The Trevails of a Young and Inexperienced Team

Boy was Friday night a setback. I had no idea that Morton was going to be able to physically whip us like they did. We showed that we were a very inexperienced team. We had individual breakdowns in all of our blocking schemes on offense. Defensively we never got Morton stopped. Granted their QB and receiver mad some huge 3rd and 4th down throws and catches, but we were most dissappointed in the fact that our kids did not compete at a level even close to the way we did vs. Galesburg the week before. Thus we are 0-1 in the conference and looking down the barrell of a very tough stretch in our schedule. Perrenial power Metamora is our home opener this Friday and if we approach the game the same way that we did this week it will be an incredibly long night. I feel very confident that after this week our kids will understand that every night you must give your best whether it be in practice, games, classroom, or whatever you may be doing.

Metamora will challenge us in every way possible. They are a team that features a very strong off-tackle running attack. They will exploit any weakness that we may have at LB, and along our defensive front. Defensively they will feature a reduction 50 front with a cover 2 shell behind it. They will be extremely quick laterelly, so this is a team that you are better to go straight at but then you need to match up physically with them. I know that these are the challenges that you must relish to be successful at things in life.

Alex's Night

One of our old players had a traumatic brain injury this winter and has had a long recovery process, but has overcome incredible odds to get to the point that he has. The school is going to have a tailgate fundraiser, auction and several deals to help the family with the vast expenses that they have incurred. If you look up high school football player in a dictionary, Alex Shelton's picture would have to be there. He was about as spirited a kid in high school as there is and it is that spirit that has got him to this point in his recovery. I can't wait to see him. I visited him in the hospital last May and he was doing well then, but was unable to go home. He has set a goal to hand deliver the game ball to the official before the game and there is no doubt in my mind that he will get it done. You talk about a competitor!!! That is what learning to compete teaches you. How to overcome all odds. We are all so proud of Alex and I can't wait for him to be a part of things Friday.

1 - 0

"Life is not tried, it's just merely survived when you're standing outside the fire."

I had said that the Garth Brook's song "Standing Outside the Fire" was on my mind last week. Well, we definitely found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a fire this past Friday night. First impressions were the fact that we did not appear to play very well defensively, but in terms of the concerns we had last week with the play of our defensive line, especially the ends, those kids played very well. A lot of uneducated fans would think that ends are responsible for contain, but in our scheme they are responsible for off-tackle and "squeezing" the inside run down. Our ends did a great job of that Friday. Our linebackers were responsible for QB to pitch which would appear to not have been done well. They were in position in a lot of situations and missed some open field tackles. I would say after having the advantage of watching the film the biggest thing that we need to improve on this week is our tackling. Offensively we had some critical turnovers. So, fundamentally we need to really work on ball security. Offensively, my two biggest concerns were answered and I must admit it was a very resounding answer. Our sophomore center after some early jitters did a great job. He will probably not play against a bigger, or stronger nose tackle all season. Galesburg's kid was a three year starter and went about 250 lbs. Our kid got his world rocked pretty good a couple of times but delivered every shotgun snap with accuracy and good zip that is so critical to the timing of our offense. The second concern would be the play and confidence of our QB. He far surpassed expectations. His first varsity TD pass was a great check off of the primary receiver to a kid who was not accounted for by the defense. It was a truly great read! I would say that this should help his confidence and hopefully carry him into our conference opener with a very good Morton team this week. The biggest thing that I am most pleased with about this win though is the way that our entire team competed. Not one man ever quit all night. We truly got every ounce of effort from all of our players and anybody that was called on gave it every bit. It was a great team win. Sure there were the typical opening game mistakes of silly procedure penalties, fumbles, communication breakdowns, etc., but because of the way the kids competed we pulled out a W. Even when Galesburg tied us late and even went ahead in the OT our kids had a business-like attitude on the sideline. That attitude helped to deliver a win! Personally, I was disappointed in myself in the way I handled the end of the half and the end of regulation. We should have gotten some type of points at the end of the first half. I probably should not have gone to throwing quite so soon down there with 2 TO's. Just got us in a little better FG position. The end of regulation we should have run the clock down to 3 seconds before attempting the FG at the end. Especially the way the Galesburg QB was running wild all night. Sure enough they ran an option with him trying to get him into the open field. Our kids came through and got us to OT. I am sure that a lot of "bleacher jockeys" were wondering why we called the TO before we attempted the game winning PAT. Number 1 we had two FG's blocked previously in the game, so we wanted to assure that we were squared away with our protection. Secondly, in the excitement of scoring the tying TD we had kids running all over the place. A kid who should have been in on the PAT team was standing right next to me. So, I knew that was not good. I truly was not concerned that calling the TO would "ice" our sophomore kicker. I feel the exact opposite with high school kids. Sometimes they need a second to compose and get their thoughts together. We protected well and our snapper, holder and kicker delivered. The icing thing is what people learn from watching ESPN and the NFL and at that level it might work. So, it's what you and your kids believe. This group I truly believe, more so than a lot of kids that we have had in the past, believes and we are off to a positive start. Tomorrow though the cycle starts anew with the start of our preparations for Morton.

Labor Day Weekend

There is nothing like a three day weekend at the start of our season. It is great with the start of the college football season. I was able to go and watch my son play baseball Saturday afternoon after reviewing films and "shaking" the kids out. I even got to cook on the grill Saturday night!
This afternoon though I have to do some film work and practice planning to get ready for the Potters. Side note; Trevor Lehnen, Morton's new coach was a wide receiver for us when I coached at MacMurray College back in the "80's. Man, am I getting old!!! This Morton game always makes me old. Every year this game comes down to the last tick of the clock. So, I am sure this will be no different than the Galesburg game. That's why I tell a lot of people, I honestly do not enjoy the games. They drive me up a wall!!! I love the challenge of preparation, but the games absolutely "kill" me! The coaches will meet tomorrow morning before 9:00am practice so that they can spend Sunday evening with their families. I think I will even take my wife to the movies and have a date Sunday night.
Another thing that I am looking forward to tomorrow is going up to our JFL field and having a pork chop for lunch and watching some of their annual Jamboree. It's always a big deal for the kids and I enjoy seeing all the kids and their coaches and parents. It sure is a lot more fun to see them when you are 1-0!

Game Week

It's hard to believe, but even at 50 years old this week brings a certain amount of excitement for me. The biggest thing is I am anxious, as always to find out how this team will perform. Galesburg is a very tough test for us. They have been down over the last few years, but they always have very fast and physical teams. Coach Olson does a tremendous job. They run the triple option which puts an incredible amount of pressure on our defensive front. After watching our scrimmage from Friday, we are extremely concerned with the play of our defensive ends. There was too much undisciplined play in terms of gap responsibility and over pursuit. This problem can be corrected, but they will really have to be drilled this week and "coached" up, or it could be a rough night. I thought overall that the scrimmage went well. It had it's usual silly penalties, but that is why we do that kind of stuff to get it out of our systems, hopefully. Hopefully the concerns that we are worried about will be solved and we will have a great night. It always seems like the first game is when the August weather returns and the forcast that I saw earlier in the weekend showed 90 degrees on Friday so that seems to be coming to fruition. As always the huge factor in a first game of the season will be the elimination of mistakes. The team that has the least penalties, critical turnovers, etc. will come out on top. I can't wait to find out who that might be.

How this all got started

This blog started out as a project for one of my technology classes this summer. I had no idea that it could be found. I did not release it to search engines until it appeared in both local Peoria newspapers. I just thought that it might be a neat way to log the year and go back and review things after it was all over. I had no idea that somebody could even find it. So, I will continue to write, but only certain people are invited to post and reply. If I opened it to all those genius critics out there we would have a mess. They have plenty of other places to impress people with their knowledge.

Things I am worried about

A couple of things beside the obvious performance of our football team. I hope that I will get to see one of my son's baseball games this week. He is a "ham and egger" to put it best. I will never be one to brag about his Baseball ability. The poor kid don't have a chance with the genes that his dad gave him! I just hope he loves the game, respects his team mates and coaches, and loves them for the place that they occupy in his life. I miss my family this time of the year. I'm home right now, but I have been working in the basement. The coaches left about an hour ago. I will get up and out of the house tomorrow morning around 5:30am, so I don't get much opportunity to spend time with them. A great time I had this week happened on Friday right after school. The buses had left, and because of the scrimmage being at 7:00, I did not have practice I got to sit with my daughter in front of the middle school while she waited for her mom to whisk her off to gymnastics practice. Even though it was 10 minutes it is time I cherish. I truly neglected the attention that I should have given them when they were so young and I realize that I can't get that back. I truly do enjoy those little moments that I can spend with them now. Holy smokes, I'll be sitting out in front of her dorm in just over four years.

Song on my mind this week: Garth Brooks "Standing Outside the Fire"

Let's play ball!!!

School Days

Tomorrow morning will be a whole new experience for me. Approximately 370 students will show up at Dunlap Middle School ready, well maybe, to go. The first day of school is always kind of emotional. You see kids that you are truly excited to see again and you really enjoy working with. Then, of course, there are a few that you may not be so excited to welcome back. Regardless, you need to take the approach that everyone of them is there to learn and it is truly a humbling experience to realize how many young people that you have an influence on. I really think that our culture now forgets that we have to teach more values, kindness, respect, etc. It seems to me that those kind of things have been lost in a "me-me" world. If simple things were taught, not just by schools, not just by parents, it would be a much better place. We as adults need to take the time to realize that we have that kind of power over young people. Thus, it really does take a village to raise kids and I am not a Hillary Clinton supporter!!! I am sure that I will help with hundreds of combination locks and directions for young people finding their way through a huge new building. I will certainly need to remember that many of the kids that I encounter tomorrow I may have a huge impact on, and it may come from a first impression. I may find myself getting teared up when I encounter a 6th grader struggling with their locker. Those kind of things get to a big old football coach today because some 40 years ago that was me!!! I just hope that I can enlighten a younger one on their path to adulthood.

Tomorrow our middle school baseball and softball teams both have games at 4:00. This will be my first experience as AD and being across the parking lot at practice with our team and still worrying about little things like if the umpires show up. So, that will add to my stress level. We just have single practices now. The kids don't mind this but it is a concern of mine that 4 days were not enough. I think it helps that we accomplished alot over the summer, but I can be nervous about something can't I? This Friday marks our Maroon & Gold game. It is a decent chance for our kids to have a "dress rehearsal" before our opener on the 29th. It started as a simple scrimmage but has blown into a big community event. All fall sports teams play, or are introduced. The band plays. I guess if all this helps increase the attendance I am all for it!!! Really I do feel that our kids deserve the attention. Speaking of attention it was a really neat deal yesterday when our parents were tucked away around the corner of the building near our practice field and greeted the kids with a nice round of applause as they came off the field. The coaches and I kind of snuck through the middle school and avoided the "hoopla". It was not that it was not appreciated but this is truly the kids deal and we are just kind of getting them organized. I hope!!! We also will exchange game film with Galesburg tomorrow evening after practice and start preparation for them. It is truly time and I love it.

Great Weather

It's always amazing to me every year how the weather seems to magically break for football practice. It truly does not get better than 80 degree weather in August! The problem with the nice weather is that usually by the time the first games roll around the weather is well back into the 90's and everyone struggles. We had 104 hit the field yesterday and that is significantly more than the last few years. Great numbers in the underclass teams. (40 sophs and 30 frosh!) The first two days went well. Day 2 was more of a struggle. It was a pretty typical day 2 in the fact that the kids were feeling pretty sorry for themselves and struggled through the afternoon practice. They need to realize that every football player in America is doing the same thing and they are just as tired and sore as our kids are. Tomorrow teachers start school. It has been interesting to say the least in juggling my new middle school responsibilities with the coaching. I have a great boss. Jon Hill and old football coach, well Jon is 16 years younger than I am but he used to coach that makes him an "old" coach. He has certainly picked up the slack around school in my absence to do what I love to do. As I type this I am getting ready to meet Jon up at school and get the building ready for teachers tomorrow. My family is coming to help. How great is that? That's why I don't think people understand how special coaches families are and the various ways that they manage to spend time together as a family. In addition to all this I had to have a tooth pulled this afternoon. Can't wait for the Novocaine to wear off on that!!!! Looking forward to what tomorrow brings and Saturday we pad up!!!!

Tomorrow We Crank it Up!!!

Tomorrow things get going. This will be the 29th year that I have started a camp whether it be in high school, or college coaching. Every year one always wonders at this time if everything is taken care of, or not. I think we are ready. Yesterday we had 72 Soph-Seniors pick up gear. We will have freshman this evening and anticipate having at least 30 kids at that level. That is good because we should hit the magic 100 mark. It has been over 5 years since we have had those strong of numbers. The forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and that can always wreak havoc with the practice schedule. As long as the lightening and excessive heat stays away we should be alright. Hope always springs eternal on this first day, but like I have said all summer long I think this could be an extremely fun year.

Summer Work-outs are Over

Boy, that sure went fast!!! Summer work-outs including camp always last 8 weeks. This summer seemed to go extremely fast. I think as a team we have improved and our ready to get going with full blown practice on August 13th. We have had some older kids step up and assume leadership roles. I would have to say that I am extremely pleased with the work ethic of the group overall. I have a very good feeling about this group. I thin the fact that they have been behind an extremely talented group of kids has made them kind of obscure in a lot of people's minds but I think they are out to prove people different. Looking forward to a little rest for the next 2 weeks and then getting right into the 12 week (Hopefully longer!!!) haul.

Camp Week

This week will start our camp. This will conclude our summer work-outs before the season. It is always a good "warm-up" for the season and gives us a pretty good idea of where our team stands. I must say that I have been very pleased with the summer and our kids commitment towards this season.
This is always a great week for me from the standpoint of getting all the coaches back together and everyone starts gearing up for this fall. We have added a coach, he is actually taking my teaching job at the HS. I think he will fit right in. It will be challenging because we are going to shift the staff and their responsibilities around, but because we have great guys they will make it work. Because the school year starts so early camp is very important in terms of getting a lot of our offense and defense installed. That has been a big change for me through the years because districts start school so much earlier it has caused some creative thinking to make sure that your team is still prepared in the two weeks of practice opportunities that the IHSA gives you before the first game.
In closing, I am actually chomping at the bit to get going. I wish everyone could experience this excitement that this time of year brings.

Summer Trip

Greetings from Pittsburgh!!! This weekend my son and I are making our annual trek to watch our beloved Cardinals play a road game. This year we picked Pittsburgh. What a great ballpark. PNC is definitely one of the best that I have been too. I like the fact that it is relatively small (38,000) and the setting on the Allegheny River makes it neat. Had a great day in Pittsburgh capped by a 6-0 Cardinal win. Football wise, we are a week from getting outr Eagle Camp going. I have a good feeling about this group. Next week we have 7 on 7 with Eureka and IVC. Plus I start putting in regular hours at the middle school. So the summer trip marks the definite beginning of football season.

We Showed Improvement Tonight!!!

Well, I feel alot better after 7 on 7 at Woodruff tonight. Our offensive execution was much better and we were much more aggressive on defense. If we were keeping score we would have won all three games. That should be good for the kid's confidence as well. W e still have alot of work to do and we cannot put a whole lot of credence in the fact that success in 7 on 7's will convert into success in the fall. I was real pleased with both QB's tonight. Also, we had some other kids come down and do pretty well. It is 60 days until our first game. So, believe it or not, the summer is half over. We'll see what next week brings.

We've got some work to do!!!

Well, after yesterday I realize that we do have some definite work to do. We had flashes of good solid play, but they were seperated by breakdowns in responsibility and technique. In the kid's defense, we have not spent alot of time on our defensive coverage technique so that will explain some of the breakdowns. The big time for this instruction will come during our team camp in the end of July. So, I do feel confident that we will definitely see some improvement over the course of the summer. I did think for the most part offensively we were fine. We had far too many dropped balls, but to be honest I expected some poor throws and bad reads, and for the most part that was at a minimum. We have a pretty even competition for the QB position between a Junior and Sophomore. Right now, I feel like the Junior is a little ahead because of experience, but the Sophomore has a little more natural talent and has a true passion to learn. It will be fun to see how it all "shakes" out. I do still feel confident that we will be a very competitive team.

Week 3 in the Books!!!

Wow!!! It sure seems like every summer just goes faster every year. It is certainly hard to believe that we have been at this for 3 weeks already. Things have been going very well. I am certainly starting to have a good feeling about this team. This group seems to be very "hungry". Last year's group was very confident in their abilities, so they had a completely different kind of optimism. This year there are not the expectations that there were for last year's group, but I think that the kids want to show people differently. Tomorrow we go to U of I for 7 on 7. I always have mixed feelings about 7 on 7 competitions. I really want to emphasize instruction and learning our plays and defensive sets. It is only natural for competitive juices to flow and it sometimes interferes with the coaching that I want to take place, but we'll give it a go tomorrow and see how it goes. I'll post later this weekend on how the day went.

7 on 7 goes well

On Monday we had our first 7 on 7 and according to our assistant coaches things went well. I had an administrator's retreat in Chicago. This was one of the first indicators that I am not going to need to be around. Things came off without a hitch and I was not here! I really did not fret much while it was going on, so that is an indicator to me that I will not miss things much either. We do have about 10 days to get ready for a competitive 7 on 7 at U of I on the 21st of June. I do feel very good about the way things have gone over the first two weeks and I am excited for things to come.

Day 1 in the Books

Things went well. Large turn-out, there usually always is the first day. Generally the kids worked pretty well. The first day is always a challenge to get the freshman up to speed. The upperclassmen jump right in with no problems. We have the usual amount of kids gone on vacation and the usual amount of no-shows for the first day, but I anticipate having close to 100 back out this season.
Just a sidebar: Thank god for my wife!!! Today was a pretty typical summer day in our house. Daughter had gymnastics and cake decorating class, son had basketball camp and a baseball game, with pictures beforehand, and on top of that my wife watched 2 small kids who belong to some friends of ours from church, who needed to go to the hospital for the kid's grandmother's surgery. People always wonder how we can do things with coaching all day. That is because the wives run the whole show and are invaluable to us not only spiritually, but keeps us in line on top of it. I have a true special friend and a true "head coach" of our family.

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the last day of school for us. It was kind of a different feeling knowing that I would probably not return to a classroom setting for the rest of my career. There are some things that I will definitely miss about that. I do think that is why I enjoy summer football so much. I feel like when we are instructing and putting offenses and defenses in without the immediate pressure of a game looming that it takes the place of any type of classroom. i think the fact that it is just an extension of the classroom is what I find so appealing. The staff was great. i really did not expect the nice gift card that I received. I'm just moving across the parking lot! I got a great "gag" gift from my PE colleagues. a rather large paddle with the inscription, "Walking Tall" written on it. I hope I don't need that in my new job as assistant principal at Dunlap Middle School. Tomorrow (Friday) I plan on returning up to school to make sure everything is ready and organized for workouts on Monday. I am really looking forward to Monday. Hopefully the kids and coaches are as well.

Coach Aldy's Blog....

Great Blog...I am glad you are learning something!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. This blog is going to capture and describe my last season as the head football coach of the Dunlap High School Eagles. We are starting our workouts in 8 days on June 2nd. I always look forward to workouts as they signal the beginning of a new season. This year we are coming off of a 9-2 year in which we lost several experienced players. A lot of expectations are not for us to have a great season. This will hopefully prove false and the kids will rise to the challenge of showing people that they will relish the challenge of going above and beyond those expectations. My biggest concern at this point is the leadership that our senior class will provide. They were great complimentary players for last years seniors, but now will be expected to provide leadership to our younger players. It will be interesting as all seasons always are to say the least. I will try to post on at least a weekly basis and comment on our progress and my personal feelings. I hope that no feelings will be hurt, but I think that this will be a neat way to document my last season as a coach in this sport that has consumed the biggest part of my professional life.