8/30 practice and important notice to parents

Tonight's offensive practice was all about attention to detail. The coaches decided that in order for us to make the kind of progress we need to make, it was time that we perfected the plays that have already been installed before we add too many new ones. So tonight the players focused on sharpening their assignments in the plays that we have already practiced several times.

A very telling sign that this group has the proper mindset took place just prior to the end of practice. Before our "team" session began, I told the players that if they went 100% and were mentally sharp for the entire session, we could skip conventional conditioning because their hard work during the session would be our conditioning.

While the team session went well as a whole, there were still a lot of missed assignments and brief moments of loss of focus. Towards the end, I took several players aside and asked them privately whether they thought the effort was worth skipping conditioning. To their credit, each and every player I spoke to said that, while they would obviously prefer to avoid conditioning, they did not feel that they were where they needed to be, and that too many mistakes were made. They wanted to do conditioning.

I was very proud of them for their honesty. That's the right mindset for a team - to do what is best for the team, rather than taking the easy way out for your individual interests. If we keep this attitude the entire season, I am confident that we will be successful.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO PARENTS: WE WILL NOT BE PRACTICING THIS WEDNESDAY, September 1st. We will have practice tomorrow, August 31, and Thursday, September 2nd. Please e-mail me with any questions.

See you tomorrow.