9/27 and 9/28 practices

Switching things up a little this week with a defensive practice last night and an offensive practice tonight. The coaching staff wants to send a message this week that we need to be much tougher, mentally and physically, if we want to turn things around against Wauwatosa East, and that began with a very physical defensive practice last night.

Pictures are now available; if your son did not come home with pictures, make sure that he gets them from me tonight or Thursday.

See you tonight.

West Bend East

A tough loss today with a team that I felt was very close in ability to us as we lost to West Bend East 20-6.

Simply made too many mistakes, such as losing three fumbles, having numerous penalties, and missing defensive assignments.

The message after the game was for the players to focus on having a strong week of practice, as many of the mistakes we made in the game we were also making in practice this week. We always tell the players that they will play how they practice, and that means both for the better and for the worse.

We will begin fixing things on Monday. Please note that we will end practice a little bit early on Monday due to (1) darkness starting to settle in, and more importantly, (2) a Packer-Bear Monday Night Football game that I am sure many players and parents will want to be home for. We'll probably end about 10-15 minutes early.

See you Monday....looking forward to a strong week of practice!

9/23 practice

Last night's pregame practice ended on the right note. Some mental mistakes early in practice, but the players were pumped up at the end. I was hoping we could play West Bend East right then and there...hopefully they bring the same intensity Saturday.

Game is at noon at home, warmups start at 11:00AM. Black jerseys should be worn.

See you then!

9/21 practice

Last night's defensive practice was more of a review and a focus on execution, since we will not be installing any new defensive formations or plays this week. The players finished off the practice with a strong effort doing "the hill" for their conditioning.

Thursday will be a pre-game practice as usual, and hopefully it is our sharpest practice yet.

9/20 practice

Back to work today with another offensive practice. We told the players to get past last week's tough loss to Brookfield and to start focusing on West Bend. It is an interesting week since we have already scrimmaged against West Bend and have some idea what they do...however, it's important for the players to realize that teams change a lot as the season goes by. We certainly run a lot more plays out of many different formations than we did in the scrimmage.

I was glad to see that most of our injured players were back and healthy for practice today. We'll need to pick it up tomorrow to be ready by Saturday.

Tomorrow will be a defensive-oriented practice.

Tough one

Tough loss today for 6th grade orange as we fell to Brookfield Central 27-0.

We began the game shorthanded as a few players had family commitments, and after the first quarter we had a lot of injuries to a handful of players. We struggled to have all of the rotations fill in the positions properly, and Brookfield Central jumped all over the opportunity. After a first quarter that was essentially a stalemate, the score got away from us before we finally seemed to get it together in the 4th quarter.

The number of missing and injured players today made it difficult for the players to keep track of who was supposed to be in and who wasn't in certain situations. As head coach, this is my responsibility, and I didn't do a good enough job of preparing the players for these possibilities. I'll have to do a better job this week in practice.

In a way, though, this was a good experience for the team to go through. A lot of players got to be in situations that they were not used to, and the coaches got an opportunity to see players play in different groups and at different positions due to the injuries. We saw a lot of good things from players who took advantage of these extra opportunities, and that was refreshing to see. There's no experience like game experience, and I liked what I saw from a lot of players.

Some of the things we did well today included not jumping on our snap count (for the second game in a row, our opponent had more penalties than we did), securing the center/qb exchange without a fumble, making solid tackles at the end (after missing too many tackles in the first half), and securing the outside. Based on past experience against Brookfield Central, our plan was to control the outside defensively, and we did a good job of that for the most part. Brookfield Central has a solid program and they deserve credit for taking advantage of the situations they were presented with.

The message to the players after the game was to put this game behind us, and to get back to work on Monday to get better. We have West Bend East next week, and we can't waste any time worrying about this one. As we told the players after the first game, we have to act like our record is 0-0 and go out and get the job done.

Back to work on Monday to get things fixed. Can't wait for our home opener at Town Hall. We'll see you Monday.

9/14 practice

Tonight's defensive practice was focused on making some minor tweaks to the defense based on our upcoming opponent and some of the things we needed to work on after last week's game. We also reviewed the formations and plays that were added yesterday.

No practice Wednesday; Thursday will be our pregame practice as usual, and hopefully we'll be ready to go Saturday against Brookfield Central.

See you Thursday.

9/13 practice

Tonight we began installing some new plays and formations, and while it was a struggle at first, I think everything started clicking towards the end. Tomorrow we might go through them again just to make sure we have them down before focusing on defense.

No Wednesday practice this week, or the rest of the season for that matter.

See you tomorrow.

It's a mental game

Many times over the past few weeks, the coaches have emphasized to the players that football is often more of a mental game than a physical one. Today, I think the team won the mental matchup against Brookfield East, and as a result we were able to start the season off with a 13-6 win.

Some examples of our team winning the mental battle:

1. Very few penalties. Brookfield East had a couple of penalties that cost them big plays, even touchdowns. We had fewer penalties, and were able to force Brookfield to jump offside numerous times.

2. Not quitting. We scored our second touchdown with just seconds to go in the first half, when it would have been easy to sit back on our heels and gear up for the 2nd half. Instead, we kept pressing forward, and broke a big run just before halftime.

3. Being prepared for the onside kick. Brookfield attempted an onside kick towards the end of the game, and we gobbled it up with ease because we were mentally ready for it.

4. Extra effort when it matters most. We were able to convert a key 4th-and-short situation in the 4th quarter, which allowed us to run more clock. We were initially stopped short of the first down, but strong blocking and a tough runner allowed us to fight for the extra yardage we needed. Six inches could have made all the difference.

5. Never hesitating. We had a few plays break down initially today, but the players have been coached to never hesitate and to simply react to the situation. This occurred several times today, the most obvious of which was when an extra point had a difficult snap and, rather than allowing the play to end, we immediately picked up the ball and threw it in for the extra point.


It's always nice to get a win, but it's even nicer when your team wins the mental battle. Hopefully this results in some momentum going into next week.

We'll see you Monday for practice...enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Pre-game practice; Brookfield East

Last night we had our Thursday pregame practice, and we reviewed offense, defense, and special teams to prepare for tomorrow's game.

Reminder to parents: our game is at noon at Brookfield East. We plan to play on the Varsity field. Please have the players there by 11:00AM, as we will begin warmups at 11:00AM sharp.

Players should wear their white jerseys, but bring both jerseys. They should also bring their own water, even though we should have water at the game. Please make sure all equipment issues have been taken care of, as we will not be able to solve all equipment problems on the day of the game.

Thank you and I'll see you tomorrow.

9/8 practice

Last night was a defensive practice and we finished it off with some pretty tough conditioning. However, I told the players over and over that it was not punishment for anything, but rather just making sure that our team is in good shape.

Last season against Oshkosh our team was winning 6-0 going into the 4th quarter. With only a few minutes to go, we allowed a long run (probably 60-70 yards) for a touchdown, and we finished in a 6-6 tie. I reminded the players that it is important to be in enough shape to play the 4th quarter just as hard as you play the first quarter. You can't always control how tall you are, strong you are, or fast you are, but you can control what kind of shape you are in. It was a good effort and I think the players understood the point.

Tonight's practice will be a pregame practice. We might even get out 10 minutes early or so if the work goes smoothly...

See you tonight.

9/7 practice

Today was an offensive practice, as Mondays typically will be for us during the season. We continue to sharpen up the plays we have already learned, and have not installed any new plays in the last two weeks or so.

I generally liked the way the offense looked tonight, with the exception of a few fumbles that we have to clean up. But none of the players jumped offsides during the team session, which was a plus.

We have also practiced simulating game conditions and having players report from the sideline, just like they will have to during a game.

Tomorrow's practice will be the last Wednesday practice of the season, and it will be a defensive practice before Thursday's pregame practice. See you tomorrow.

Pre-game practice and a little lightning

Tonight's practice was cut short due to lightning being observed towards the end of practice, but for the most part we were able to get some solid work in.

We went through our "pre-game" practice, which we will typically do on Thursdays during the season. While our first game is not until the weekend after this coming weekend, we wanted the kids to get into the grove for our pre-game routine. Still some work to do.

Reminder: Tomorrow is Youth Football night as the Varsity takes on Germantown. Youth players should wear their home (black) jerseys to get in free, and gather near the scoreboard prior to the game.

No practice until Tuesday. See you then.