In this issue:

Synthetic Turf Diaries– Unique ways to fund your field project.

Football – Former Ivy Leaguer Gets Kicked Out of an NFL Huddle.

Football – Recruiting – Character is big these days.

Synthetic Turf Diaries – Unique ways to pay for a new
field.

 

Darren Gill, the marketing manager for Field Turf, the leader in artificial “grass like” fields sent me some cool ways people have funded new turf fields.

1) Rubber Grants- Some states, Nebraska for one, have grants that will pay for the recycled rubber tire material that goes into these fields.

2) Sell sneakers – In Pasco Washington local sales of a Nike designed “Air Pasco” – helped offset the costs of a new facility.

3) Major Donors – Gill cited a few examples of local alumni who had gone on to significant financial success after high school coming back to donate large sums of money. You never know until you ask!

Thanks for asking.”

This is from an AD who was pulling her hair out last year because of flooded fields. Again, I know these fields require a large investment, but I can’t see the down side to the students, coaches, administrators and the community in general who often end up being able to use the fields in the off season
.

---

Football Recruiting:
Character: It really does matter in this world we call recruiting.

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word character in the following ways:

1a : a conventionalized graphic device placed on an object as an indication of ownership, origin, or relationship; and

2a
: one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual

I’d like to tell a quick story about 2a.  Two weeks ago I was asked to give a short talk at the Catholic Memorial High School end of year meeting for the
football players and parents. Really it is a “start of football” meeting more than an end of the year, so it was full of up and coming athletes with high
hopes and expectations for the next year.

After I gave my little talk, the  football coach, Alex Campea finished up business and ended by reading a letter that was hand delivered to him from UCONN head football coach Randy Edsall.  Apparently Edsall had dropped into CM to meet Campea, asked about a few players and then handed him a letter that he asked to be read to all the athletes in the program.

Well it is not every day that a major D-I coach walks into your school is it? Needless to say, Campea read the letter.

What Edsall basically said was that with summer upon us, all students will have a lot of decisions to make and those decisions will ultimately determine their character. He emphasized that UCONN, and most other colleges, weigh an athlete’s character as much as any physical attribute. Before offering a scholarship, they will look into character very carefully to determine if the athlete will be the type of player worthy of donning the uniform and representing the university and even the state.

We have all seen the all too familiar “Police Blotter” look of the ESPN.com college football headlines.  It seems as if the colleges themselves are a bit
sick of this as well.  It is worth mentioning to your own athletes just how important character and work ethic are to college coaches. Yes, kids do make
mistakes and are given second chances. But you never know when that one bad decision costs you the only chance you were ever going to get.

---

Football Former Ivy Leaguer Steps Into the Huddle and Gets Kicked Out
– which is a good thing!

Since I live in Boston and am friends with a Harvard coach I got an update about how the St Louis Ram’s draft pick, Harvard QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was doing.  As my buddy West said, “He’s doing well, Mike Martz (Ram’s Head Coach) kicked him out of the huddle!”

How is this a good thing? Well, Fitzpatrick was running with the second string at the time, something that most late round QB’s don’t get to do in the first mini-camp of the year. According to the Ram’s web site, Martz was very impressed with the Ivy Leaguers ability to take a verbal coaching point/suggestion and immediately make it happen without extra reps. Said Martz:

”When you tell somebody here is what I want you to do, they can take what you are saying to them and do it immediately without a lot of repetition, that is very unique,” Martz said. “Those are really unusual athletes that can do that. That’s a Marshall Faulk; that’s an Isaac Bruce. (Ryan) has that innate ability within him to take exactly what we are saying without practice to play and do it in an effective way. I think he’s pretty unusual in that respect.”

When you read what Martz said about #1 pick Alex Barron, you realize just how good Fitzpatrick was in his first camp. Says Martz of the former Seminole standout:

“From the technique standpoint, he is just so far away,” Martz said. “He has to trust what we are teaching him to do with his pass sets and his punch and his arms. Until he can get consistent with that, it’s going to be pretty hard. He was a great athlete who got by on athleticism. His technique was horrible in college.”

The ability to pick things up quickly is something we all look for in our own players. Having amazing athletic ability like Barron does can make up for a lot of flaws all the way up to the NFL. Most high school and even college players can get away with bad technique if they are physically dominant. Of course this is not something you would strive for as a coach but at least it is good to know that some players just never “get it”.