As most of you know I have been through a few training camps across the country – well I guess over the world after last years’ Switzerland adventure. But I have to say this – August at Moravian was a real grinder.
It has been 16 straight days of sun up till 11 PM. Longest span I have ever endured in a camp. There are new NCAA rules beginning next year (in their infinite wisdom [sarcasm intended] the Centennial Conference decided to implement these rules a year ahead of time – so we actually were experimenting with them this year) This will make the landscape much different for Moravian College and other small schools.
First let me mention this. I have dealt with the NCAA on a few occasions. In reality they are short handed and over worked. That being said, They seem to be pompous, uncaring and very unaware of how things work in athletics. Like most collective groups of academias (college presidents for the most part) and enforcement agencies they are basically out of touch with the groups they deal with.
From the way I understand it the NCAA considers Moravian the same as the University of Florida or similar schools in regards to training camps. They don’t distinguish Division I from Division II or III. That is completely asinine – comparing GIANT APPLES to tiny oranges.
You are allowed “X” amount of practices before your opening contest. This is fair for everyone regardless of division. But then they throw a wrench into the works. You are only allowed one practice a day – in the past you could have a few double sessions involved so your training camp was shorter.
So, in reality you have to spend more days in camp to get your alloted practices in. Not a problem if you have a large budget and you make several millions of dollars like the power five football conferences do.
But in case you haven’t noticed Moravian and the rest of the Centennial Conference is not on National TV like Michigan, USC and Oregon are. Sure Service Electric and RCN are really nice and there is nothing wrong with local cable TV but for all I know we may pay them to be on the tube.
But, you know those millions of dollars Colorado or even Rutgers will make in TV and Conference revenue sharing….well let us just say the Greyhounds aren’t making that from our local channels.
**I promise to get off this subject and back to our training camp in a minute.**
When it comes to having a training camp it costs a lot of money. Think of this….the dorm rooms cost money and the cafeteria food and staff must be paid for as well. All of that and more comes out of the football budget.
For a school that is tuition driven this becomes and added and unnecessary burden. The wizards at the NCAA are completely ignorant of that. Perhaps they are just ignorant…yeah that’s it Batman…they are ignorant!
The power five conferences have a lot of money to spend on their operation. Smaller schools like us do not.
By the way as smart as our AD Mary Beth Spirk is (and she is very smart) she hasn’t figured out how to grow that money on the trees outside of her office. I admit I did suggest a Ponzi scheme to her. But, alas she did not take the bait.
A reason I said this was the longest training camp in the history of the world is this. After spending almost three decades in the NFL I have a feel for what a tough training camp is. Well, they are all tough – but as far as that line between insanity and sanity….sometimes it is blurry.
I would say that in this prime Bobby Ross (Detroit Lions coach in the late ’90’s) may have been the toughest football coach around. That certainly does not infer that he was a mean person. Not at all….Coach Ross was honest, fair, kind, and a great person to be around. Many times he was misrepresented by the media and because of that he was often misunderstood by the public.
But if you spent one day in a Detroit Lions training camp with Coach Ross you would know how things should be done and also how to develop a strong physical team. He was a tremendous leader and teacher – I was lucky to be around him.
During Bobby’s tenure we would have our training camp at Saginaw Valley University. SVSU is a beautiful campus with about 10,000 students. Not many are there in the four or five weeks we would spend on campus during late July into August. We pretty much had the sprawling campus to ourselves. (Think giant grown men with golf carts driving all over the place!)
The school was located about an hour north of our home stadium at the time – The Silverdome. So it was close enough to get home and far enough to allow us to concentrate on developing a team identity. The practices were open to the public and really it was a great experience for out fan base.
The facilities were very good and the people at SVSU pretty much gave us everything we needed and also would try to accommodate us in any way they could. The people on campus and those who worked with our operations group were phenomenal. Jerry Kill was the football coach (later he coached at several schools including the University of Minnesota where he turned the program around). To this day I am still friends with Jerry and several other people from SVSU.
Anyway, a Bobby Ross training camp was a thing of beauty. Everything was planned out and scheduled and every person involved – players, coaches, trainers, scouts, operations people etc. had a detailed itinerary that was akin to “War and Peace.” He expects – no demanded – that the schedule was kept and that everyone knew what was going on.
Coach Ross was a football man – he loves the game. Everything we did was geared to improve the team. I don’t think there was a person within the organization who doubted his sincerity. Some may have disagreed with him or his approach, but he never cared about that because he really believed in himself.
Our camp was detail oriented, but it was not insane in regards to how long and how hard we practiced. Bobby controlled everything but he understood how to work our guys yet protect them as well.
Generally we would bring the team up to Saginaw on a Sunday….actually everyone would drive up to the school on their own so they would have transportation as needed. Later in the day or early evening we would have our conditioning test….then our long administrative meeting that covered everything from when we had breakfast…..where the video was set up….training room…doctors etc…where the nearest free clinic was….strip joint (The “Deja Vu”) etc. It was a long ass meeting.
Bobby, a tough guy who had a very dry sense of humor had one of the best observations I ever heard about a football player’s life during the season. He told the team “Guys this is the best you are going to feel for the next five and a half months….starting tomorrow you will have a pain somewhere on your body.”
After thinking about it – he was absolutely correct. Starting the next morning they would all have some or another strained muscles, sprained ligaments, torn off fingernails (the injury of defensive linemen – getting their nails caught in o-lineman’s jersey and ripping one off….that hurts). broken bones, bruised egos, as well as assorted bumps and bruises etc.
Our schedule generally followed a one a day practice with a long walk thru followed by a two practice day and an early morning meeting or walk thru. Then back to a one practice day….and so on and so forth.
Then then first Saturday we were in camp we would have a heavy “hitting” practice which consisted of full speed blocking and thud tackling (For you non football people “thud” is a technique used instead of tackling. In “thud” you never tackle the runner, but in line you grab on to him for a split second then let him go so he can get used to running thru tackles. If you have a runner downfield you “front” him up and force him to change direction.) It is a lot more physical than it sounds but you never want to tackle….you don’t want to put your teammates on the ground because off the injury factor.
Then after the practice ended around noon Bobby would cut us loose. Everyone – the players, coaches, trainers, scouts, video personnel etc. we were free for the next 24 hours or so – returning to camp the next afternoon for a 2:00 film session.
You could zip on down route 75 South back home to drink beer or just stay in Saginaw for the evening and drink beer. Or go wherever you wanted and drink beer. Most of the time beer was involved.
Route 75 South was like a Roman Chariot Race when they let us out of camp…..I’m amazed that we never had anyone get a speeding ticket – I mean that – no one! Herman Moore once passed me in his Porsche and he had to be doing 120. I am not a fast driver….but he was like a low flying jet plane when he went by.
Many times my wife would take the boys out to New Mexico (that is a state by the way) to visit the in-laws while I labored hard in the heat of training camp – labored…no really it is more fun than you can imagine. So in those times I would drive home and mow the lawn (oh and drink beer as well). But other times if they were in town they might come up and we would rent a hotel room in the area so Scot and Corey could go swimming while I drank beer.
Do you notice the trend of drinking beer here?
Although these camps were tough there was a lot going on all around the campus making for an exciting atmosphere. There were always a lot of fans around watching practice and taking part in a big NFL marketing ploy called the “NFL Experience.” This was the high time of support for the Lions franchise. We had an exciting team with Barry Sanders and an explosive offense to go along with his spectacular running ability.
But seriously these breaks along with the breaks after pre-season games broke up camp. So we rarely went more then six or seven days without an evening off or a 24 hour break. So that is why I claim that this 2017 training camp earns the title of longest training camp ever.
BECAUSE
We really never took anytime off from camp here at Moravian this summer. *sixteen straight days* With the new practice rules we just continued on our schedule of one practice, one walk thru and one meeting per day. *sixteen straight days* Utilizing a day from the 7:15AM breakfast to the 11PM curfew check – yeah add that up. A fifteen plus hour day. *sixteen straight days*
Every day we would get up and look at the same roommate…the same socks and underwear on the floor, the same showers, the same hallways, the same rooms with no air conditioning. *sixteen straight days.* The Cicadas singing in the trees, the same guy walking the black dog on the street (I made that up, but it sounded right in this sentence.) the same smell of the onions being cooked over at Carl’s Corner.
You get up and go to breakfast, then meetings, lift weights where Coach Long makes you do planks for 44 minutes and 18 seconds, or so it seems, rehab injuries, watch videos of practice where you continually screw up back and forth in life size on the screen in living color, get yelled at by coaches who recruited you by telling you that you were the answer to all of Moravian’s needs and they loved you (Hah..yeah right), try to message your (probably x) girlfriend who is at the Dairy Queen back home with your new X best friend Joe Flibeetz (Hah used that one before) and so on and so one for SIXTEEN STRAIGHT DAYS.
Really, the hard part is there is no way to take a break. As coaches you are responsible for the team. Whether anyone know it or not this is a heavy burden on Jeff Puksyzn the Head Football Coach of American Football at Moravian College.
He promised each parent he would care for their son like they were his own. So if we have the guys in the dorms it is our job to make sure they are safe from harm to the best of our ability.
Therefore if we lock up the young lads how can we take time off and make them stay in the camp mode? We cannot! Jeff can’t do it so how can we let him down?
As much as we want to we can’t just run out and drink beer, we have to stick around till they are put to bed at 11:00, then tired as we are we head home to our beds as well. No time off and back at it in the morning.
So therefore I say, unlike the four or five week training camp with breaks every six or seven days….this camp of sixteen straight days is THE LONGEST CAMP IN THE HISTORY OF FOOTBALL!
But, since freshman orientation has begun…we are now on break for a few hours. Off to have a beer at tailgaters goes Jim Newhard and myself. Hmmm…we need it.
Hah! What a Life!
Have to say the security was a little lax – although Marty did his best to pick up the slack Captain Saturn created. Lonnie may be the most amazing person I have ever seen behind a bar. She is just so smooth…I tried to help her. Could not keep up and basically was just best for me to get out of her way to the money wheel.