CHARGER NATION,
Tonight is Homecoming. It will be fun seeing some alumni I have not seen in a year. The ELCA administration always does an awesome job of creating an awesome environment on Homecoming. There will be a festive spirit in the air tonight. It would be nice if it actually felt like fall but it actually is going to feel like the middle of summer tonight. We all are ready for fall but it just won’t come!
The festivities that go along with homecoming are always fun. However, with a teenage boy, he can easily become distracted and lose focus. As a coaching staff, we worked hard keeping their eyes focused on the task at hand and the opportunity of getting better each day. We have had great discussions about extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation this week. We all know, people who succeed at a high level are the ones who are motivated from within.
I think we have a great group of young men that we are coaching this year. Obviously when I’m coaching a good group, I know I have parents who desire excellence for and from their child. We ask our varsity starters to be at film 6am Monday morning and stay until 8pm Monday. On Tuesday we ask them to stay until 8pm. On Wednesday we ask them to come in at 6:50 am and watch film. On Thursdays we ask them to come in at 7:00 am and watch film. Each one of them come to film and they don’t miss. We set a standard of excellence and they meet it. Many of our boys have 3.5 GPAs or higher. Academics should never suffer because of busy schedule. Find a way! Parents, you buy in and support this process.
On Wednesday morning I was getting on to the offense in the offensive film meeting. I was exposing poor effort plays that happened on Tuesday as we watched the film. In film I probably say things that aren’t nice. I have had all the teacher classes where they tell me I am supposed to affirm and lift up students. I agree with this stuff sometimes. But what about when you have a young man who can perform at a high level but he is performing at a low level solely because he is allowing himself to give poor effort? Does this behavior need to be affirmed or ignored? We watch film together to hold each other accountable. So when I have a young man who can perform at a high level performing at a low level we trace this right back to effort. Effort is something we can control. For me, I have 0 toleration for poor effort. Football is a team game. It’s not about the individual. If the individual is giving poor effort it impact the entire team. So an individual’s poor effort must be addressed because it is impacting everyone. We expose this behavior and call that person out during film. And then we challenge them (sometimes it’s the whole group): We must have a better day today!
We have to give our best effort everyday so we can grow in what we do. This weekend and all day Monday, I study film of the opposing team. We study the other teams offense, defense and special teams. Studying the opposing teams defense is always tricky. You are trying to find out what their base defense is and then the adjustments they make to each formation. As I’m studying it, I’m not just looking for what they do but why they do it. If I understand why the coach does something then I’ll have answers to many other questions. So we study the games we have of them and we find they run 3 different defensive fronts and 2 or 3 coverages behind it. I played this coach we are playing tonight back in 2012 so I went back and studied that game so I could see find a pattern. Usually how a coach wants to play defense doesn’t change over time. Little things may change but the overall philosophy will stay the same.
A lot of work went into studying the film Sunday and Monday. As practice time got closer I had not figured out the why. So I developed my script to run plays against a certain defense by formation. The studying was over for that day and now we had to go to practice. At practice, the very second we moved from one formation against a certain defense to the second formation against the second defense, the why struck me right there on the football field. I couldn’t see the why in the adjustment through watching the film. But on the practice field my eyes were opened to it. I cracked the why and now, having a full understanding of what is going on, it is easier for me to develop an offensive game plan and then call plays on Friday night.
My point in telling that story is that success comes from the struggle, the toil. For coaches, if we are going to be successful in our game plan then we are going to have to spend many hours watching film and studying our notes. If we avoid the struggle then we are going into the game blind. It is like a young man who has a calculus test. If he does not put in the work leading up to the test, he is going to go and take the test and fail. He was not prepared because he lacked effort leading up to the test. If you are waiting until the night before the test or the day of the test to focus you will not do well.
In football, in school, in life, the only way a young man is going to reach his full potential is to embrace the hard work and demand excellence from himself. If you refuse to do the work you won’t find success. But this isn’t easy. There are no tangible rewards they can see for good performance on a Tuesday. I’m old and life experiences have taught me that what I do today impacts my tomorrow. Yes, I won’t get a tangible reward for anything I do on a Monday or Tuesday, but I know the reward a I want on Friday (a win), will not happen unless we get better each day. This is the lesson and the demands we are trying to show your boys. If you want to be great a year from now, then you better have 275 great work days between now and then. (I didn’t say 365 because I’m a big believe in the work/rest/recovery relationship).
All of this drove me to thought to a few of my coaching friends: “Success is only found deep deep deep down in the struggle and the toil. Most will work but few to the point of pain. And there, at that point, is where your eyes and your mind will see what it takes to succeed. Many aren’t willing to go there. But for the select few that are, they will reap the rewards.” This is what we are trying to show the boys. I might be coaching a future doctor and he may be in medical school one day and he is going to need to understand this. He can embrace the pain of mental and physical exhaustion and press forward, or he can quit and not become a doctor. Same for anything else these boys might be called to do. Whatever God calls them to do, our goal is that they do it with excellence. Maybe it was that Wednesday morning film session that help get them there.
In my walk with Christ, I find that success is deep in the struggle as well. We are all sinners and we struggle with sin. Just like a football team should be growing and not be making the same mistakes over and over, so it is with us as Christians. But to say there is not a struggle with sin is a lie. To say the Christian walk is not one of toil is a lie. To say God is ok with your sin is a lie. The Bible uses hard words: “Deny yourselves;” “Crucify yourselves;” “Do not love the world.” It’s like a Wednesday morning film session. But what is God’s aim? To make us men and women who will shine as lights in this world for God’s glory. If you are in Christ, you accept these teachings not as teachings that drive you to despair: “God I cannot measure up, I quit.” No, for you know that the love of God will never depart from you no matter how many times you mess up if you truly love God and have surrendered your life to him. You know God desires the most for you. You know that when God has called you he then is in the process of sanctifying you and equipping you. As he makes you into a man or woman who will shine as a light in this evil world and as he molds and shapes you to do his work, He will expose the evil in you and lead you in the way you should go. It’s not an easy process, but we can have joy in knowing God is shaping and molding us.
This is what I’m trying to do for the boys that play football. I want to make them the very best they can be. I want to challenge their effort and their performance everyday. I will call out and expose their poor effort and their bad attitudes. I don’t care if they get mad at me. I don’t want them to get mad at me. I want them to respond and have a great day. But I honestly don’t care if their 17-year-old selves like me. I don’t care if they think I’m cool, or relevant. In fact, if they think those two things about me than I am a poor poor leader. I want them to love me when they are 27. Mom and Dad, me and you are laying a foundation for a successful man. We are not their friend, we are their mentor and instructor. My goal is to make these boys into men I want to be friends with when they are 25.
At the end of the film session, I looked out and there were 20 eyes on me watching the film way before any other kid and most teachers come to school. Coach Collier had 20 more in the coach’s office watching film and he was doing the same thing. My heart was encouraged as I thought: “These boys really do want to be good and they really do want to be leaders. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t show up.” So of course, I then sent them an encouraging text. And of course, they respond as they always do with a great practice on Wednesday even though some of them were still made at me.
Our relationship with Jesus Christ is no different. We are in a film session constantly with God. As soon as we do something stupid, if we are walking with Christ, he exposes the stupidity of our actions. If you are walking with Christ he will expose the stupidity of your actions before you do it. We are so enslaved to sin we do it anyway sometimes. When we sin God doesn’t first say to me I love you. He knows that I know he loves me. He knows I don’t need to hear that. His Holy Spirit lives inside of me and testifies of God’s love for me. He showed this love on the cross. No, when I sin, I hear the words foolish and dumb. He isn’t calling me dumb and foolish but the action. --God does uses words like stupid. He isn’t calling us stupid but the action: “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof us stupid” Proverbs 12:1)-- As I tell the kids during film, “Keep practicing like this and your going to get beat.” God tells me: “Keep doing these foolish (stupid) things and you will find yourself in a spot you don’t want to be in.”
Whether it be a player for me or our pursuit of Christ, the goal is we have less and less of these conversations about our poor effort. My goal is that we create a young man who goes to college and plays football and the college coach tell me that his effort and attention to detail is second to none. My goal is that we create a young man who goes to college and thrives academically because his work ethic and attention to detail is second to none. My goal is that we create great husbands, fathers and men who impact the community for Jesus Christ because their work ethic and attention to detail is second to none. And this is God’s goal too. He is in the business of taking really messed up people completely enslaved to sin and transforming them into men and women who shine as lights in this dark world. It isn’t easy but “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6
Our boys are ready for tonight!
“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” Proverbs 21:31
Wholly for Christ,
Coach Gess
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