Coaches

I have been blessed with many great coaches in my life. The best being my father, he instilled in me a work ethic and discipline and perseverance that has served me well. But being a wise guy he never was my coach on the field directly he was very involved and coached in B'ville for I think 40 years. But, today I am gonna write about my experience with a great coach and that is the head Coach from Baldwinsville High School. Coach S was a young guy when I played for him he still coaches to this day. In the eighties football was different in high school than it is now I think. And in B'ville football was a big deal. He was a big man, and loud and I can remember watching him as a freshman football player thinking wow this guy is intense. Our battle cry was CONTACT AND INTENSITY!! I ate it up it was amazing, he had a great staff of coaches and a strength coach who was a huge man Coach D. Who just recently passed away RIP. Coach S as I recall would attend the lower level games and I can remember his speech's I hung on every word. If you wanted to play in B'ville you had to put in the work and boy he was inspiring. Being introduced to the weight room was a life changer for me. It happened my freshman year. Coach S was very organized and was building a winning culture and he had a schedule for freshman to get time in the weight room to lift weights. I had been playing football for a while by then but not at school just pop warner. This was all new. It was awesome, it was intense there was a lot comradarary in the weight room and even better was the competion. Jason and I starting hitting it hard if it was our time you could bet we were there. Soon our hard work was paying off and we were promoted to the JV team. We played for Coach D who was also a wrestling coach. Jason and I were thriving as football players by the time we were Juniors and Coach S was like a God to us then at least he was to me. He was the PE coach at the high school and his office was a haven of good times. He allowed players to be the PE monitors which meant we didn't participate in class but took care of things for the class like locked up the valuables and watched over the lockeroom while the other students participated in whatever they were doing. Then we could get some extra lifting in weight room in. B'ville was a fairly small town and everyone knew coach S and being one of his ball players was fun. You got respect, and people knew who you were. I played tight end and defensive end in high school. I enjoyed defense way more than offense. I always say it is better to give than to receive. Plus, I really couldn't catch anyway. Hence came a nickname that coach gave me that stuck with me for a few years. In practice one day we were doing a tight end passing drill. I was going for a deep route and wifted pretty bad. Coach S was hopping mad and asked me if my eyes were open and called me "Omar the Carpet Carrier" as I would just put my hands out there and hope the ball hit my hands. I got some injury's in high school besides concussions the worst being a broken collarbone my senior year. But the most comical was as a Junior Year and how Coach S handled it was classic. We were playing Roman Free Academy a huge rivalry game. I was having a decent game on our home field playing defensive end. They had an excellent running back and he was our biggest threat so we planned for him all week. The stands were packed and I was amped up. Well I don't exactly remember when in the game it happened but I made a play in the back field where a caught the back from behind when was just getting to the line of scrimmage. And his heel caught me right in the crotch. Well it was bad real bad I remember I heard a sound of cracking plastic. It was my cup that protected my balls. Oh boy the pain was immense. I came off the field and went to the trainer. The plastic cut my leg and I was bleeding a bit. The trainer called dad over and they both looked at me and said what's wrong. I told them and the trainer said well stick your hand down there and check things out. To my surprise they were gone, shocking my balls were missing. I got scared and I looked up and told them. The trainer says to my dad we got to get them back down right now before they swell up. Then there was silence. We just all stared at each other. I don't remember who said it but this is what was said. "Your on you own here Cowboy". So the trainer told me what to do and right there on the sidelines I had get my balls out of my stomach. OUCH!! Well my night was over we lost the game and it was pretty disappointing. The next day Coach S was very mad about our performance and every starter had to meet with him to discuss their performance. Well like I told you B'ville was a small town and word spread fast about what happen to me. I went to school The following Monday and had to wear sweat pants not my normal 501 button flys. Cause I was so swollen. And I was kinda waddling around. So the whole team was lined up outside Coach S office waiting our turn to get our evaluation and my turn came and I started to waddle into the office. Coach S stopped me at the door and started laughing, I can't talk to you today Quackenbush today he said. Close the door he said and as I did I could hear the laughter coming from the office and some said "Your on your own Cowboy"