The Be An 11! Quote of the Day 10.08.08
Catch the Fever Be An 11! BELIEVER!

No one can whistle a symphony.
It takes an orchestra to play it.
Halford Luccock

Question of the Day?
What notes do you contribute to the song your team is about to sing?

Everyone has a role to play and for the song to be sung all notes need to be heard. Right?

I'm thinking of the Overture of 1812, one of the more famous pieces of classical music. There are people in the orchestra that are responsible for just one note, if you can call it that. Many would not even think of it as a note - more like a sound - A BIG SOUND!

Wikipedia says: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the Festival Overture "The Year 1812" in Emajor, Op. 49 (French: Ouverture solennelle "L'Année 1812"; Russian: Торжественная увертюра 1812 года, Toržestvennaja uvertjura 1812 goda) to commemorate Russia's 1812 defense against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino, during the devastating French invasion of Russia.

You can listen or download your own copy of it, right? I have not yet learned how to embed it in this post. Anyway, at the end of the piece a battery of field artillery shocks everyone as it is "fired" at just the right time in sync with the music.

Leave out the booms, and it's just not the same, right?

Just like if we leave anyone's note off the team, it's just not the same. My coaching philosophy is that you are only as good as the people you practice against everyday. I was a proud member of the "Green Yellers" as a Soph. We had a good class, but so did the Seniors. So when we got to the team portion of practice, our class would don the green scrimmage vests and be the scout offense and defense for the varsity who nicknamed us the "Green Yellowers" which gets shorted into yellers. They were trying to intimidate us into submission. And not all the Sophs would be great competitors on the scout team but enough of us were that made it interesting.

The team's record that year was 9-1, conference Champs. There were no playoffs in Ohio at that time so we, along with dozens of other schools, got to finish the season as CHAMPIONS! Something good to be said about that.

Coach Redding was great about playing time and as soon as the game was decided, he would sub us in and we got lots of playing time which contributed to our 8-2, and 9-1 seasons as Starting Juniors and Seniors.

The point: The Green Yellers sounded many a note on the practice field during the week enabling the team to sing a better song on Friday nights. And in the process, we got to put a 'stinger' on the end of many of those songs as well.

Everyone has a role to play on the team, do you know your role? How well do you play it?

Be 11!

RF