Football is a Tough Sport

I remember my first year of Pop Warner.  I was a bigger kid and I had to play with the older kids.  I was in 6th grade and I played against 8th and 9th graders.  To say I was not mentally prepared for that kind of challenge would be an understatement. 

I felt overwhelmed, scared, intimidated by kids that were older and stronger than me.  I was basically a live punching bag for the team and I wanted to quit.  I would get a bruised finger and go home to my mom and say I was injured.  My mother would tell me (and she will admit to this), "Suck it up and get back out there!  You have to be tough to play football!"

No truer words could have been spoken.  I got tired of getting picked on by the older kids.  I got tired of being bruised.  So I took my mom's advice and started to be more aggressive at practice.  I began to hit hard and I would take on the toughest kids and I would hold my own.

At the end of the season, I started the last 2 games playing center.  I look back at that time and think of what doors had opened for me because I "sucked it up" and stuck with it.  I started as a Freshman because I showed no fear.  I started both ways as a Sophomore on JV and made the Varsity team.  My junior year at Henry I started as a tackle and remained there through my senior year.  And I attribute all that success to not having fear.

The best thing about coaching Freshmen football is that I get to mold our players into men, student athletes, contributing members of society, team mates, sons and football players.  I know there are many players that have not played football and they don't know the limits of their mental toughness.

We had a player that sprained his ankle, one with a bruised foot, another that sprained his finger and another that got accidentally "chopped" in the throat. 

Football is not a contact sport.  It is a collision sport.  We, as coaches, do our best to ensure the safety of all our players.  We talk to them about the demands of the sport and that times, when you have a bruised finger, you need to "suck it up".  But I also want them to understand the psychological demands of being tough. 

There is a difference in playing in pain and having an injury.  A stubbed toe...  Pain.  A bruised thumb...  Pain
  A twisted ankle...  Pain  

But injuries are different.  A broken toe that hurts so bad, you can't touch it?  Injury.  Go see a doctor.  A broken thumb?  Injury  Go see a doctor.  A broken ankle?  Injury.  Go see a doctor.  And just know this, if you see a doctor, I am not qualified to clear you to play.  You will need see that same Doctor and get a release from him to play full contact football. 

We have players that diagnose themselves.  They watch too much dog-gone TV.  But to take yourself out of a game or practice because of a little injury doesn't cut it for me.  I remember back to those days in my first year of football and I can empathize on what the players are feeling or what they are going through.

I have been there and I remember it like yesterday.  Get in there and suck it up.  I spoke to the players about this the other day.  I told them I loved them and that if I didn't care about them, I would either say nothing or I would shame them over their lack of mental toughness, the same shame I felt when I first started to play football.  I would never want to go through that again and I sure as heck wouldn't want our players to feel that either.

We are lucky in that Coach Abate has been a certified trainer many years before.  Also, PHHS just hired a new trainer to help with the athletic department.  We care about our players and we look out for their physical and psychological well being.