Monday Night Highlights; Week 4.1

Coach Carnes was busy attending a clinic last Friday, so he didn't get a chance to post the highlights. He's back now, and got right on them, so we're going to have two highlight posts this week (the second in the usual Friday slot). Hurrah! I figure: they play football on Monday Nights too; the title works. So, Rocks, here's your Monday debut:

What kind of Workout partner are you?

Watching your workout partner(s) "take the easy way out" during a lift in January is a preview of watching him miss a key block or tackle on a Friday night in August. Hold your workout partner accountable for every single lift...he is your teammate and your family member! Do you care about him and this team enough to yell at him when he is just "going through the motions" in the weight room?

-Coach Zimm

Schedule Updates

From Coach G...

Rocks and Parents,
I am writing to touch base and bring everyone up to speed on some upcoming events:

1. Feb. 4th – For any player interested, the team will go downtown to the Super Bowl Village. We will leave from behind Dicks in Clay Terrace at 10:30 am. There will be a free bus leaving at 11:00 am. If you are late, you may have to catch the later bus. I am not completely sure, but I expect that we will stay for 2 – 3 hours and then catch the bus back, returning to Clay Terrace around 3:30 – 4:00 pm. Everyone should bring a lunch or money to buy lunch as well as written permission for you to attend from a parent.
2. March 3rd – Our football team will compete in the Ben Davis Lifting Contest. We are allowed to take our 44, pound for pound, strongest players. We will leave from the Westfield Football Locker Room at 6:30 am. There is no cost, but players will need to bring a lunch. We will return after noon, hopefully with trophies, medals, and a great understanding of what it takes to win. If you work on Saturdays, please request this Saturday off right away. I want every Senior and Junior who can lift to be there! 
3. June 17th – 19th – We will again go to Bishop-Dullaghan for our team camp. Feel free to go ahead and send your form in for these dates. I have extra forms if you need one. The cost is still $240. We will host fundraisers for this camp eventually. Everyone goes to camp unless there is an absolutely unavoidable conflict.
4. There are basically seven weeks of summer this year before 2-a-days. My plan is to work the guys very hard during the school year and give them a little more time off this summer. We will practice Monday – Thursday, 6:00 – 8:30 am, every week except for the moratorium week. If we meet specific attendance goals for a week, I will likely give the players the following Tuesday off as well. Please schedule vacations for the week of July 1st – 7th if at all possible. The next best week is July 22nd – 28th. We will have practice throughout the other five weeks. We’ll work out any conflicts that need worked out. 

Lastly, keep coming to workouts and getting after it. We are getting much stronger and faster. I love the effort we are putting in. Remember that we will hand out equipment based on weight room attendance (not seniority), so make sure you are there!

Go Rocks!

Coach Gilbert

If you have questions are concerns, feel free to call Coach Gilbert. If you need his number, our contact info is linked here on the site. Shoot us an email and we'll get right back to you. Or leave a comment and we'll respond in kind with an answer as soon as possible.

We've heard...

...That requests have been submitted to Coach Carnes for highlights. Awesome! We're getting the emails. Keep 'em coming.

...That Cory Sucese is trying to video tape himself doing a center throw-back. E for effort, but we're really hoping there are other entrants. Nothing against Cory, and anything to show some center-love is fine by us... but we somehow doubt the play falls within the rules. We'd rather not have the winning play result in a storm of flags. Or Kostecka's cleats (if they ran out of flags). Just sayin'.

...That Coach G is rooting for the Giants. Looks like we won't be ordering those cutoff hoodies for the staff next year.

...No, Carnes. We're not going with sweater vests, either. Unless Tressel gets hired by the Colts. Anyone wanna bet some sprints?

The Price of a Champion

From Coach Patchett...

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. 

What price are you willing to pay to be a champion? How much of your life will you spend lifting, running and studying?

Week Three Clips

More clips this week. Still have not seen any comments, which is fine. The coaches will just pick all of our favorites, then. Sadly, that probably means no one handed catches will ever get picked because, you know, it's not technically sound. Nor any touchdown passes where the quarterback made the wrong read, yet threaded the needle. Nor any runs where the halfback hit the wrong hole but sprung it anyway.

Okay, I'm lying. We like those plays, too. But we would love to hear from you anyway. I mean, you guys are all on Hudl, still watching clips everyday, right? RIGHT?

Our Windows

From Coach Patchett...

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'. Our windows to do something great, to be the best that we can at all we attempt in life is short. At the end of it all , are you going have something left in the tank, to be wasted in eternity? Or are you going to be the best that you can be and exhaust all your talents so at the end of it all you have nothing more to give.

Friday Night Highlights

We didn't see any nominations for Week 2, so here's what we picked. Remember, if you want to see a certain play, shoot us an email or leave a comment!

Go Rocks!

Lead the Pack

From Coach Patchett...

“The dog in the back of the pack never sees the sunshine!”  

Be the person who's in front… who wins every race, who starts every drill, who gets A’s on all their tests.  Be a leader, be a lead dog… Lead the Pack!

Friday Night Highlights

I'm going to call this series "Friday Night Highlights." You know, after Friday Night Lights? See what I did there? Clever, right? Right?! Relentless Cleverness!

In any case, this is going to be the day and space where we link clips of our favorite game footage from the last season. Like I mentioned yesterday, we would love to get nominations from players and parents (you'll need to get the Hudl play number in order to nominate). Otherwise, we'll choose our own. We may do sets of two or three (today we have three), and you can tell us which of the set is your favorite via comments, tweets, or facebook. Eventually, we're going to use the feedback and what we've posted to formulate some sort of "Best of" voting/bracket. We'll see how it goes. At the very least, should be some fun YouTubing on Fridays.

Without further ado, here's our first clip, compiled by the Magnificent Coach Carnes:

Hit us in the comments or wherever, let us know your favorite!

Content Announcements

As the year begins, we have a couple of exciting features coming your way here on the blog. First of all, Coach Carnes will be slicing together video clips into mini-highlights. We're going to post those on our YouTube channel and here on the blog, and eventually vote for a Play of the Year. Look for the clips on Fridays.

Are you a player and have a play you'd like to nominate? We'd love to hear it. All we need is the game and play number from Hudl. Parent of a player? Get on Hudl with them and find the same info. Then, you can either email it to us (our contact info can be found on the right) or simply tweet/post on facebook. Whatever works for you, we can track 'em. Every Friday, we're going to be posting the nominations. Or, lacking any, we'll come up with our own favorites. Get your nominations in by Wednesday each week if you want to be sure the clip goes up on Friday. Otherwise, we may have to catch it the following week.

We'll kick things off tomorrow with a first set of three plays. Hit up the comments to let us know which of the three is your favorite. When it comes time for the Play of the Year voting, we may try to set up a bracket or something... we can use the comments for seeding. At the very least, we'd love to hear what you have to say!

A second announcement is that we're going to try to arrange some interviews with our seniors. If you are a senior and interested in appearing in our Senior Spotlight feature, shoot Coach Carnes an email at:

carnesb AT wws.k12.in.us 

He'll let you know what we need.

Go Rocks!

An Opportunity In Disguise

Here's some New Year's wisdom from Coach Patchett... 

Happy NEWYEAR!! As we set goals for the new year, keep this quote in mind:

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you chose to carry it.” - Holtz.

See all obstacles as challenges and then over come them! Do not allow setbacks or roadblocks to discourage you! See every setback as an opportunity.

New Year's Resolutions

And we're back! We'll kick this year off with a message from Coach Gilbert...

Happy New Year's everyone. I wonder what resolutions our players are making. Its time to forget the past and set some worthy goals for the future. If you don't have goals, you have no direction. Without a clear direction, you go nowhere in life.

 As for me, for 2012 I resolve to:

1. Spend more quality time with my sons, 
2. Improve my prayer life, and 
3. Make a difference on a bigger scale at Westfield. 

 A few tips for setting New Year's resolutions:

1. Seek to glorify God and serve others. 
2. Stay positive and patient, knowing that its a process, not a one time payment. 
3. Use something to help you think about your resolution every day. Have a friend remind you, post your goals on your mirror, memorize a scripture, etc. 
4. Keep fighting and never quit! 

 "Press on towards the goal" - Phil 3:14