Wellllllllll… we redeemed ourselves last Friday. We battled back in our last couple of regular-season games to earn a berth in the state play-offs— only to have to face a team that pummeled us 61-6 during the regular season! It was perhaps the worst defeat I have suffered during my 29 years as a head coach. We were decimated by injuries during the season and it showed on the field that night in September. But, as I said, the kids battled back; got healed up and we made a nice run at the end of the season to get back to .500 and earn the last spot in the playoffs. Then we found out that we had to play the team that had beat us so badly during the regular-season game.
Motivation is all in how you sell something. We spent the week looking at the mistakes we made the first time. The players got excited about showing everybody that we are a much better team than the one that showed up the first time. We talked about regaining respect: around the state and… our self-respect! We let up at the end of the first game and the players wanted a chance to vindicate themselves. We stayed positive all week long and went into the game truly expecting to win.
And, for 3 quarters, it looked like we would. Unfortunately, we made a couple of mental mistakes and it cost us in the 4th quarter. We were tied at 24 at the end of the 3rd quarter but they got 2 easy scores on us in the 4th because of those mental errors.
The interesting thing that I want coaches to know is: This team that beat us last week is now 10-1 and is playing for the state championship this weekend. What is interesting is: just 2 seasons ago, they were 0-10! Yep. NO wins! Last year, with the same group, he got to 6-4 and this year, 10-1. It’s a great example of sticking with what you know works and just continuing to coach up your kids. What was a sloppy team last year is as sharp and clean as any team I’ve ever coached against. Those kids got in the weight room and got very strong! Not huge, but aggressive and tough. I hope they pull it off this weekend. It’s a good lesson for any of us to persevere through the hard times!
