The more the girls played together, their verbal and non-verbal communication grew. As a result of the increased trust, they could effectively anticipate each other’s moves.

 

Although many of the girls may look back on our record (7-0), I hope they will remember more than that. I hope they recall how their success was largely due to their investment in each other, and how every win was a full team effort.

 

 

I hope the players gain an understanding of what it means to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I want the team to appreciate the paradox of being someone who moves the team forward in some small way, and yet is unable to find success by their actions alone.

 

One thing that we have talked about in practice is focusing on what we can control instead of the things we can’t. On a game day, our team can’t control the opponent, the calls the referees make, or even how well they are going to play in a given moment. What they can control and what we want our players to focus on is their effort, communication, and attitude.

 

 

I hope that every athlete comes away more confident in themselves and their abilities as

both an individual and a member of a team.

 

We talk a lot during practice about taking a second before you hit to assess the situation. How is your lie, your stance, what is the wind doing? How will all of these factors impact your shot, and what can you do to correct for them before making your swing?

 

Hit another one just to be safe!

 

 

Embracing a holistic training regimen of speed, hills, distance, pacing, conditioning, and competition. There are fewer groans at some of Coach Devlin’s conditioning workouts because they have seen the benefits!

 

“All the way through!” We run PAST the finish line, not TO it, and I think this is the attitude we are generally trying to instill toward workouts as well.

 

 

Over the course of the season, players became very good at making changes on the fly. The boys were very good at taking in the new info, adjusting, and then executing the “new” play.

 

In practice, Coach Russell and I would often make games that, ideally, helped develop a skill. We had several different flag-pulling games, and when scrimmaging, the kids would be required to rotate positions to give everyone the opportunity to play quarterback.