Nabor

The offseason is upon us here in Prague.  The junior season finished a month ago and, while preparations are being made, the senior season has yet to begin in earnest.  So what does a young football coach do with all of that time off?  Nabor.

Nabor is an interesting Czech word with really no English equivalent.  If you type it into google translate, the word will not be translated.  As far as I can understand it, Nabor is a series of practices that combine recruiting and tryouts and basic skills development, as well as some physical fitness.  At this point, the people attending Nabor are almost fully committed to the program.  Nabor practices started during the junior season, so some people have washed out. 

Our goal is to provide a base of skills that the new players will need once their respective teams begin organized practice.  We generally have all players do all drills.  We are not position specific yet.  Everyone works on blocking, tackling, catching, backpedaling, running the ball, and whatever other skills that are necessary to learn.  This also gives us a chance to evaluate players and see where they may fit best on the football field, as well as if they fill a position where our various teams need depth. 

Some guys are easy to evaluate.  Linemen are linemen, from size to personality.  This is cross-cultural.  A tall guy with some speed will inevitably end up playing receiver.  The tougher positions to evaluate and decide whom to put where are the linebackers, running backs, strong safeties, tight ends, and a few defensive back positions.  While in America we can generally look at a guy’s size and speed and determine which of those positions he should play, those boundaries are not so static here.  I can kind of understand how a junior high coach feels or a high school coach with a new batch of freshmen feels during the first couple weeks of camp. 

Lately I have been the only coach to come to the practices.  On one hand, it is nice because I can coach proper technique for blocking and tackling.  On the other hand, I also need to coach other skill sets that I am not as familiar with.  Nabor is certainly a learning experience for all involved! 

One of the biggest challenges for me is that we are recruiting for three different teams.  In addition to the junior team (high school age) and senior team (ages 18+) that I have written about in the past, we are trying to add a cadet team, which would serve roughly junior high aged kids.  So we have a wide range sizes, ages, and physical developments at Nabor.  For drills, it is easy to simply divide them up by size.  Most of them have a similar knowledge of the game, no matter the age group. 

One observation that I do have is that the younger players tend to learn the skills quicker during practice and retain what they have learned so that they can build on those skills in the next practice.  The older players tend to be more focused, though.

In addition to preparing these guys for the football season, I also get the rare opportunity to mix with them before the season and before they get absorbed into their various teams as a whole.  I see this as a great ministry opportunity.  I have been able to meet and get to know quite a few of them.  I can try to lay a good ministry foundation before football and the rest of the team distract them.  Football can be an overwhelming sport, especially for beginners, so for guys to know me from the beginning is good.  

Decisions

What follows is a post on a decision I made recently.  While I am not so foolish as to think that this decision will be particularly life altering, it does touch on a few themes that I think are important, namely identity, prayer, the importance of having wise council and having others speak into your life, and general priorities.  

A few months ago, after our Senior season had ended, I sat down with our head coach, Martin, for my post season interview.  Martin started the conversation by thanking me for my contribution to the team over the past few seasons and my willingness to change positions for the betterment of the team.  It was nice to hear such affirming words from my head coach, especially given that I hadn’t played defensive line since high school.  A little further into the conversation, he alluded to the fact that we will have a lot of young guys rising from juniors to seniors and the group of seniors that we do have are very young and inexperienced themselves, not just at offensive line (the position I coach) but the entire team.  I had been given a heads up that this was where the conversation was going to turn, but when he asked the question, I was still not prepared for it.  Martin asked me to consider stepping down as a player in order to focus more intensely on the young group as a full time coach. 

Midway through the last senior season my answer would have been an absolute yes.  Physically, I was feeling the wear and tear of playing so many years of football, combined with the stress of playing one position and coaching a different one.  At times, my body still feels the effects of the season.  Reason would dictate that I accept the offer to leave the field and walk the sidelines.  It is amazing how your decision making process changes when the question revolves around something that has been apart of your life for so long.

I had never pictured myself as a football player first in any aspect of my life.  My high school career was above average and I was blessed with the opportunity to play at Wabash College, where I learned more about the game than I ever thought possible.  I did not see the field much at Wabash, but being apart of the team was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I certainly considered myself a student first while in university.  I never considered being a football player as being core to my identity in any way.  If anyone were to ask me my priorities I would have enthusiastically recited the "Faith, Family, Football," mantra, referring, in order, to the priorities laid down by many a player and coach over the years.  Yet here I was being asked to give up something that had been apart of me for much of my life.  What seemed like an obvious decision in the middle of the last senior season was no longer an obvious decision.  Another idea that died was the idea that football was not a core part of my identity.  

Generally, having something like football near (not at) the core of your identity is not a bad thing.  Problems can arise when that thing (football in this case) positions itself above everything else, God and family especially.  I think, briefly, this fact became true for me, which is why it took me so long to make a decision.  Despite the sound advice I was receiving, I was struggling.  That was the point where my priorities were inverted.  "Faith, Family, Football," all of a sudden became "Football, Faith, Family."  I became more concerned about Micah the football player than Micah the Christian.    Eventually, I realized that I had not prayed about the question.  I was too busy trying to rationalize a way to keep a helmet on.  A lack of prayer is a problem that is easily remedied.  I'm not going to say that praying gave me the answers right away, but I did feel more at ease with the process and gained some insight into the direction and questions that needed to be asked before making the decision.  

Once I got through my identity issues and prayed about the decision, I was left with one question:  How would this decision affect my ministry with the players.  Trying to coach and minister to guys is very difficult.  You have to be an authority, all while trying to be friends with them and maintaining a position to speak into their lives outside of football.  Honestly, the answer is unknown.  I believe I have enough capital built up with the guys I have played with here that not playing anymore would not be detrimental to my personal ministry with these guys.  Zach seems to think the same thing.  With that in mind, I came to a decision.

I have been blessed to play this game for many years.  Many of my life’s emotional highs and lows can be tied to this game and the people involved with it.  Most people’s football careers end after high school or college.  The high school activities association or NCAA says that you can’t play at their level anymore.  I have been blessed with opportunities beyond that.  This is a difficult decision, but one I am glad to have the opportunity to make.  I am also most grateful to Martin and Zach for allowing me the opportunity to make this decision, when they had it within their power to simply dictate it.  I am also thankful for time to consider the decision, having been asked the question in July and rendering my decision last week.  I am also blessed to have people in my life that I can ask for and receive 

After finally praying about it and actually listening to the council of those around me, I have decided to hang it up.  Wise council, prayer, and common sense

I am thankful for the opportunities to play for the Prague Lions senior team and to help coach both the senior team and the junior team.  Even still, I am a bit emotional about this decision. God is moving here on the Prague Lions American football team.  I am excited to coach one more season with these guys and am even more excited at what God has in store as we turn our attention to off season and preseason preparations.  

I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  I pray that God blesses you as we enter the Christmas season.  

My new official team photo.  

Junior Season Part 2

At the end of the season, we finally had a chance to meet the Panthers again.  This game had a lot riding on it.  If we won, we would be champions of the Czech Republic.  If we lost, we would have to play a tiebreaker game two weeks later. 

The Lions came out flat.  We started terribly slow.  The Panthers quickly grabbed the lead, scoring the first touchdown.  We fumbled the ensuing kickoff down to the five yard line, where we finally corralled it, only to be stuffed for a safety and a 9-0 Panther lead.  After that, our guys finally woke up and started to play football.  We scored our first touchdown, and then scored again.  We had two solid drives, with guys stepping up and making plays.  After the second touchdown, the opposing defensive coordinator called a time out to argue the call.  We are of the school of thought that if the opposing team gives you time to put in the fake extra point, you should do it.  We did it and went up 15-9, which was the score at halftime.

After the break, both teams traded possessions, with the Panthers scoring the first touchdown of the half just into the 4^th quarter.  With the extra point, that put us down 16-15 with the clock running.  At this point, I was thinking, “If I have to coach two more weeks and a tiebreaker game because we lose by one point, I’m going to be quite upset.”

Our guys responded with the best two drives of the season.  We scored very soon after the Panthers scored, behind some great blocking and a great individual effort by our running back.  After that score, we elected to go for two in order to go up by 7 points.  Zach asked me if we should try a short pass or some other misdirection to get the two points or just line up and run it down their throats, a silly question to ask an offensive lineman or coach. They blitzed, our linemen covered their gaps well and established a new line of scrimmage two yards deep in the end zone. 

Prague Lions Junior Offensive and Defensive Lines

(Side Note For those who are not as acquainted with football, when it comes to short yardage situations (where the offense needs to get 3 yards or less) the offense, especially the line, has to bet on their own skills, strength, and indeed their own manhood itself to get those yards.  It is a battle of wills between two virtually immovable forces.  You have to decide that you want those yards more than the guy lined up across from you.  The offense has more riding on the play because any stalemate is a win for the defense.)

That made it 23-16.  The Panthers kept the ball on the ground on their next drive but could not get a first down, turning the ball over on downs.  That Panther drive took a lot of time off the clock.  We got the ball back and went right back down and scored again, this time kicking the extra point to go ahead 30-16.  The Panthers got the ball back with under two minutes left and stalled.  At that point, we took a knee and it was over.  

The celebration started almost immediately.  After last season’s frustrating loss in the championship game, our guys were back on top.  The Panthers were a good opponent who improved greatly over the course of the season. 

Some final thoughts on the season:  We had a good team.  The guys who came to practice consistently improved a lot over the course of the season.  I do feel we could have improved more as a team, but in the end, we were champions.  Guys really accepted the coaching that we offered.  That was evident on those final two offensive drives.  Overall, I was happy with the way the season turned out.  

Championship After Party

Junior Season Part 1

Our Junior football season wrapped up about a month ago and I thought I would give you all a broader look inside our season.  I’m not going to give you a highlight by highlight look at every game, but I will highlight key games and key moments in our season.

We started our season at our preseason camp outside of Prague.  Taking almost a full week and devoting that to football, like we would in the States, is almost unheard of here.  We can’t do it with our senior team because most of them have full time jobs.  We are able to do it with our juniors, however, because high school age students have fewer commitments outside of school.  We had a good number of guys turn out for camp.  We had the two a days that everyone in football should go through, as well as some fun team competitions.  This year at camp we were also graced by the presence of Doug Harrod, Zach’s father, and a man with an extensive history as a coach. 

Lions assistant coaches working on dinner in Berlin.

Every year we put our players through a leadership program during camp.  Many programs do this through Champions Manuals or Winners Manuals.  Ours is called Srdce Lva (Heart of the Lion).  Every year we add some things and take a few things out.  It gets slightly bigger every year.  Through it we are able to introduce concepts of leadership that the education system here lacks.  We hope to instill a sense of leadership, team, and respect in all of our players.  It is also a “happy coincidence” that all of the concepts mentioned in Srdce Lva are ideas drawn from spiritual principles. 

The first two weeks of our season saw us in different parts of Germany.  We had a controlled scrimmage in Berlin against Berlin Adler.  We had a practice the Saturday afternoon that we arrived, then a combined practice on Sunday morning then a controlled scrimmage in the afternoon.  Saturday night we were able to watch the Alder senior team play a game.  The Adler senior team is one of the top teams in Europe, so it was great to be able to learn from them.  The scrimmage itself did was a scrimmage was supposed to do:  expose weak points.  We had a few holes to work on after watching the scrimmage film.  Zach did not go on the trip because he was quite sick.

The next week we were in the town of Chemnitz. Given that this team was nearing the end of their season, and we were just starting ours, combined with the poor play of the previous week, I was a little concerned about how our team would match up.  Our guys stepped up and owned almost every facet of the game.  We won 42-9.  Everything seemed to click well for us.  It was by no means a flawless game, but it stood in stark contrast to the scrimmage. 

Our first Czech league game was against our rivals, the Prague Panthers.  Jitters naturally exist in that first game.  One of our first snaps went over the quarterback.  I think I had a small heart attack as he ran back, picked up the ball, dodged a couple defenders, and ran 60 yards for a touchdown on the broken play.  After that our guys settled down and we pounded out a 35-0 win.

 

Our next four games came against significantly weaker opponents.  We beat the Pribram Bobcats twice and shut out the Pardubice Bucks twice.  Those games are the most frustrating time of the season because guys realize that these games are against weaker competition.  Lack of focus becomes an issue, both in practices and in games.  We continued to improve, despite this.  Some of those games were closer than they needed to be, but eventually the guys realized the importance of focus and concentrating on the week's opponent.   

Tomorrow I will highlight our final game and give some of my thoughts on the season.  

It has been awhile...

So i haven't blogged in awhile.  Since April 30 if my post list is to be believed.  I do apologize.  Promised posts about various players and characters that I interact with never materialized.  However, I am currently working on a few blog posts to bring people up to speed with my ministry here in Prague. My newsletters do a decent job of conveying what I do here, but I feel like I can use this blog to go more in depth.  I am hoping to make at least two posts per month, in addition to my newsletters.  Without making any promises, that is the ideal I will strive for.  

Some major events since my last blog post include the conclusion of our senior season, the multikemp, an AIA women's basketball team, and, most recently, the completion of our junior season.  I will not delve to far into any of those (except maybe the junior season since it was semi-recent).  Some things to look forward to: a Thanksgiving post, an Christmas post, a football off season update, as well as much more.  I'm hoping to revamp some of the layout, as well.  

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and have a great start to the holiday season!