Getting Ready

                                                                    
                   GRICE WESTBERG : New Grandson- Future All American 


Today is Saturday, and we have the day off from school.  Am I really off?  No, but its as close as I get during the season.  I started breaking down some video from last year.  Watching video (or tape in the old days) requires a lot of patience...and I am not too good at doing it quickly.  We break the entire game down play by play.  This means (on offense) we dissect the opponents defense down in game situations.  For instance, we are required to script (write down) different defenses (player by player) which we can expect from our different formations.  We write down different defensive line alignments, stunts, linebacker duties, and different coverages that a team may run. We must do this for every offensive play...sometimes as much as 60 times for every breakdown.  Usually it takes HOURS to accomplish  this.  Since we are looking at last years tendencies (from our opponent) it is not necessary to write down player's numbers since they will not be the same anyway (it's a different season)  However, during the season, we must write down the players number at each position.  This is the difficult part; afterall, this is HS football, and the quality of video we receive is not always the best.  Sometimes it is very difficult to get numbers.  Back in the old days we rarely had video (or tape) at all.  We had to depend on a "scouting report" from an assistant coach who was assigned to scout a particular game.  Sometimes I miss those old days, but football has changed, so we must stay on top of everything to be prepared.  A coaches job does not stop when the practice ends....we all probably spend 6-8 hours a day on our football duties....and this is a conservative estimate. 

We spent the past four days in meetings getting ready for the upcoming season, and there was so much to do.  Randy is really good at laying out the duties of each coach, and exactly what is expected of him.  Truthfully, we are a veteran staff, so we all knew what to do anyway.  We are sort of on "automatic pilot" when it comes to this stuff.  We all just jump in and do it.  This is the reason I am so anal about keeping up with the water situation....this is a major worry off our back. Wilson and Brown are on top of the equipment, Miller has the video stuff ready to go, and of course, MY STUFF IS READY!  LOL.  I am getting sick to my stomach again.

Remember the portable classrooms (we used as football offices) I spoke about in an earlier blog?  Well, we have a new football home for awhile.  The school board condemned our old football home portables, so we were forced to move into newer ones.  The new portables are much larger, and they are going to be great.....except they closer to the school...which means they are farther away from the practice fields.  I am not going to bitch and moan, for I am thankful to have the new air conditioning and larger facilities, however, I will miss the convenience of having practice fields right outside our back door. 

Finally, listen to this!  Big changes in practice times!  The entire State of Florida no longer allows two-a-day practices for the first eight (8) days.  They call this new rule "Heat Acclimation" and every school must follow a strict practice schedule.  We are only allowed eighteen (18) hours of practice for the entire week, and there is a mandatory water break every thirty (30) minutes.  The entire rule is quite complex, but you can bet we will be following it letter by letter.  This how Sebastian River High School rolls...we follow the rules!  Randy and Miller have put together great practice plans (for us to follow) minute by minute, and we will be working off an air horn to begin and end each session.  Rarely do we  vary from our practice plan....they are so important. 

Heat worries?  I can't believe football has come to this.  In the old days, we used to fill our helmets up with water, put on the helmet, take a salt tablet and continue to practice.  LOL.  Things have sure changed!

Later