Thursday, August 6, 2015
It is Wednesday July 5th… That means two things. First this blog post is late, which I apologize for... second, we are half way through our captains practice week and three days away from the start of our preseason. I wanted to start off my post with a quote, one which I am sure every one of you has heard before.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my axe” –Abraham Lincoln (Apparently)
This has always been one of my favorite quotes because it’s all about preparation. It’s all about prepping yourself to take on the task at hand. We are all tested constantly on and off the field and as we go through life this will remain constant. How well do you prepare for an exam, an interview, that big game etc. There is a direct correlation between how you prepare, and how badly you want to succeed.
To be honest with you guys this past fall was really hard for me. We played terrible games with terrible attitudes and it all showed in our terrible record. Some of you at this point are saying, “come on, it wasn’t that bad, we are rebuilding blah blah” But I’m sick of hearing that. It was bad. I’ve gone from a 1st place WHAC team that was 14-3-2 to a team that barely scraped its way into the playoffs in just three years… Now I will tell you there is a distinct difference between how both of these teams trained. My freshman year we put in work, and it showed on the field. We got stuck in on tackles and players challenged each other in ways that were constructive and uplifting. A lot of you have said stuff to me like, “Oh well there was just so many more talented players on the team your freshman year, Isaac, Jordan, Oso, Brecken, Stanko Blah Blah” Some of you guys talk about those guys like they are gods because of what they can do on the field. Truly they were all VERY talented players but my point is that they didn’t just wake up talented. They put in HARD work to become the players they were. They prepared for games like they wanted to win more than anything. Some of them lived in the gym and others did core workouts and ran sprints after almost every practice just because they wanted to prepare themselves- push themselves to their limits. We can all do the same thing.
WE can’t expect to receive extraordinary results from mediocre preparation and I take full responsibility for our lack of performance on the field this past fall. I am just as much the problem as anyone else. Now just for clarification, I don’t expect this team to be extraordinary in practice by any means. However, I expect this team to go into training each and every day with the mindset that “I will be better today than I was yesterday.” Maybe not in all areas at one time, but we can each get better in one area each and every day. Focus on your mistakes and make self-corrections. I make mistakes all the time on the field and I especially get upset with myself when I make them twice because at that point I am all out of excuses, I should know better.
It’s my senior’s year and I love all of you guys. You are all my team and I want us to really step it up this season on the field. I know that there is a lot of unlocked potential on this team and it’s been showing a lot these past couple months. Preseason begins this weekend, an entire month of preparation. Let’s make the most of it and strive to get better each time we step on that field.
-Rougas
