Sunday Jitters

Getting My Stuff Ready  

Fall Football officially begins tomorrow morning at 8am. I am pretty excited.  I have all these ideas (in my head) of things we need to work on, so I doubt I will be able to sleep much tonight.  This was a major advantage of attending the FCA Camp last week......it gave us a really good look at our team before we officially start practice.  We have some work to do for sure, but I think we will be solid.  I will make absolutely sure my kids (RB's) are ready.  We have a great staff, so I am positive each of them is saying the exact same thing tonight.  I am really humbled to be among these great coaches. I do not want to disappoint them. 

I have been using the same "Fox 40" Classic whistle for about 15 years...it is well seasoned and I love how it sounds.  It is well chewed on, and remnants of spit and sweat of season's past are stuck in every crevice.  Yeah, it looks gross, but that's OK.  My old friend is a pealess whistle, and just a quick blast from this thing is usually enough to get things started or stopped depending on the situation.  I also use a stop watch.  I never use it for actually timing anything, but I do use it to tell time.  I have never been able to wear a regular wrist watch.  I always end up tearing it off my wrist and ruining the band.  So, this cheap thing does the trick for me.  It is imperative I have a watch or some way to tell time, for everything on Coach J's  practice plan is closely planned,  so you must be at your next duty station ready to go on time.   The marker pen is just for on-field notes.  I learned years and years ago NOT to carry a playbook on the practice field at any time, especially for instruction purposes. How can you teach a player how to run a play if you don't know it yourself?  

Busy week coming up.  

GZ

Camp Was Great

We have just returned back from the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Football Camp which this year was held at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida.  The facilities were very good, and the school  did its best to accommodate all the team's players and coaches.  The weather was BRUTAL...temperatures and humidity in the high 90's, and rain threatened both days.  We had several rain and lightning delays.  The ice-cold air conditioning in the rooms felt like heaven after each session.  This little school cafeteria also fed each person three meals a day (buffet style)

Basic Dorm Rooms  

The dorm rooms were pretty standard for college dorm rooms.  Each room was divided in the middle by a bathroom and shower.  The shower was great, and water pressure was fantastic.  This year I roomed with Pete McDonald and Pete Deluke on the other side.  Its worked out well, and I enjoyed the time together....even though we were all exhausted at the end of the day.  The air conditioning made for a great night's sleep.   

Nice Campus  

Turf Fields 

Dining Facility  

We had a very nice showing at the camp against some pretty strong competition.  We are a little nicked up here and there,  but most of the kids came through the brutal camp.in good shape. We do have one player in the hospital for an overnight stay.  The receiver caught the ball on a quick out route and took a wicked shot under the rib area.  Initially, we thought he had the wind knocked out of him, but it turns out he has a suspected bruised lung.  It was a clean shot, and I consider it part of football.  No one ever said football was not a violent sport.  Our player will be fine....a very tough kid.  The competition itself was extreme.  Imagine playing a full contact football game against strong competition for two days straight.  

Let me talk about my running backs for a second.  We have a ways to go, but I think this group is going to be very good.  My goals for these kids are simple.  I want Coach J to be completely at ease with any one of my kids who happen to be in the game at any given time.  I do not want him to be forced to call plays around the kids I'm responsible for.  I am very excited for my kids.  

Finally, I want to say something about our booster club.  Our boosters kept us well fed and hydrated the entire camp.  They prepared travel bags for each camp participant.   They provided food, snacks, water, and sports drinks for each participant between games, after games, and even during games. It sure makes our job easier on the field.  Believe me, it's not like this everywhere.  It's amazing how many teams showed up this week without anything for their kids....not even water to drink.  Our booster club spoils us rotten.  These great people provided for our every need, and for that I am so grateful.  I will never forget your kindness.  

More Tomorrow.  I am exhausted.  

GZ 

Day Before Camp

Today we re-assembled all of our weight lifting equipment inside of the newly remodeled weight room.  With all the kids helping, it only took about two hours for the coaching staff to put together all of our squat racks, leg machines etc...   The rubber floor is brand new and it looks great.  We have two weight lifting coaches on our staff....Pete Deluke and Randy Bethel.  Each of these guys are great at what they do, and they knew exactly where each piece should be placed in the room and how it all goes back together.  All I had to do is wrench all morning long.  Fine by me...Just tell me what you need and lets go to work.

Coach J. addressing the team before camp tomorrow. 

I am so excited.  Tomorrow we leave for our FCA football camp over at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida.  There will be six (6) teams over there at the same time, and it is a semi-full contact camp wearing only our shells.  All the teams will train together, and full scrimmages against each team over the next two days has everyone excited.  We will be staying in the dorms on campus, so all the kids will get some real college life experience.  I am sure things will be getting a little spicy between the teams at times, and I really an curious to see how our younger kids react.  No worries to parents....I am sure all coaches will have control over their kids.

I am so blessed to be with this program in the twilight of my career.  True, I have years and years of experience coaching running backs, but I consider the Vero Beach to be one of the best individual position  jobs in the State.  Reasoning?  We play 8A (Florida's largest classification) football, and we are considered one of the best programs in the state; therefore, things don't get much better at the high school level than what we have around here.  We have a great feeder system with our fully staffed JV program, and our fully-staffed Freshman program is unmatched in the area.  Our booster club spoils us rotten, and we want for nothing. I am very lucky to be here, and I appreciate the coaching staff for taking me in.  

Logan Amaral-Senior

Daonovan Gilcrist-Senior

Bryan Primus-Winston-Senior

Bobby MacMillan- 10th Grader

These are my kids for this year.  I may have misspelled someones name, but they will not kill me for it.  I love these kids, and I think we will be very dangerous, for NO ONE expects anything from them after losing the big boy from last year.  Each one of these kids runs just a little bit different...a couple run with power,  with a one-cut and two-cut back mixed among them.  My goals for this year are for Coach Jankowski to be completely at ease with any back who happens to be in the game at any given time.  Fresh Legs in a high tempo offense (we play fast...very fast) is the key.  All four players can run the very same play and give the defense a little bit different look each time its run.  For what it's worth....there is a 4.4 kid among these four.  Can you guess which one?  

You may or may not hear from me over the next couple days.  I do not know the internet situation where we are going, so I may save it all for Thursday or Friday.  

GZ  

Preparing for Camp Week.

Grice-Kirby-Kelsey  

Mason  

These are my grand babies, and all of them are the lights of my eyes.  The top photo are the three children from my daughter Kristin, and the bottom photo is the newest one of the bunch (Mason) who is the son of my boy Mike and his wife Alex.  I am able to see Kelsey-Kirby-Grice quite often for they only live right up the road in St Augustine.  I am very close with the three of them.  My son Mike is a military man who is stationed in Colorado Springs, Colorado; therefore, I do not get to see Mason as much as I would like to.  I was able to spend a week with the family around Christmas, and Marty and I spent a few days with them in June.  Believe me....Mason will be a PawPaw fan someday himself.  

Today we started the first day of our last week of Summer conditioning.  The Summer session went by so fast.  Our kids have all been lifting weights like beasts, and our skill kids have been competing in 7 on 7 tournaments all summer.  On Wednesday, the entire team travels to Lakeland, Florida for a team camp and competition against other schools.  This will be a padded contact camp.  I am looking forward to see how we stack up against other teams this year.  Judging from how we performed at 7 on 7 camps, I think we will hold our own.  

More Tomorrow.  

GZ  

New Generation of Zaleuke's

 Grandson Grice  

This is my grandson Grice (age 6) starting his first year of tackle football.  Grice is a fairly big kid (tall and skinny) so I think he may be able to play a little.  Athletes are in his genes, so perhaps he has a chance.  Playing tackle football at his age is certainly controversial these days, but the truth is that very few injuries actually occur when the players are younger.  At this age, the kids are really playing ping-pong ball and they are just bouncing off each other.  Rarely is there ever a hard hit with these well-protected and padded youngsters.   Whats really important are the "Lessons in Life" these kids are being taught at this young age. YES, these kids play in a competitive traveling football league where someone has to win...and someone has to lose every game.  They actually keep score.  I love this.  I have taught my grandchildren to take their non-winning participation trophies and throw them in the pond behind their house.  There should only be a reward for doing well...there should never be a reward for just showing up.  A certificate of participation is good enough.  Want a trophy?  Win something!  Above all, I just want him to enjoy the game and have fun.

www.coach-george.blogspot.com

Why can't I be normal? Why does everything have to consume me?  What are my closets filled with Red, Black, White, and Gray clothing?  Why do most of my dress shirts have a VB Football embroidered somewhere?  Why does my cell phone have "War Chant" as a ringtone?    Even my boat has a VB Football theme.  I guess I am all-in with this great program.  I am very happy here. 

We recently went on an European cruise originating out of Copenhagen Denmark.  On one of the formal nights, we had to wear long pants and a collared shirt.  My wife's only request?  She did not want me wearing VB team gear with a logo on it!  Unfortunately, coaching shirts was all I had available...but I did find an Adidas shirt which she agreed I could wear.  

My closets used to be filled with Sebastian River High School Football (SRHS) gear.  Blue, White, Black, and Silver used to dominate my wardrobe.  Just recently, a very good friend of mine (Tony Perry) landed the job HC job at Sebastian.  This made me very happy...I want Tony to do very well except for one game a year.   So, I boxed up every piece of gear  I had with SRHS written on it (along with two new letterman's jackets) and brought them to his house.  I am sure there is a new coach who needs practice gear (coaches are always looking for practice gear)  Hopefully, there is a player in his program who would like to have a letterman's jacket but cannot afford one.  Now, Tony has two new jackets to give away.  

Anyway, I am getting more and more excited for our football camp coming up this week.  Can't wait.  

Later GZ 

New Year- New Life

It was the smell.  Like so many other coaches, I spent my off-season (if there is such a thing) catching up on things around the house.  If Florida, this often means yard work and sweating...not necessarily in that order.  Naturally, sweaty clothes becomes common at my house.  I must have sweated up a shirt, threw it in the back seat of my truck....and forgot about it.  The next day I opened up the door to my truck and quickly caught a familiar odor.  My daughter Kristin says that my truck smells like a locker room, and I guess that's true.  I can scrub and scrub the upholstery,  and I can spray as much deodorizer as I want... but my truck does indeed smell like a locker room., and I loved it!  

I was going to call it quits from coaching after last season....I really was.  I wanted to spend some time with the grandbabies (Kelsey-Kirby-Grice-Mason)  I wanted to watch Kelsey cheer for her school team.    I wanted to watch little Kirby compete in her gymnastics.   I wanted to watch Grice play some baseball and football.  I wanted to bond with Mason out in Colorado.  I wanted to go back to Alaska and perhaps look for a cabin or a house to get out of Florida for awhile.   Marty has been such a good football wife that I wanted to travel with her and do all the little things we could never do because of my schedule.  I wanted to sleep a little more. I wanted to rest my knee and perhaps walk normally again. Just opening up the door of my truck changed all this...I knew was not ready to quit just yet.  There was a reason that my own kids, my family, and all my friends would just say "Sure You Are" when I spoke of my impending retirement.  My daughter Kristin never believed it at all.   Then, I got the phone call.

During the off season, as usual, lots of things happened in the coaching world.  One of our young coaches Mickey Groody landed the head coaching position at a local private school.  This was a great opportunity for young Groody, and I could not be happier for him; however, this did leave a hole in our staff.  Truthfully, on our staff, I never really had an assigned position. Because of my experience, I could fill in and coach at any position Coach Jankowski (Coach J)  needed at the time.  I was sort of a coach in waiting...just learning the Vero system and helping where I could.  I really thought this is how I would be ending my career.  Then, Coach J asked if I would/could coach the running backs.  I nearly had a heart attack from excitement.  Finally, I had something to offer this great program.  Finally, I could use my years and years of experience (coaching running backs) and prove my worth.  Afterall, I learned to coach the position from some great coaches before me. I have a new energy for this coming season.  Do I have something to prove?  Absolutely... I am going to coach the hell out of my kids.

I plan on keeping this blog up-to date unlike last year.  I will fill everyone in on our schedule in the next few days... Please look back.

Thanks for reading....my writing will get better.  I promise.

Wrapping It Up....

Sarasota Riverview 35- Vero Beach-28  

"Coach, I Lost The Game For Us"  "I Played Horrible...I Should Have Done Better"

These words spoken by a 16 year old kid (who was feeling like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders), will haunt me for awhile.  As I looked into his eyes I could feel and see the hurt this young man was feeling.  As tears started to fill my own eyes, I gave him a big hug and tried to share some of my so-called old man coaching wisdom with this player in obvious distress.  It went something like this:

I said that he was a member of a 60 man roster along with about a dozen coaches and uncounted support staff.  ALL of us could have done something better...including coaches.  You are only 1/70th of the reason we lost.  Together we make 2/70th of the reason we lost.  All of  us share in this loss together son...not just you.  Maybe if we all did one thing better during the game it would have made a difference. I have been doing this a long time now son, and this was just not our night.

I am so sorry this blog was not kept up this year.  With my neck injury it was just plain painful to sit down and type for any length of time.  I tend to get a little wordy with my writing, so I just gave up trying to write until I felt better and numbness eased up.  It still hurts like hell, but now that the season is over I can get some treatment on this bulging disc.  I know...that's just an excuse.  However, when choosing between missing practice and writing in a blog....being with the football team will win every time.

The Four Horsemen

My belt idea went over pretty well I think.  The kids seemed to enjoy this 'prestigious award' every week.  Also, the idea seemed to be popular with the local media and fan clubs, etc...  This makes me happy.  The belt pretty much stayed between one of the "Four Horsemen" pictured above..each of them winning multiple times.  As soon as we grade the final film, then we can count the number of victories each of the four players above had...and that player gets to keep the belt forever.  Personally, I would love to see a four-way tie....then I would cut the belt into four pieces. (L-R)  Carlos Perez.. Jarvis Jones.. Austin Maxwell.. Hunter Riggins...it has been my honor to share this season with you.  

After I spoke with the player mentioned earlier,  I continued the long walk back to our locker room wondering if this would be the last time I ever walked on a football field as "Coach George"  My mind wandered to the past wonderful 33 years of coaching,  and I began to wonder if this was really going to be how my career ended.  I had become an older coach walking by himself , carrying equipment, with tears streaming down my face.  Is it really going to end like this?  

There are so many reasons not to coach anymore it seems.  Over the years, coaching has probably cost me tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue for my business. Football has always come first...even before sales appointments with my customers. I have been selfish with my time....football has always come first.  Both my kids were raised on the football field. I missed so much of their everyday life growing up (prom-chorus-other sports, trick or treat, school plays, family vacations etc...)   because of my commitments to the sport I love.  I regret not watching my kids grow up like normal kids.   I can't believe I just said that.  

My wife Marty is a fantastic football wife.  She met me as "Coach George" so she is used to me as I am. Marty cooks something special for the coaches  most Sunday mornings.  She sews our uniforms for Coach Deluke, she makes our formation cards, tee shirts, coaching gear..or whatever else we need to help make us successful.  She will bake cookies for the entire team.  She will squeeze our players into see a doctor whenever necessary...she really is a fantastic coach's wife.  However, she gives up a lot too.  We can't go be with our friends often because of football games and commitments during the long season.  I am gone a lot too.  I feel like maybe I want to open up my schedule a little bit to do things she wants to do.  

Grandson Mason

My Son Mike and Mason 

My son Mike and his wife Alex had their first child...Mason.  I have only seen the baby one time when he was first born.  Mike has since been stationed in Colorado, and I have not been able to go see him or the baby since they moved.  I was afraid to make any sort of reservations for travel.during the football season out of fear I could jink the team...plus I was hoping the team was going to practice on Thanksgiving day.  Needless to say, I will be going out there at Christmas to see Mike, Mason and Alex.  I need to go now before Mike gets deployed again.  Again....I am putting football before family.  Right now I am burned out.  It has been a long, great season.  A sudden defeat like this will always put me into a funk for awhile.  I will begin to question myself on my abilities as a coach.  I wonder if I have anything to offer anyone anymore?  But, why do I still study film, attend clinics, study strategy, and visit other football programs if I no longer want to coach?  I just don't know the answer....yet. I want to get my knee repaired or replaced before next season.  Insurance woes have slowed the process for awhile.  I want to get my neck repaired.  Now that football is over for awhile, I can get that done.  

Locker Room after a defeat is not pretty.  

One final thing.  Our Booster Club.  What a fantastic group of people we have this year.  These people have spoiled us rotten all year long.  We want for nothing.  The boosters have virtually fed the entire team all year long...every, single day after practice.  We have more coaching gear and player's gear, than most college teams.  I will never forget your kindness to our team.  Brian Stolze, you and your crew have been fantastic...the best I have ever seen by far.  I am so appreciative of your kindness.  

With that, I am going to wrap this blog up.  I have some decisions to make in the next couple months.  Hopefully, I can go out on my terms, and the decision will not be made for me.  lol.  I LOVE this program, and it has been my honor and pleasure to work with all of you.  

Maybe I will see you next year.  Funny I can't say retire.  

GZ