College Football Recruiting Made Simple

When I think of my overall experience it was great. Some things that really bothered I am not at liberty to discuss but you know what I’ll say how are you going to bench your best olineman? If you have followed my blog over the past few months you will know I mentioned that I asked the head coach this question during my senior speech. Moving right along “one monkey don’t stop no show.” Staying positive, hmmm Ok: Parties, Traveling, Volunteering, Team Activities.

Team Functions

My head coach would call every player into his office at the end of the season and before summer to discuss their experience so far. He would always ask me what bothered me about the team. For two years I told him the same response. “The only thing that bothers me is that everyone seems to have a click.” Basically the comradery was missing. So after bringing the last time we discussed it he asked me what should we do, and I presented the idea of mandatory team activities and functions. He liked the idea and he took care of it. He allowed our “PVC” committee to vote on what activities/functions we would do. It started off with bowling; it was set up with teams that were formed with players or coaches from different positions and different sides of the ball. That was a good experience for me and my teammates as well.

Volunteering

Volunteering is always fun. I personally love it because it means so much to the people that you are helping. When I see them happy it makes me feel that I accomplished something. We used to do an annual Autism walk. It would always take place the next morning after our last spring football game. Just to let you know we have to wake up real early, but that didn’t stop our partying all Saturday night. That was a good experience as well, we met a lot of people who were fans and supporters of our team. They enjoyed having us there and we played games with the kids, did face painting and signed autographs.

Class

Its nothing like being in a class full of girls. I was a Human Science and Services major. A major that is populated by females. I loved it. No matter how my day was going or how practice went I knew I would see some beautiful girls. The only time that I didn’t like class was when I was on crutches. It’s kind of hard to walk on crutches when your 285lbs. I was waiting for my crutching to break at any given moment.

The professors were cool in College. Class has a business aspect to it because you earn your grade and if you put the effort and go for extra help the professors will make sure you are on the right track. A lot of my professors were shocked that a football player was so concerned with his academic success, personally I think that is just the correct way to go about it.

Football Camp

Of course I have to mention Camp. Football camp was a great experience. The first thing I learned was everybody can’t make it through. I started football camp back when the freshman came in early, a few days before the seniors. Football camp is truthfully a time to focus. No girls around, practice 1-2 times a day, meetings a few times a day and a early bed check and an extremely early wake up call. It was comforting when the older players got to camp and they were telling us it isn’t that bad, and it will be very different when school starts.

Meetings

First there was Team Meetings, consisting of the whole team for no longer than about 40 minutes. Then individual meetings began. Individual meetings are position based meetings that last anywhere from 45-1hr 45mins. The hardest part of the individual meeting is staying awake. This is extremely hard as a freshman because you are watching game film that you aren’t even in at all. Then after all the meetings there are “Walkthroughs”. A walkthrough is when you line up with your position and you walk through plays and schemes. Shout out to Coach G, he loved walkthroughs so much, he would have a walkthrough with just me and him. No doubt about it, it definitely paid off. It just drove me crazy after a while. I would be coming to say “hi coach” or use the computer …”Mel lets have a walkthrough.” Jeez!!!

Partying

Last but not least “Party Time”. Parties were always a blast, I had a lot of fun even partying with the older crowd. I remember partying as a sophmore one night, lets just say I didn’t make it home… My roommate at that same party thought that a closet was a bathroom. Or even better a party I threw as a junior and my roommate was so …. that he started taking shots of water that he thought was vodka…Then he proceeded to do push ups on the floor. Only too end up falling down the stairs moments later. Oh yea I’m a football player and we do crazy things. My boy came to that same party and got so ….. that he puked in my room. So I put him in the bath tub and he just fell asleep. Someone decided let me turn the water on him, no names…

Game Time

Wait I can’t have my final paragraph be about partying. This is how game time creeps up on you:

Tuesday Full Pad Practice
Wednesday Full Pad Practice
Thursday Shorts and Shoulder Pads
Friday Walk thru after class then movies as a team at 8

Game Day

Team Breakfast 8:30am
Taping after
Every Stall is occupied in the bathroom
Getting Pumped up about 9:45
Walk the field about 10:30
Still Getting Pumped
On Field Stretch 11:25

Off field 11:40
Captains out 11:50
Team Out of Locker 11:57
Kickoff

See how long it takes until kickoff. All you want to do is get it on. But you have to keep your composure so you don’t play unfocused. We should all know the consequences of being unfocused during a game;

Penalties
Missed Assignments

Any how now you in the game. Fans all over, horns/whistle blowing..Score a touchdown and the cannons firing. Your name being called over the speaker, “Tackle by number 72.” Just an over all great experience. This past season was the first season after I graduated. Since I couldn’t play I figured the best I could do was get a sideline pass. Believe it or not was kind of hard to do for a former captain, but I got one every game. In my opinion being on the sideline at a football game is like watching the game in HD.

In Closing

In closing memories will last a lifetime. Cherish them. Make the best of everything that you are apart of. Of course you should play every play like it is your last play ever. Because when it finally is you will be proud of yourself. Until next time…

RMCFE

RMCFE
Scholarship Support

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 12:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.