it, you play for your own satisfaction here at Moravian. We are not handing out football scholarships – we are a Division III school. But the irony here is this – the guys who wanted to play more. Yup, several of them probably would have been starting or seen significant time right now.
In all honestly I wouldn’t want our team to be any different. I realize that we are 0-3 and people on the outside see us in one way. But here “in the bunker” we see things as gradually building towards something special.
One thing we have is time….another is the energy and the will to become better. These guys are a special bunch and the toughness that we are building now will play huge dividends in the future.
You should see these guys work together….this is a great bunch of teammates. Awesome young men!
So the coaches put the game plan together today….adjusting schemes and play calls to work around our injuries…then we all get back on that treadmill tomorrow and start working towards the game with Ursinus next week.
I did want to take a second and acknowledge the parents and friends of the troops.
Thanks for all of your support. I love that you give so much to the guys. Always there with food, encouragement and whatever it takes to bolster our confidence.
It’s not easy to just be a supporter when you don’t always agree with our coaching decisions and how we use personnel on game day. But for the most part I only hear cheers for our program.
Trust me, it isn’t always easy to coach a football team. (I think I’ll write more about this at another time!). But, we truly love these guys – they are a credit to you and how you raised them.
Seriously…thanks for all of your help family members and friends!