The football season has started! Since I arrived well into the season last year, this is the first "pre-season" training sessions that I have had with the team. There are some significant differences between preseason at Wabash and preseason here. Most notably, we are starting in the gym because it is the middle of winter. It feels backward to start the season in the cold of winter and play into the heat of the summer, where in the states camp is in the heat of August and lasts until well into November or December.
Another huge difference is the length of the preseason. We have 3 months in pads before we start playing games, whereas at Wabash we reported roughly a month before our first scrimmage or game, lived and breathed football for basically two weeks before school started, then still hit it pretty hard pretty much everyday before that first game. Our first set of games here in Prague is probably the weekend of March 24th. A lot of that has to do with only having 2-3 practices per week. Right now we have a conditioning session that covers a few fundamentals every Monday and Wednesday for 90 minutes. Then every other Saturday, we have long practices, 3 hours for offense and 3 hours for defense. For those of us involved in both, that makes for a long day. These practices right now are heavily focused on individual position periods. This is important because of the number of new guys we have. We have a lot of talent coming in this season and a lot of big men. I am excited. We just need to get these guys fundamentally sound and in tune with the offense and we should be in great shape.
I am excited about the coming season. We have a good playbook for both offense and defense and the personnel to match it. We honestly have the best coaching staff in the Czech Republic. Other teams may bring in other coaches from America or Canada, but there is something to be said for the consistency that our coaching staff brings to our team. We are probably the only team in Czech with a coach for nearly every position. Our head coach, Martin, is a Czech coaching veteran with over 20 years of playing and coaching in this league. He also spends his fall coaching at Elmhurst College in Chicago. Our offensive coordinator is Zach, my AIA supervisor. Zach was a defensive guy for pretty much all of his playing career, but has converted fully to offense and sees himself as a spread offense believer and a Chip Kelly (Oregon Ducks) devotee. Two things that I can appreciate.
From a football standpoint, a lot of new guys means a lot of work to get them in shape for the season and get them fundamentally ready to play football. From a ministry standpoint, it is a great opportunity to widen my circle of influence. Several of the new guys are great guys who I think would be open to at least having a spiritual conversation.
Here are some things you can pray for for the upcoming season:
Pray for open hearts amongst our teammates.
Pray for boldness for Zach and I as we further existing relationships and form new ones
Pray for our team to stay together. We are in a dry spell right now and people have a tendency to leave.
Pray for physical health, for me and the team in general. Football is a rough sport.
I will keep the blog updated as to the results of our season as it progresses. I am looking forward to our season opener!
