From Shallowater to Grande - Keller Week

As I alluded to in a previous post, the preseason schedule has been a bear here in Rebel Land.  We have 5 new coaches on the staff this year and as I mentioned, we have been participating in district wide trainings since August 11.  The rest of the staff joined in the fun on Monday August 18 as in-service began, and the schedule has been pretty tough on the players, coaches, and families alike.  This past week has been particularly difficult because we are opening today, Thursday August 28 at 4:30pm rather than the traditional Friday night start.  The reason for this is quite simple, the opening weekend at Grande Communications Stadium is known as Midland Football Madness with 6 games taking place over a 3 day span.  We will be facing the Keller Indians from the Dallas "metroplex" while our crosstown rival Midland High will be facing Smithson Valley High from San Antonio at 7:30pm on Friday night.  (For those of you wondering, Lee and High play in the Friday night game every other year.)

The road to Keller began at 5:30am on Friday August 22nd as the players, coaches, Rebel Brigade (student assistants), and student assistant trainers boarded two MISD coach buses and two MISD "yellow dogs" and headed for Shallowater High School just outside Lubbock.  We scrimmaged fellow 6A Amarillo HS at Shallowater (3A) because it is almost equidistant from both schools which obviously makes the event more convenient for everyone concerned.  In the end, it was a good test for both teams and best of all, both emerged healthy and ready to face their respective openers. 

Early morning headed for Shallowater.

The buses arrived back in Midland around 6:30pm and because of the unusual week ahead, it was time for the coaching staff to get to work.  We remained in the office reviewing the scrimmage and watching last years film of our week 1 opponent Keller until around 11pm.  We then returned the next morning at 8:30am to build the gameplan.  As I am learning, however,  here at Midland Lee first things come first - meaning that we were fed a large meal by one of the many veteran supporters that are frequently around the facility - hanging out in the coaches office, watching practice, feeding us, etc.  This time it was breakfast burritos from Oscars - an old time Mexican restaurant that is just off campus.   (I had a chorizo and egg.  One of the perks of living in the Southwest is ready access to chorizo, a type of spicy sausage that is legit)

After our meal, we got a look at Keller's scrimmage from Friday afternoon, reviewed more 2013 film and began filling in the blanks for the offensive and defensive game plans.  At noon, another meal was served - kilbasa, pulled pork, beans, potato salad, and some sort of chocolate pudding cake.  Based on the amount of food provided, it appears that the "old timers" might be under the impression that we have 50 coaches - or perhaps they think that the 2012 Lyndon Institute Football staff might pop in for a visit.

Meal number 2 complete, we returned to work to finalize the plan and make scouting reports.  At 5pm, the whole staff met to plan practice.  Again, due to the oddball week, we needed to conduct our typical Monday practice on Saturday night.  The players began trickling in after our meeting broke up and we headed off to Grande for practice under the lights from 7-9pm.  Things went really well, even though you knew that it was probably the last place the kids wanted to be at that time.  They really hung in there and treated it like a GET TO rather than a HAVE TO (I GET TO be a Lee Rebel and practice on Saturday night).  We headed back to Grande at about 9:30, got the kids out of the facility and reviewed the practice film to see how the gameplan held up on the field.  By about 11pm, we headed for zee hills - otherwise known as our beds - having just crammed two full work days into about 22 hours between Friday night and Saturday night.  LOVE THE GRIND!

Monday was more in-service, lifting, and then only one practice.  After practice the team, coaches (and their families), cheerleaders, Dixie Dolls, and the band participated in "Meet the Rebels" which was held in the Lee parking lot.  Tiffany, Davan, and I missed most of it because we were at Greathouse Elementary for "meet the teacher" night, but we still got to see some of the excitement when we got back.

 

I have to say, the Rebel Band is AWESOME!  Suffice it to say, they are a slight upgrade from what I have become accustomed to in the past few years.  As one of our coaches said the other night, "when you hear the band playing, you know its football time!"  No doubt.  For my money, there is nothing that gets the juices flowing quite like a big time band that understands its role at a football game.

Once Meet the Rebels wrapped up, we headed back in to review practice video and headed home around 10pm with the Keller plan taking shape.  Tuesday took the place of "Walkaway Wednesday" which is Coach Morton's way of dictating that his staff leaves the office immediately after practice to spend some time with family.  The oddball week actually worked in my favor in this case because it was Davan's birthday and this gave me the chance to spend some time with her and Tiffany.

Wednesday was the first day of school.  Lee HS, you might have 2300 kids and be in a boom town, but you've got NOTHING on North Country Union HS as far as being a tough place to go to work, but I'll save that for another day.  My schedule is pretty good:

Period 1 - World History
Period 2 - World History
Period 3 - Football
Period 4 - Lunch (you get an hour!)
Period 5 - World History
Period 6 - Prep
Period 7 - Leadership
Period 8 - Powerlifting

During football class we did our pregame walkthrough.  This basically consisted of going through numerous game situations, special teams, etc.  After football, the coaches were again fed by the old timers in the meeting room.  One of them told me that he had watched all 54 Lee football teams play beginning in 1961 - quite a track record indeed!  Once school ended, we headed out to Grande to watch the freshmen teams play (there is a separate freshmen HS with a separate coaching staff) and then of course our silver as well.  Three wins over Mojo!  A great start for the Rebels!

Tomorrow will be a nice break for the kids and coaches.  Everyone will leave school after 2nd period (around 10:30am) and head to a retreat off campus for a meal and some relaxation prior to the game.  It should be cool with a high of only 90, which will be closer to 100 on the turf, but with the wind and lack of humidity you really don't notice it.  In other words, it will be a great day for football.  GO REBELS - 30 FEET AT A TIME.