As I mentioned in last weeks field notes, the football team that I observe hired a new head coach. Early in the week, the team was really tense and nervous trying to do things right to impress the coach. As the eek progressed, the players loosened up a little bit more. Well, over the weekend, the team played it’s first game with the new head coach. The team lost in a close one, so I am curious to see how the student athletes will respond this week. On Monday, you could really feel the intensity, as this was probably the team’s best Monday practice. The discipline from the head coach went down a little, and that helped the players focus even more on the task at hand. One of the things the team has lacked this year, has been enthusiasm. There isn’t as much hollering and excitement as you would expect from a football team. This week, however, one of the players intercepted a pass and then proceeded to run for a touchdown. The whole team congratulated their teammate. A little later on, the same player made a diving catch on offense. Once again, The sense of urgency and momentum picked up. This team is looking good after coming off a loss. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the intensity was still there, just not as much as the day before. The team had a really good week at practice. One thing that some people don’t understand in football, is sometimes a scuffle between the same team can be beneficial. It may not seem like it at first, but after the tensions have gone down, the players can become closer than before the scuffle took place. One of these happened late during Tuesday’s practice. It was nothing major, and the players said afterward that they just got too caught up in the play. They resolved the issue, and I think became closer teammates. Even though the team is 0-1 with the new head coach, I think that the team will continue to come closer together. The last thing that I observed this week was on Wednesday. The punt returner kept fumbling and missing the ball. One of the assistant coaches kept yelling at him, which I think made him even more nervous. After another drop, the head coach talked to him,]. You could see that the athlete didn’t really want the head coach to talk to him, after being scolded by the assistant. He was probably thinking that the head coach would also yell at him. In fact, the coach did the opposite. I couldn’t really hear, but he told him some words of encouragement, and the athlete didn’t drop another punt after that. I think this was a big step for not only the punt returner, but the whole team in trusting their new head coach and knowing that he isn’t just discipline like he appeared to be the previous week.