The mind of a coach is a funny and possibly even scary thing. I assumed as much when I was still playing but now in my second season on the other side of the whistle I can personally attest to the tricks that a coaches’ mind will play on itself. Our first home game against Quad Cities was a prime example.
In our home opener we were dropping the championship banner to celebrate the success we enjoyed last year. By all accounts it was a great evening at the VBC due in large part to the following facts: Our owner gave a great speech before the game, the players received the type of ovation they deserved from a raucous crowd, and the unveiling of the giant banner went off without a hitch (they dropped it right on cue). This was polished off by an excellent performance from our players in all fazes of the game that led to a big victory for the Vipers.
While I enjoyed all the positive moments some cryptic flashes kept popping into my mind. “I hope the crowd realizes how sincere Doug is with this speech.” “This ceremony is amazing but I need to make sure the players warm back up when it’s finished so their muscles don’t get too tight.” Once we had a sizeable lead it was “We need to be sure the guys don’t relax out there and develop bad playing habits” which turned into “They’d better not get overconfident based off this one game!”
It was a heck of a night and in a time when I was still the one bleeding and sweating it would’ve been an endless array of high fives and chest bumps with my teammates. Now that I’m coaching my perspective has changed and I didn’t even see it coming. All the sudden, as opposed to reacting, I’m the one that has to see a problem before it happens and be ready to solve it instantly. This makes me wonder if I always had some worry wart in me or if the coaching bug infected me with it.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Last season was my first venture into the world of the AF2 road trip. Playing football at a major university and in the NFL you tend to assume that all football teams travel by charter plane and stay at luxury hotels. After doing that for years I was caught off guard when I first entered the AFL and realized that, gasp, we flew commercial! There are some funny things that are taken for granted as an athlete.
While the AF2 travel experience isn’t quite as high dollar as the higher levels I can honestly say that it’s got plenty of perks. Most of these can be summed up in a simple phrase, “You may never truly know a man until you’ve spent 15 hours on a bus with him.” Believe me, it sounds much worse than it actually is. These are large sleeper buses with bunk beds, lounge areas, and yes even a bathroom. The various arrays of drivers usually have a colorful personality and a seemingly infinite number of stories about the rock bands they drive around the country. They’re usually pretty good about finding places to stop so we can grab a late night snack too.
If you suffer from extreme claustrophobia there might be an issue with the lack of available space, but if you’re a people person you’d probably dig it. There’s a lot of time for both interacting and people watching. Dean and I don’t tend to sleep much so we catch up on some of the latest movie rentals. I’ve usually seen most of them by the time they make it to dvd, but I don’t mind watching them again.
Compared to the regiment of day to day preparation for the game our road trips tend to be a kind of escape. The upcoming opponent is never far from our minds but we can take that time on the highways to hang out together and just be human.
-Anthony Herron
While the AF2 travel experience isn’t quite as high dollar as the higher levels I can honestly say that it’s got plenty of perks. Most of these can be summed up in a simple phrase, “You may never truly know a man until you’ve spent 15 hours on a bus with him.” Believe me, it sounds much worse than it actually is. These are large sleeper buses with bunk beds, lounge areas, and yes even a bathroom. The various arrays of drivers usually have a colorful personality and a seemingly infinite number of stories about the rock bands they drive around the country. They’re usually pretty good about finding places to stop so we can grab a late night snack too.
If you suffer from extreme claustrophobia there might be an issue with the lack of available space, but if you’re a people person you’d probably dig it. There’s a lot of time for both interacting and people watching. Dean and I don’t tend to sleep much so we catch up on some of the latest movie rentals. I’ve usually seen most of them by the time they make it to dvd, but I don’t mind watching them again.
Compared to the regiment of day to day preparation for the game our road trips tend to be a kind of escape. The upcoming opponent is never far from our minds but we can take that time on the highways to hang out together and just be human.
-Anthony Herron
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