And We're Off!

16 days left until the opening kickoff of the 2015 season. That means practice is in full swing. The Rocks all reported to camp on Monday, and got things rolling. Two practices and one extremely challenging obstacle course later, they have demonstrated what it means to be #unbreakable. Now, we're going to keep that momentum rolling right into the normal practice schedule.

For fans, your first official look at the team can be Saturday morning, when we have our annual Green vs Gold game at 10AM.

We're pretty busy brushing off the dust and warming up our pads, but I wanted to pass along some images from camp.

Forging Rocks

Rocks are not easy to create. They take time and lots of effort and energy. Our players don't just stroll in the day before the season and decide to play football for us. They commit, day after day, year after year. What you see in season is a culmination of countless hours spent out of season.

Collegiate programs recruit players from all over the country. At the high school level, we don't get to do that. Instead, we are challenged to work with the kids living right here among us to reach their full potential. We still call it recruitment, but it's recruitment of our own. Like Uncle Sam, "We want YOU," and we're always looking to build for the future.

Thus, we are extremely proud and excited that over 200 kids have participated in our Rock School (grades 1-8). Another 50 plus middle schoolers lift with us in the mornings or take advantage of the QB club. That's more than 250 pieces of our future that we are teaching speed, technique, strength, agility, and mobility. All the while having fun, building family, and showing commitment to this community.

We just wanted to share some pictures, with pride, of our young Rocks at work:

Shamrock Advantage Week

We are already halfway through the week, but I wanted to pass along some information about a special mental training session that is going on at the high school. Coach Miracle (among many other Shamrock coaches) has helped put together a great lineup of speakers and topics. He recently sent me the following information about the opportunity:

First of all, what is Shamrock Advantage Week? Well, Shamrock Advantage Week is a week devoted to improving the mental performance of Westfield High School athletes. This week is geared toward educating both players and coaches on the importance of incorporating mental training exercises into daily practice routines. Another major goal of SAW week is to create unity and support between Westfield High School athletic teams and coaches.

All Westfield High School athletes, coaches, and administration are invited.  In addition, we will be encouraging Middle School coaches to attend if at all possible. Sessions will take place in Westfield High School’s LGI room every day starting Monday February 2rd through Friday February 6th from 2:30-3:00pm.

Why are we doing this? We know that most high quality teams have a fairly solid physical training regimen, but many athletic teams neglect to train athletes properly for the mental side of performance. This week will allow players and coaches to put in the necessary time in order to gain a mental edge on their opponents. (And it is free!)

This is the second year this has been done at Westfield. It was a great success last year, and this year it has started well. Almost 200 student-athletes attended the first day! Each day is started with a mental training phrase, and speakers talk for approximately 20 minutes.

Below is a list of the topics and speakers for each day. Today is Coach Gilbert! It's not too late to check it out.

Click to see larger image

Building It

Ceremonial groundbreaking for the new stadium was celebrated on Monday. There is a nice article in the Hamilton County Reporter by Don Jellison that I wanted to highlight. It starts on the front page and continues onto page two, with some photos on the following page.

Meanwhile, we've got our own hardhats on, preparing for our Friday contest against the Harrison Raiders. They've got a new head coach this year and looked good in their scrimmage film from last week. Though we are no longer in the same conference, we still want to go up there and start off our season right with a win. If we're going to have the best stadium in the county, we'd better play like we deserve it.

The Few, The Proud

I have a tag for "Workday Wednesday" on here. Throughout most of the world, Wednesday is the very middle of the work week. Or, as the Geico Camel might say: Hump Daaaaay!

For high school football players, Wednesday is the very heart of our practice week. Typically, Monday represents a first look at Friday's opponent. Tuesday is a ramp up day, and Thursday a ramp down day, preparing for Friday. Wednesday is the peak, the last hard work day before Friday's contest. Hence, Workday Wednesday.

I like to use the tag to highlight some of the behind-the-scenes grunt work that our players put in. Football ranks very low in the contest to practice ratio. That is to say, a lot of preparation time goes into a single Friday night game, where other sports have more frequent contests. That means we're putting in a lot of work for a slim shot at our reward.

Today, I wanted to reflect on how we began the season with our workman's attitude. Followers of the program know that our first day of official practice, we don't usually do "football" things. We're not holding drills or lining up or throwing passes. We like to begin with some down-and-dirty, team-building type activities.

This year, I mentioned that we let some Marines run our first practice. I wanted to give you a better picture of what that looked like.

Had you attended the first day of practice, you would have been confronted with a scene right out of the beginning of a war movie. Parking your car, you would have had to wait for a line of players on a rope to go by. A few seconds later, the mottled green and black Humvee they were pulling would pass, a camouflaged man yelling out of the driver side window. Only after shutting off your own engine would you realize that big machine hadn't been running.

Stepping from your nice, air-conditioned interior, a wave of heat would hit you. Despite the recent unseasonably cool weather, it was a normal Indiana August a few weeks ago. Humid. Hot. Distinctly unpleasant.

Walking toward the field, another group of players would jog by you, led by their own Marine. They're not quite in lockstep, or matching dual lines, but the resemblance to the typical basic training movie scene is uncanny.

To your right, the tackling dummies are being broken in. By broken in, I mean pummeled by players. While being "encouraged" by a Marine Drill Sergeant. Think Full Metal Jacket, but a little more PG. These marines were polite, if tough. They realized we weren't going to war. Not their kind of war, anyway.

As you make your way across the field, you would need to dodge managers running to and fro with water bottles. It's imperative to keep hydrated when you're working. The sounds of effort fill the air. Grunts. Shouts. Calls for coordination and encouragement. Dust from the dry field starts to tickle your through and, for a moment, you think about snagging one of those water bottles.

A young man with another player carried fireman-style across his shoulders crosses your path, dripping with sweat.

Nah, he needs it more.

It's very easy to imagine a field of mud and razor wire, soon-to-be Marines crawling beneath with live fire in the air for ambiance. We didn't go quite that far. There was no mud, or shots fired, or wire. Plenty of crawling, though.

As you stand there, taking it all in, you may wonder: Are they preparing to play a game or fight a battle?

Yes.

Is every other team doing something like this?

No.

Did any of them outwork us on that first day?

Not likely.

It takes guts to be a Rock. You better believe our players figured that out on Day One. Not everyone can be a Rock. But the few, the proud... well, they're not Marines. But for a day, they got just a small taste of what that might be like. I bet every other workday will feel like a piece of cake. One does not simply walk into Lucas Oil Stadium.

Go Rocks. Go America. Oorah.

Some Fun Links

Quick post today. I have a couple links to share.

First, we have two plays on the Indy Star top plays poll again. Click here to vote! Need some more clicks if we're going to win this week.

Second, I was recently directed to the cheerleaders' home page. I thought it was pretty neat, but what was particularly interesting to me was the sideline cheer page. Maybe I'm just a dork with bad hearing, but sometimes I've found myself wondering what they're saying. Usually, it's pretty obvious, but Friday nights can get loud, and words can blend together when you're in a crowd. (Also, I'm usually focused on the game.) Thus, I thought it was completely cool and useful that they list the cheers on their page. No more guessing!

We've got a big practice today. Wednesdays are typically the last real "work days" of the week. (Thursday tends to be more of the final tune up.) A good practice today can really set the tone rolling into Friday. We don't ever want to lose. But if we do lose, we certainly don't want to lose twice in a row. Some habits are best broken by refusing to allow them to form in the first place.

Wall Ball Video

Morning Workouts

Keep up the good work!

Steal The Bacon

Next match.....Coach Hammer vs. Coach Bennett.....don't miss it!

Top Tens - Academics

We have another academic update this Wednesday. As a reminder, here's Coach Gilbert's stance:

“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.”

Last time we were looking at the cumulative GPA across all previous years at Westfield. We put some of our top minds on the project, and figured out how to slice it so that we're just looking at one trimester. Thus, we wanted to come back with a top ten for only the first trimester. We also updated the roster with some names we'd missed before. We had a team GPA of 3.11.

1. Andrew Cull 
2. Jacob Tebbe 
3. Mitch Turley 
4. Dani Hartnett 
5. Ben Littrell 
6. T6-Joey Freeze 
7. T6-Jonathan Golliher 
8. T8-Johnny Crawford 
9. T8-Madi Turley 
10. Normando Gonzalez 

I'm also going to add an honorable mention list for everyone above the 4.0 line. It takes a lot of work to break 4.0, and I feel like all of these folks deserve recognition as well.

HM - Normando Gonzalez, Joe Brinker, Guy Lusk, Eric Rearden, and Evan Slagle.

Great job, everyone.  Keep it up.

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 

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!

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