Dragons have to face off against The University of Akron this week! A Division 1 school will be a great test for the Dragons to see where they are really at and to ultimately push them to be a tougher team to beat in the GLIACs. Again, the scouting report was given out but the team was faced with a problem. When dealing with transfer students, their are certain things that they must go through in order to be eligible to play for their new team. The Dragons have a transfer player who is pretty talented but has not yet been cleared to play. This causes a problem for the coaches game plan because now he has to create a whole new game plan for the whole game. Has to motivate new players to score because he lost a big production of points because he can't play. So with that being said, there are so many rules and regulations you must go by and follow in order to stay eligible and to be able to continue to have a successful program, THE RIGHT WAY! 

Well the first scrimmage was this week, and it showed that our team still has work to do. There is a lot of preparation that goes into playing a game and even in this case, a scrimmage. First you have to go through the scouting report. Then, you have to perform the scouting report in practice so that you know how to defend and play against the team they are going against. Last week in my post, I mentioned that teams "Play the way they practice" and that is exactly how they played. Practice a lot of times are very sluggish because the players sometimes are not in the mood to practice or other reasons that they could only tell you. The coaches do their best to motivate players, from where I am sitting, it is very hard to motivate a group of young men that feel that they are grown and don't need anyone telling them what to do. Men are a lot more difficult to deal with than women are. I witnessed it first hand when sitting in on one of the girls practices. They take directions from authority a lot more easier than men do. It's going to take a while but I think that they will come together

The time is finally here! The first practice of the 2012-2013 season is in the books for Tiffin University! On Monday and Tuesday, the Dragons had two-a-day practices for these two days. Two of the hardest practices that they probably will see all year. Nothing the Dragons couldn't take though because they were all for it and full of energy. The only thing is, how do you keep your players motivated like this throughout the season so that they always come to practice and are ready to compete against each other and work hard to accomplish their goals for the season. Often times, players come in ready for the first few days of practice, but as the week goes on, the intensity level goes down. This shouldn't happen with any team. Let alone this team, especially with the competition that they will be facing through out the season. Every minute counts when you're in practice because once you are in the game, the way you practiced is the way that you will play.

Well, the week every athlete can not wait to come has arrived. THE LAST WEEK OF CONDITIONING! All the running, weight lifting, and individual workouts finally coming to an end. You can see and sense the excitement in the players everyday play this week. Everybody is doing a little more extra in their workouts than the normal to try and earn that starting spot, or at least have their name in the back of the coaches mind as they are approaching the first practice. I also did sales this week at the football games to continue to raise money for our program. Still bringing in a lot of business and this will benefit me in the long run because I will not be just limited to one skill. Now I will have the knowledge of coaching but a little knowledge in sales as well.

The season is approaching fast. The more workouts they do now, the more intense they begin to get. Everyone on the team, including the coaches are beginning to get very excited going into this team. The coaches are very pleased with the progress that they are seeing in their young and new players. There is a bright future for a lot of them if they continue to work as hard as they have been in their day to day workouts. Still receiving a great insight on what it takes to become a coach and how much work and preparation it takes in order to prepare for practice. You always have to have an agenda going into practice because it makes practice go by a lot smoother than just coming up with things to do along the way.  Also, you must show that you are the authority figure in practice when dealing with your players. If you do not display that you are the authority of the team, players will lack the discipline and will ultimately cause your program to fail as a whole. Still a lot more to learn from this job! I am excited to finally get ready for the season to start so I be more involved and in depth with the program.