Bye Week

For this week at practice, the team that I’m observing had a bye week, which means they do not have a game this week. Bye weeks can be tough because you know you don’t have a game at the end of the week, like usual. These are normally weeks where the athlete’s bring up their grades or heal from previous injuries. What I noticed on Monday, was not many people showed up for practice. The team was missing about ten or twelve players. Many of these athletes were at the trainer getting therapy, or in study hall working on their grades. One individual, a running back, was nervous that he may not be eligible if he doesn’t pick up his grades in a couple classes. The athlete I mentioned a couple weeks ago, that brings water for his teammates had very good grades. He explained that he loves football and in order to keep playing, he better stay on top of his schoolwork. One of the offensive linemen injured his knee in the previous game so this was a good week for him to get healthy. Now with it being a bye week, some of the players weren’t giving their all at times during practice. There are a few good leaders on this team, as I’ve mentioned in weeks’ prior, who will push those individuals to be the best  they can be. One player in particular stood up after practice on Tuesday to address the team. He mentioned that everybody needs to not only work harder on the field, but in the classroom as well. The term, ‘student-athlete’ is just that; you’re a student first and football player second. Wednesday seemed much better. The energy was good and some players had already brought up their grades. This made it easier for the players to focus on football and prepare for their next game. Now as I mentioned in week one, some players like to argue with each other and talk a little ‘smack.’ There has not been much of that going on, lately. The team seems like they are really pulling together and becoming brothers. It seemed that this would be a struggle early on, but as the weeks have gone on, there has been pretty much nothing but encouragement. On Thursday, one of the players was dropping many passes. The coaches got onto him and said he needed to catch those easy passes. One of the team’s linemen really encouraged the wide receiver. I think the positive encouragement helped the receiver’s confidence. He did not drop any more passes for the rest of the day, and only dropped one on Friday.