"Laboring" on Labor day

 

Always Ready

 

 

Black Stetson Hat  

 

Toujours Pret (French- Always Ready) is the motto of Mike's (my Son) US ARMY unit.  Mike is a member of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment (Second Dragoons) based in Vilsek, Germany.  The Black Stetson Battle Hat (and boot spurs) are earned when the Cavalry Unit returns from combat duty.  The Stetson is considered to be an official part of the soldiers uniform. I also think it is SOO cool.   When Mike returned from Afghanistan, I unexpectedly received a box in the mail one day.  Inside of the box was this brand new black stetson which immediately became my prized possession.  The Blue Cord surrounding the hat means INFANTRY SOLDIER.  The Cross Sabres also signifies 2nd Cavalry Infantry , and the little gold pin on the top signifies Mike's rank at the time (Specialist)   Many of you will remember this hat that I proudly wore during our warm-ups last year.  Coach Bethel allowed me to wear this hat to honor my son serving in the Army.  I only wear this hat when I am dressed in my SRHS Coaching attire (on our home field)  and I wear it with pride.  Unfortunately, I also wear headphones on the sidelines, so the hat is taken off before the game starts.  Now, you all know the story of Coach George's Black Hat. WWW.TCPalm.com  also ran a nice story of the hat last year. 

 

 

Mike Wearing Hat and Spurs 

 

Today is Labor Day, so YES, we "labored" this morning  in a normal Monday practice.  I arrived at school at 7:30 am this morning and went straight to the laundry room to start another load.  This time it was our under garments and socks which needed to be washed.  Once completed, I iced up our coolers and placed them on the practice field, then I went to an offensive meeting at 8:30 am to watch game video from Friday night.  Truthfully, I could have done without that.  So, now we can move onto PSL Centennial preparation. 

 

We had a good practice; however, we were a little down in numbers.  Bethel was not too happy about that.  I guess we will have quite a few players in the punishment line tomorrow before practice.  This generally means "catch-ups" and "tire flipping."  We still had a good day of practice, and I feel like it was productive.    It's funny.  Some players want to wear the uniform, but they do not want to pay the price for doing so.  These are just a few of the "Lessons in Life" which we teach every day.  In this blog, I often tell stories of how different coaching is today than when I played; consequently, how we punish a player has really changed too. 

 

I remember when I was a freshman football player.  A teammate was caught smoking by the head coach.  The coach had this brutal punishment drill which was given to any player who he thought needed it.  This drill was called "Bum-A-Row" and I have no idea why.  The coach would line the team up in pairs (one pair behind the other)  The player being punished would be standing alone about 10-15 yards in front of the group.  He would be stationed between two blocking bags generally.  Two by Two the rest of the players would attack the single teammate and try to knock him out. We would just keep going until the player was incapacitated or until the coach said to stop...which ever came first.   It was brutal.   Can't do that kind of stuff today. 

 

Later.