Author: bigdaddc@comcast.net

Division III Football is a unique animal in the college football world.  There are no athletic scholarships and many of the colleges are expensive  liberal arts schools.  Every athlete plays for the enjoyment of their sport.

All of there rules are built for Division I – they don’t have the same situations we face.  We have a 10 game season – they may play 13 games. They start earlier – have more  money to pay for their training camp.

We have very limited resources…and I am sure most other DIII schools face similar situations.

Experiencing football at Moravian or any other small college is fantastic.  But it can be an emotional rollercoaster for a freshman away from home for then first  time.

This is a long drawn out camp.  The NCAA rules have changed and so has the way we are allowed to practice.  The camp is longer than normal because we are only allowed to practice once a day.

We are allowed the same amount of practices…but they are spread out over a longer period of time.  Therefore camp is probably a whole week longer than it would normally be.  This is a really long camp with little free time.

So here is where we are right now……..

As we slowly work into the sixth and seventh days of training camp you realize that the “Dog Days” have arrived.  The hours slow down and seems to drag on.  Times stands still…. even as the clock moves on.

The soreness in the muscles has finally gone away and now the bruises and strains begin to take over.  Trying to loosen up the muscles is no longer the issue – managing the aches and pains of the constant banging takes center stage.

The seemingly endless meetings to install new offensive plays and defensive schemes not to mention the cryptic special teams designs pile up day after day.  Suddenly you realize that you don’t even know what day of the week it is and wonder if the season will ever arrive..  Let alone the beginning of the mysterious first year of college..

You get tired of looking at your teammates, your roommate is a mess (or too neat for you – like that really happens.)  The food in the cafeteria has started on its third cycle.  Then you realize what you thought was meat loaf was really tofu with spicy pomegranate sauce.  No wonder you have gas.

Obviously the coaches all hate you because the only conversation between you is at an incredibly high decibel count and includes many words you wouldn’t say in front of your parents.  They pretty much make you feel like you never played a down of football in high school.

Oh yeah to add insult to injury your girlfriend back home just sent you a text telling you about how nice your (x) best friend Joe Flabeetz was.  They just got back from the Dairy Queen – purely plutonic of course.  My ass!

They are both still in HS and you are trapped here in this hot dorm room with a bunch of overheated and oversexed sweaty guys.  What a great life you have.  You thought this was going to be a breeze.  Not so fast.

That evening lying in bed listening to your fat roommate snore and belch you take stock of your sorry life.  Here you are sweating your ass off because there is no air conditioning in the dorm.  Your stomach hurts – probably from that patty you thought just might be a turkey burger – well maybe it was something else.

Your probably (x) girlfriend is running around with your probably (x) best friend Joe Flabeetz.  Plus you think the coaches believe you are the worst football player in the history of the world.  Maybe you should just give it up and go home.

Then, you wake up and the grinder starts up again.  You hear that one of the other players at your position got homesick  (and he lived 15 minutes away) and hit the road last night without telling anyone.  (Or maybe his girlfriend was also spending time at the local Dairy Queen).

You head to the morning meeting after eating some kind of omelet (maybe) that contained sausage (you hope)!  Your position coach intercepts you on the walk and tells you that he was really impressed at the progress you were making.  (Huh?  What?  Me…. he just called me a dumb shit last nite).  You walk into the meeting room and wonder what the hell is going on around here.

You actually start to understand what the coach is talking about in the meeting that morning.  Then he asks you to stay behind after the meeting ends.  The coach asks you if everything is OK and that he needs you to move up on the depth chart.  It’s going to be hard he tells you – but he is confident in what he is seeing.

What the hell is happening!?

You are feeling a little weird as you walk to the dorms before practice.  You note a few young women walking around the campus, actually – quite a few young women.  There weren’t any here yesterday….what the hell?

The best player on the team is in stride with you and he laughs and tell you that the new people on campus are all RA’s and a group of freshman girls who are is some special study group.  He tells you that more and more students should be arriving anytime now as the school year rapidly approaches.

With the scrimmage coming up in a couple of days and campus starting to pick up he informs you that the worse is really over with.  He tells you that his first training camp sucked and that he seriously thought about quitting and that it was amazing how things changed when the school year started.

Really….really?  Then a text comes in – girlfriend? (x) girlfriend?

Didn’t that girl over there just smile at you?  Maybe….but practice is on the near horizon….so get your ass in gear.

Maybe you should just hang around a little longer – there are Dairy Queen’s everywhere you realize.

Once again the world was spinning in greased grooves.

 

There are a lot of people that surround a football program…..none more important than the equipment manager.  At Moravian we have a really strong guy in this position.

Josh Baltz and his staff are a really big part of the Moravian football team.  But, he is not “just” the football equipment manager – he is in charge of the entire athletic program!. That is more than 20 sports.

The man works all kinds of hours.  He’s a young single guy –  I don’t know if he has any kind of social life at all.  Like most equipment managers he can get his hands on anything and know where everything can be found.

You can find him behind his “cage” almost any day or night regardless of time…..folding towels, hanging up jerseys, labeling books etc.  Handing out advice to athletes.  The man is invaluable – the college is lucky to have him.

Not many people can say that they have spent an entire night working at their job.  But like almost every “EM” throughout the country they have slept in their office chair waiting for the uniforms and towels to finish – nothing like cat napping through the night as you dry and fold everything so the athletic department can function the next day.

Another selfless man in a thankless job.  Thank goodness we have him!

One thing I learned when I was in school and playing football – the equipment manager can be your best friend.  He is a person who has tremendous influence on your life.

I have a great amount of experience with equipment managers.

When I was in college our equipment manager was named Bob Fagan….Mr. Fagan to everyone.  A cigar smoking, t shirt wearing former military man.

To say I skipped a lot of classes at Muhlenberg is an understatement.  I spent more time in the gym avoiding schoolwork than anyone who went to that school.

In fact rumor has it I was a physical education major…I can’t deny it.  But there is no phys ed major at Muhlenberg.  However since I did “escape” from college with a sparkling 2.25 GPA what can you say?  (English major by the way).

Anyway I spent a million hours over my college career hanging out with Mr. Fagan.  (Even gave him a box of cigars a time or two).  He taught me the fine art of taking a t-shirt, jock and a pair of socks – placing them in a towel and rolling them up.  A beautiful thing to see if I say so myself.

Spent many other hours hanging football and basketball jerseys – learning how to fill out an invoice for baseball spikes or basketball shoes.  Well they do call it a liberal (arts) education.

I have to say I never went wanting for a pair of socks or a beautiful white t-shirt with some letters and numbers stenciled on it.

Following my college career I had the pleasure of living with two equipment managers at different times at Arizona State.  Being close friends with several others.

Mike Chismar was the head EM at Arizona State and he was another young guy starting out when I got there.  He hired both of my future roommates Jon Scott and Steve Christensen.  (Mike later went on the become an assistant Athletic Director at ASU.)

Steve Christensen (“The Big Shooter”) and I spent time together at New Mexico State and then again at Arizona State.  Steve and I had many a great adventure across the American Southwest.  He was the one who introduced me to Hamm’s and Ranier beer and showed me the ropes in the metropolis of Dillon, Montana.

His Mom Rita made me many a spaghetti dinner and may actually be the one who encouraged me to build a beeramyd or two.  His dad Don (offensive line coach by the way) and I spent many evenings drinking beer (Hamm’s – “from the land of sky blue waters”) and  talking football.

Jon Scott and I lived together for a few years in Tempe, Arizona.  We had a blast – from the gigantic wrestling match where we broke our two couches in the apartment – to tubing down the Great Salt River – including once with a keg of beer.   Oh yeah then there was that orange fight we had from our porch.

Great roommates who weren’t only fantastic friends but check this out.  I never had to do my laundry – not that I ever had much more than t-shirts and coaching shorts.  Those guys refused to allow me to do my own laundry.

Drank a few oceans worth of beer with those guys.  Jon is still with the Indianapolis Colts and Steve with the Arizona Cardinals.  Awesome guys!

Later in Detroit I had the privilege of working with and being close with Danny Jaroshewich and Mark Glenn.  I never lacked for anything – shirts, shoes and socks anytime you needed them.

Not to mention many post game beers and round table discussions we had as they straightened out the locker room – finished up the team uniforms.  They worked and I drank beer and complained – they saved my sanity.

They both still work for the Lions in different capacities.

Then on to the great Tim O’Neill and his staff who followed Danny in Detroit.  He still has one of the best Championship Sunday parties in the world.  Not to mention the secret beer cooler for our “Hot Stove” meetings for Lion road games.  (He still supplies my high white socks and black shorts!)

Hah!  What a Life!

Football would never be the great game it is without people like this!

 

 

 

Report day for the Moravian College football team.  Freshman players show up early in the morning followed by the upperclassmen later in the day.

Great job by several of our team leaders helping the freshman move in.  Always a little hard for the parents to say good by when they drop off the freshman.

Although we do have a few players who are from Maryland most of the guys are from within a few hours of the school.  So getting homesick may be possible – but really when you think about it most of these guys can easily get their laundry home for their mom to do if they had to.

Funny though we had a player from Allentown a few years ago who lasted a day or two of training camp and then decided that he really did not want to play.  Yeah you guessed it he  – was homesick.  Hmmmm….maybe it is harder than I think.

It’s not easy on the younger players – they are coming here expecting to be really good players right away.  Some will be that undoubtedly.  But really many of our upperclassmen have put in several years of training in the weight room and learning our systems.  So, they have a big advantage mentally and physically.

It can be intimidating for a 17-18 year old competing against someone who has three years of preparation and often game experience on him.  Most times these young guys are relegated to the scout teams and used more as actors in the preparation rather than actual “game” pieces.

Initially it’s hard for someone who was a star player and often a team captain in high school to see himself as “just a guy” on his college squad.  But, it is all part of the process of growing up.  Often it is difficult for the young players to look at the seniors on the team and realize that they were once standing in their shoes.

As  coaches we often find ourselves dealing with young men who are struggling to understand their roles.  Sometimes it seems easier for them to just to give it up and go home.  I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had with young guys who need reassurance that things will get better if they just stick it out.

Going home and hanging out at the Dairy Queen and finding his old girlfriend seems like a great idea when you find yourself buried deep on the depth chart.  Plus you just got chewed out by a coach for screwing up a play.  Things seem pretty dark from the football side, and that escape home just seems like a pretty smart idea.

But, if you can convince them to just take a long look at what is going on and they really will succeed if they just hang in there and put the time and effort in.

By Thanksgiving the Dairy Queen will be an afterthought when they figure out that football is just one aspect of their college experience.  Like my old friend the late great frank Gansz would say….”Boy’s you got to hang in there….hang in there like an old set of balls.”

 

Well after a whirlwind summer of exploring Europe, Marrying off son number two and the usual raising hell, drinking beer and building beeramyds.  Time to get back down to the Lehigh Valley and become my usual mature self.

First order of business was to spend time at Steve and Wendy’s house where she created her usual fabulous meals.  (Steve …well you all know that he was given the nickname “Insane” for a reason).  Slept on my normal couch – with the cat on my feet?  Cats – I like them and for some reason they seem to think I am OK.

Then down to Reggae on the River at the Tri Boro with Captain Saturn controlling the tunes.  The usual suspects turned up and George Reenock told us of his wild escapades before, during and after his time in the Air Force.  For those of you who don’t know George – he is what a Konkrete Kid is.

As expected quite a few beers were had.

Followed up that wild afternoon with the annual Motorcycle raffle at the Hungarian Hall.  I was convinced I would win this year.  Ahh…not so fast.  But it was a hell of a time.

First of all Andy does a fantastic job of getting things moving – Then Jeff and the rest of the crew keep it moving.  One small glitch early on forced me into service spinning the money wheel for an hour or so.  I must say I thought I did a fantastic job of bringing in the $$ for the club.  (Well maybe they were being nice to me – but I did my best.)

Crowd was awesome saw many many old friends.  Doug and Sue….there son Derek (all 7-0 of him).  JoAnn, Patti and Leigh, Patti’s sister Lisa, Tom Catcher his son Kyle and wife Kathleen, Money Wolfer, Daniel – trying to behave himself.  Had a hell of a conversation with one of the all time great athletes from Northampton – Billy Paulkovitz.  That man could play ball!

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.

What a blast!  This is one great organization – you can’t beet the Hungarian Hall in Northampton

So far have made my Pizza stops at Mario’s and Frattelli’s – made it to Yoccos and Carvel.

Football starting up on Thursday as the lads report to Moravian.  Really looking forward to getting going again.

I have to say…don’t know if this is any better than putting it on Facebook…but, it is a lot easier typing.

Hah!  What a life!