2012 Captains and Leadership Council

The Westfield High School Shamrock Football Program is really only as strong as its members. Each year represents a chance for new leaders to take up the mantle of the departed, and forge a renewed path in our quest for excellence. Most football teams have captains, but I don't know that many have a leadership council. We Rocks have both.

Our captains aren't simply chosen at the end of a random practice by a show of hands. Rather, we ask that each captain apply for the position, and draft an essay explaining why they believe they would be a good captain and leader, what the program means to them, and how they plan to help the team. The essays are made available to everyone in the locker room to review before casting their votes. Coach Gilbert then reviews the votes, essays, and selects the captain's based on what he sees as the team's desire.

Thus, our captains are not always simply "seniors." Also, we may have a different number of captains from year to year. Generally, with 90+ votes, trends make themselves pretty clear. If, for instance, you have three top vote gatherers, and then the number of votes drops sharply after that... we will have three captains. Four way tie? We'll have four. Two very, very strong candidates? We'll run with two. Each team is different, each year is different. Our selection process takes into account this truth.

In addition to captain selection, we also form a Leadership Council with representatives from every class. Yes, Seniors through Freshman have a voice in this council. Coach Gilbert consults with the council often on everything from jersey color choice to potential team disciplinary actions. We are a family, and we do our best to listen to each family member. No easy tasks when you're talking about such a large group of young men. Still, we like to think our system is somewhat unique and a bit above-and-beyond your typical high school football fare. We want our players to have a voice and hand in our program's development.

As such, I'm proud to announce this year's selection of captains and leadership council members. They were chosen prior to last Friday's game, but I didn't get a chance to write this up until now (there were announcements on Twitter!). So, without further ado, here are your voices for the team:

Captains

• Nick Ferrer
• Normando Gonzalez
• Stephen Curry

New Leadership Council Members

• Jacob Tebbe
• Eric Miner
• Carson Lorts
• Normando Gonzalez
• Kory Kostecka
• Nick Ferrer
• Zane Burtron
• Adam Horkay
• Jacob Robinson
• Bailey Partlow
• Johnny Crawford
• Nick Sloderbeck
• Sam Trompen

We expect a lot of hard work from these guys in helping to shape our season and program. #Hungry

Highlights: WHS @ Harrison

Sundays generally find me collecting the highlights from Friday's game, and sending them out to various media outlets. This year, the Indy Star is planning to put together a top ten list each week with Indianapolis area teams. Each week, I'll be shipping clips off to them. Fans, players, friends... if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in comments after Friday's game. Pick any post (or shoot me a tweet or facebook message), and we'll make sure to take a look at that play. They tell me their compilation is planned to go up Monday morning, so Sunday is the cutoff for Indy Star consideration. (I have no problems starring fan favorites to show up on our team highlight page later.)

Sunday, then, I'll try to share the coaches' top picks. These may not make the Indy Star list, but they're our favorites. Here's a link to the video area. You do not need a Hudl account to view this clips (I think. Let me know if you can't see them). You should be able to view the clips from this week (and past weeks).

This week, we've starred three plays. In order:

1. QB Nick Ferrer's TD throw to WR Devin Reece.
2. QB Nick Ferrer's TD throw to WR Kory Kostecka.
3. DL A.J. Gilchrist's bumblin' stumblin' fumble recovery.

Great job, Rocks!

Game Day: Harrison

Tonight marks the opening game for the 2012 season. This is the first one that really "counts," and we're a long way from home. Even so, we're counting on a strong showing from the Shamrock Faithful.

It may seem a bit strange, this week, having a game before school has officially started. So please spread the word. Get the student body out to the game. They can't claim to have homework. We'd like to look up into the visitor's bleachers at Harrison and see a sea of white.

That's right, we're going for a white-out tonight. The team will be wearing white on white. Friends, family, fans... you should too!

Kickoff is at 7pm, at William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette, IN. Don't know how to get there? We've got you covered. Go Rocks!


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(Edit: From Coach G - We are doing a white out, but if you feel compelled to show support with a splash of pink, feel free! Let's be first class during Harrison's time of healing! Go Rocks!)

Leadership is... Discipline

Each week, we visit a specific character trait common in leaders. Our Leadership Series is on-going, and it is something we like to make sure stays a part of the bigger picture. Football is about more than just Friday Night. It is about developing leaders in the community. That is one of the central ideas of our off-the-field program goals.

This week, we discuss Discipline:

The most important single ingredient to success in athletics or life is discipline. The disciplined athlete:

1. Does what has to be done. 
2. When it has to be done. 
3. As well as it can be done. 
4. And does it that way all the time. 

In the game of football, an average team with discipline can beat a more talented team that lacks discipline. Success on the football field is the end result of the discipline demanded by the coaching staff and followed by the athletes. The coaches need to require discipline in order to provide structure, order and direction. The athletes need to make discipline a part of everything they do in order to be able to stay focused on those things that are important to success.

Choose to be disciplined. (Discipline yourself and others won’t have to.)

Away From Practice/School:

• Eat right. 
• Get plenty of sleep. 
• Hang around with people that will make you better—not bring you down. 

In School:

• Aim for perfect attendance. 
• Pay attention to everything the teacher says. 
• Sit where you can hear and are not distracted by others. 
• Write all assignments down in your planner. 
• Do all of your homework and study for tests. 
• Let your behavior serve as a positive role-model to others. 

At Practice:

• Always be on time. 
• Leave all personal problems/negative thoughts in the locker room. 
• Do your best in every aspect of practice—even the things you don’t like doing. 
• Give coaches your complete attention. 
• Try to make those around you better. 

During The Games:

• Realize the importance of pre-game habits—meetings/visualization. 
• Stay completely focused on your assignments—eliminate distractions. 
• Handle adversity—bad calls, mistakes, etc. 
• Respond to coaching. 
• Be a team player. 

After The Game:

• Win with class. 

“There are two kinds of pain when it comes to our daily conduct. There’s the pain of self-discipline and the pain of regret. Many people avoid the pain of self-discipline because it’s the easy thing to do. The pain of self-discipline is momentary but the pay-off is long lasting.”

“Discipline means sometimes doing what you really don’t want to do so that you can do what you really want to do.”

Friday Night's Scrimmage Format

Tomorrow marks the end of two-a-days and your first official chance to see the 2012 Westfield Shamrocks in action. We will be scrimmaging Hamilton Heights at the WHS football field. The competition starts at 7pm, and this is the only event of the year where you'll be assured to see a wide spectrum of players. I wanted to pass on the format that we've chosen to use, so fans and family know what to expect.

The state of Indiana allows teams to choose between two options for the scrimmage. We have selected Option B. Option B is as follows:

• 20 Minute Warm-up
• 15 plays or 15 minutes from the opposing 35 yard line. Each team gets 15, then switch.
• 4 Minute Break
• 10 plays or 10 minutes from the 10 yard line (red zone). Each team.
• 4 Minute Break
• 12 plays or 12 minutes from the 35 yard line. Each team.
• 1 Minute Transition Break
• 8 plays or 8 minutes from the opposing 35 yard line. Reserves, each team.
• 4 Minute Break
• 8 plays or 8 minutes from a yard line of the team's choice. Reserves, each team.

The total time is listed at 2 hours, 19 minutes. Scrimmages are a bit more informal than your usual Friday night (obviously), but we're going to be out there to compete. We want to win our game situations.

I'll try to live tweet during the game, updating the scoreboard on the website as well. Due to the nature of the scrimmage, scoring may not make a whole lot of sense. We'll see how it goes.

Go Rocks!

(Edit: Updated the game time to 7pm. I was looking at the wrong calendar. Apologies.)

Picture Day

Here are your 2012 Westfield Rocks

Kickers

Quarterbacks

Tight Ends

Running Backs

Wide Receivers

Offensive Line

Defensive Line

Linebackers

Defensive Backs

And So It Begins

The IHSAA football season is official underway! Your Rocks have started two-a-days this week. We're hard at work, putting all the pieces together that we worked to shape up during the pre-season. It's a great year to be a Shamrock.

In case you missed it, I wanted to mention several recent highlights. On Monday, the Rocks kicked off the season with our obstacle course. It was a great team-building event, as fun as it was hellish.

The team also got to visit Anderson College and watch a practice for the Indianapolis Colts. The invite came via the Indiana Blood Center, as a reward for leading the state in donations for the recent blood drive. It was an awesome experience.

During both of these events, you may have seen us live tweeting (complete with pictures) from our @ShamrockFB twitter account. This is something we hope to do a lot of as the season progresses. Posts like this may become more scarce (we'll be spending more time on the field and all that), but twitter allows for more mobility. If you're not already following us, check us out on there. It should be a great way to stay in touch when we're not at home.

And, as always, Go Rocks!