Happy Holidays, Rocks!

A holiday message from Coach Gilbert...

Merry Christmas to all of our family! Thanks so much for the past 9 months. It's been absolutely great!!!! We love it here. I hope you all take time to tell your families how much you love them and appreciate them for all that they do for you. There is no time quite like Christmas to be a giver. Servant leadership, and serving others in general, is a foundation of our program. Give till it hurts a little and you'll be rewarded until your stocking runs over! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! God Bless!

- Coach Gilbert

Sports and Christmas

As Christmas approaches, I thought I would do something a little different today. Call it a history lesson if you will. It's not specific to football, unless you count the European term for soccer. It is, however, one of my favorite Christmas stories.

If you recall what you might have learned about the First World War, the manner of warfare was typically fought via trenches. Each army would dig in along the front lines and between the two would form a natural "no man's land." Obviously, this was a contested, perpetually unsafe area.

With the end of the year 1914 closing in, and no end to the war in sight, many soldiers found themselves celebrating Christmas in a trench, across form a multitude of foreigners that wanted to shoot them. Hardly the holiday spirit. In the week leading up to Christmas, however, something magical happened. It was completely unofficial and unplanned (from Wikipedia):

Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas of 1914, during the First World War. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides – as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units – independently ventured into "No man's land", where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides had also been so friendly as to play games of football with one another.

A temporary truce; a ceasefire. And soldiers from both sides met out in no man's land, caroled, exchanged gifts and souvenirs, and, yes, played football. This was in the midst of the bloodiest war the world had seen to date. Christmas and sports. Pretty powerful if you ask me. Check out that article I linked if you're interested in more information. I grabbed the picture from there.

Have a great holiday and remember any troops in your life. Pray for peace one day, but until then, give thanks that we have opportunities to unite people under a common cause (however brief it may be). Sports are one piece in that puzzle. Remember that you are not only a student-athlete, but also an ambassador for our school, and it's what you do out in No Man's Land that can speak the loudest to your character.

In our community, our school, and our program, we certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

What about the cookie crumbling?

Another proverb from Coach Patchett...

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces, is likely the one who dropped it. 

- Lou Holtz.

Never complain, just work harder!

Top Tens: Academic Excellence

We'll start today's Workday Wednesday off with a message from Coach Gilbert:

“Our players and managers are student-athletes. The importance of academics is emphasized daily in our program. Our students know that they are expected to be a class act on and off the field, but especially in the classroom. I demand that each player give his very best to achieve his academic goals.”

With that in mind, today's top ten is for cumulative grade point average.  This is the for the first trimester, and we're extremely proud of our team so far.  We have a team GPA of 3.08, which is great, though there is always room to work harder and achieve higher.  After all, I believe there are other teams with higher GPAs... and we compete in everything we do.

Here's a look at our top ten.  Great job, everyone.  Keep it up during the next two trimesters.  You better believe we'll be watching!

1. Andrew Cull 
2. Jacob Tebbe 
3. Mitch Turley 
4. Johnny Crawford 
5. Joey Freeze 
6. T6- Dani Hartnett 
7. T6- Madi Turley 
8. Normando Gonzalez 
9. Eric Rearden 
10. Jonathan Golliher 

Excellence

From Coach Patchett:

“Excellence is not an act, it is a habit.” 

 -Aristotle

Be great at everything you do!

Top Tens - Athletics

Continuing our Top Ten series for the November testing, we have the athletics portion.  This includes vertical jump, 40 yard dash, and pro agility.  Remember, the theme of Workday Wednesday is based around competition.  We want to compete in everything we do, including out of season workouts.  Look for your name on these lists.  If you don't see it, you've got a goal.

Vertical Jump Height

1. Kory Kostecka - 28.3
2. Stephen Curry - 27.9
3. Nick Henderson - 27.7
4. Adam Horkay - 27.5
5. Bryce Gibson - 27.4
6. Trey Stewart - 27.3
7. Austin Murrell - 26.2
8. T8- Nicholas Woerner - 26.1
9. T8- Normando Gonzalez - 26.1
10. T10- Emmanual Calhoun - 25.8
11. T10- Mitch Turley - 25.8

40 Time

1. Trey Stewart - 4.79
2. Frank Grimes - 4.81
3. Adam Horkay - 4.82
4. Garrett Raleigh - 4.83
5. T5- Emmanual Calhoun - 4.88
6. T5- Bryce Gibson - 4.88
7. Kory Kostecka - 4.91
8. Blake Waters - 4.95
9. Jackson Clifford - 4.98
10. Stephen Curry - 5.01

Pro Agility Time

1. Kory Kostecka - 4.21
2. Adam Horkay - 4.22
3. Emmanual Calhoun - 4.28
4. Stephen Curry - 4.32
5. Blake Waters - 4.33
6. Eric Miner - 4.35
7. Normando Gonzalez - 4.39
8. Jacob Tebbe - 4.40
9. T9- Nicholas Woerner - 4.44
10. T9- Johnny Crawford - 4.44

Go Rocks!

Destiny is Calling

From Coach Patchett...

“Believe deep down in your heart that you are destined to do great things” 

If we do not believe, it will never happen. We are what we think we are.

Strength and Conditioning

I have served as a strength and conditioning coach for the past eleven years, on both the high school and college levels. I spend countless hours studying the body. We accomplished a lot with the teams I've been involved with. That being said, I can't possibly explain how impressed I've been with Coach Hammer's workout. Our players are being trained to be functional athletes, not just lifters. This workout will help all of our players, regardless of their size, position, or other sports.

We have a long way to go physically. We are not nearly strong or fast enough to win the State Championship. However, this I know: We have a tremendous facility for our kids to workout in. We have a dedicated staff, willing to push our guys. We have the best strength coach in the state. Now we just have to see if our players have the commitment, dedication, and desire to put in the effort that its going to take to get there.

-Coach Gilbert

Without hard work...

Hot on the heels of yesterday's top tens, Coach Patchett offers up another proverb:

“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds”

Outwork your opponents everyday!

-Coach Patchett

Workday Wednesday: Top Tens - Strength

Perhaps the most obvious of our program goals is to win.  The quotation that Coach Gilbert passed me reads as follows:

“All of life is a competition. We strive to win – to be the very best at whatever we do. Winning is a result of doing things the right way and working hard. As a team, our goal is always to win a State Championship.”

The key, right there in the first sentence, is to compete.  In everything you do, compete.  Let's be honest, we're not always going to win.  We'd love to, but life isn't like that.  You'll have losing days.  At the end of those days, what you want to be able to say, undeniably, is that you competed; that you did your best and left it all out on the field.

To me, this embodies the very essence of the Workday Wednesday theme here at the blog.  In season, and out, Wednesdays are the very thick of the week.  Others may call it "hump day," but we like to call it "workday."  We bust our butts early in the week in order to compete on Fridays during the season.  Out of season, we need to keep that same sense of going to work, with the more distant goal of future success in mind.  We win by competing.

In the spirit of competition, I'm going to publish a series of "top tens" for our team. Today we'll focus on strength.  Look for speed and academics to come in the near future.  Like I said before, the theory here is simple.  Work hard, get your name on the list, get some recognition.  It's a small thing, but it something the coaches love to see: out of season competition.  I'll try to update these every time we max or end a trimester, so if you don't see your name on the list... you've got a goal.

Without further ado, here are our November Strength Top Ten Lists:

Bench

1. Cory Sucese - 275
2. Anthony Gilchrist - 260
3. T3- Carson Lorts - 225
4. T3- Austin Jordan - 225
5. Anthony Daughterty - 215
6. Nicholas Woerner - 205
7. Evan Hesselink - 205
8. T8- Ethan Goins - 195
9. T8- Deryion Sturdivant - 195
10. T8- Emmanual Calhoun - 195
11. T8- Josh Estridge - 195

Squat

1. Anthony Gilchrist - 420
2. T2- Cory Sucese - 405
3. T2- Anthony Daughterty - 405
4. Blake Waters - 335
5. T5- Deryion Sturdivant - 315
6. T5- Zane Burtron - 315
7. T7- Stephen Curry - 300
8. T7- Nicholas Woerner - 300
9. T7- Carson Lorts - 300
10. Austin Gould - 285

Clean

1. T1- Stephen Curry - 225
2. T1- Nicholas Woerner - 225
3. T1- Cory Sucese - 225
4. T1- Anthony Gilchrist - 225
5. Austin Jordan - 215
6. T6- Evan Hesselink - 205
7. T6- Deryion Sturdivant - 205
8. Devin Reece - 200
9. T9- Jackson Clifford - 195
10. T9- Kory Kostecka - 195

The Road to State Begins In November

We had a great start to our workouts this morning. Our guys lifted hard. We have conditioning tomorrow. The best part for me was just seeing our guys all together. Its been a while since I've seen a lot of the guys and I realized this morning how bad I've missed everybody. There was an article in the Indy Star about Carmel's State Championship and their Head Coach offered this quote:

"All those 6 a.m. workouts and pounding on each other in the summer, all those things are worth it now." 

Amen! We're on our way.

-Coach Gilbert

Happy Thanksgiving Rocks!

A message from Coach Gilbert...

We have lots to be thankful for.  All of us.  I am so grateful to be here.  I'm thankful that the administration had the vision to bring me in last spring.  Our family loves it in Westfield.  My wife and kids are doing great.  I love our players.  We are blessed with great kids here.  I can't wait to deliver for these guys and to help them get where they dream to be!  Its going to be an awesome off-season and I am certainly thankful for that as well.  Go Rocks!

Have a great holiday, Rocks!

Patchett's Proverbs

Coach Patchett joined the Shamrock Family this year as the offensive line coach. Players could tell you that he quickly became known for his witty sayings both on the field and in the locker room. Often inspirational and sometimes humorous, Coach Patchett brings a wealth of old school knowledge to the field. As such, we asked him to dig deep in his vast treasure chest of life lessons and serve up a saying once per week. We'll call these Patchett's Proverbs, and you should see them as a recurring feature on here Mondays or Tuesdays. Here's one to get us started:

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

Chasing greatness makes our character and our resolve stronger.

Go Rocks!

It's an exciting time to be a Shamrock.

After a great 2011 season in which we saw a new regime take the reigns of Westfield High School Football, the program seems re-energized with a deeper commitment to excellence.  Along those lines, the coaches have decided to facilitate our own Shamrock social network.  We've set up a Facebook page, a twitter account, and a YouTube channel in addition to this website.  The goal is to be able to broadcast who we are and what we're doing.

This page is for players, family, and fans.  Feel free to contact us with anything you'd like to see or any questions you may have.  See our contact information page linked above.  We ask that, while you're here and on any of our pages, you keep things respectful.  Otherwise, feel encouraged to comment here, or on any of our sites.

We have a lot of really neat things planned.  Here's a quick look at some of what you may see in the future:

• Mondays With Coach - Just how we had a theme every week in-season, we want to try and keep up with that in the off-season.  Generally, we'll talk about some of our program goals here.  We may not always have an encompassing theme like "Believe," but we'll try to write a bit about the pieces that we want to use to help us shape up an amazing football experience.
• Workday Wednesdays - Perhaps a short video clip of what we're up to.  Maybe some views from the weight room, or family activity, or maybe even community involvement.  Shamrocks are always working!
• The Interview Loft - We'll be talking to players and coaches throughout the course of the year, and this will be a spotlight on those conversations.  Should be a great way to get to know the Rocks.
• Game Clip Friday - Here we plan to share clips of some of our favorite highlights from the season.  Might be we'll share clips showing where we'd like to be as well.  
• Top Tens - We have a whole bunch of top ten lists coming down the pipeline.  Everything from GPA to Bench Maxes, we want to showcase the best of our program.  Work hard, get your name on the list, it's that simple.

Like I said, it's an exciting time to be a Shamrock.  Stick with us as we get this all up and running, and please pardon our dust in the meantime.  We believe.  Go Rocks.