Hakeem Rainey Feeding The Ball to OJ Jefferson
Locker Room Before Game
I am pretty proud of the photograph above. In this photograph, Hakeem is showing near perfect form
in the handoff process. Look at his eyes. See the concentration? See how he is looking the ball into OJ's open pocket? I call this "Delivering the Mail" It is a chore to keep the older QB's from taking this process for granted. Notice OJ's open pocket and his arm placement. We teach the running backs to place their top elbow to the handoff. OJ's bottom arm is curved like a cradle forming a large pocket to receive the handoff. All this sounds pretty silly doesn't it. On the contrary, we try to emphasize the little things, so the big things take care of themselves. The little things prevents fumbles in the QB/RB exchange.
Have you ever wondered what happens in the locker room before going out onto the field? In this photograph, #42 James Clark is leading some sort of chant to fire the players up. #96 is Pork Chop who is really getting into it. I can't name all the kids, but I heard it from the outside, so I opened the door to take this photograph. Generally speaking, this is the player's time alone in the locker room, and a coach rarely in there with them.....but we are always close by. Loud music, hollering, banging on lockers, chanting is all part of it. Hey. whatever it takes to get fired up right?
We destroyed Forest Hill last Friday night 40-7. With this victory, we clinched our spot in the playoffs, and the victory also sets up a big showdown with South Fork this coming Friday night. This game was not even close. In fact, it could have been much worse. We jumped on them early and continued to press the gas well into the third quarter. The defense was smothering, and the offense was really clicking.
The whole day was weird if you ask me. Travelling on a Monday was a big ordeal for us...especially to a school almost two hours away. Miller and I agreed that the kids looked a little flat during pre-game, and it worried both of us. The stadium was quiet as a morgue, and the only noise to to be heard was the roar of the cars travelling up and down Hwy 95 in Palm Beach County. I warned the coaches and players that this was a noisy field, and we all expected to lose our voices trying to holler over the cars, trucks, and jet aircraft landing at Palm Beach International. I think Forest Hill had about 10 people sitting in the stands, and like I said, the stadium was quiet....except for the ambient noise I just spoke about. We went down there, did our job, and came back home. I think I finally arrived home at midnight.
We had a pretty good practice today. The kids were tired of course, and we had to shake them up a little. Coach Miller and I started jawing at each other early on during practice. This jawing got progressively worse as the practice wore on, and it finally came to a head during scout team. He barked at me, I barked back, and a couple of punches were thrown. This little escapade definitely got everyones attention....including the coaches. Then, we both turned around and laughed. It was all a big set-up that we planned last night during pre-game. We both agreed that the kids no longer took our jawing seriously, so we had to shake it up a little. LOL. Funny as hell. We both got a big kick out of it. (If it did go down, I would have pulled out his insulin pump hose, and waited for him to fall out. He would have kicked my sore leg and waited for me to fall out.) I love that dude.
This Friday night we are facing South Fork for the District Championship. This is the biggest game in SRHS history, and it is also one of the biggest games in the area as well. We deserve to win this championship. We have paid our dues. We have worked like dogs to overcome adversity. Someone has to win it, so why not us? Our Victory on Friday night will not be an upset. We EXPECT to win this championship. It is our destiny. All of the "Lessons In Life" we have been teaching this year will finally pay off.
Don't miss this game!
GZ
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