Visits, Playbooks and Staff Vacation

The month of June has been a busy and productive time for the Ole Football program. We have had 5 visit days and each of those days gave us an opportunity for my staff and I to share our message of Ole Football: Faith, Family, Football. This is the first year that we have had formal visit days in June and we are glad that we implemented the visit days into our recruiting schedule and look forward to expanding these days in the future. We are finalizing our planning for our last summer visit day on Monday, August 9, 2010.

In addition to our outstanding early recruiting efforts, we have also been critically analyzing our film from the 2009 season and examining our playbooks: offensive, defensive and special teams. With our 46 incoming freshman and a strong nucleus of returners, the coaches have been really dialing in what we ask our young men to do in each of the phases of the game. The coaches were brutally honest in the assessments and we have really fine tuned each of the playbooks.We are fortunate that our players are anxious for the coming season; they know that many will doubt them and they are using that doubt to fuel the fire as they prepare to prove the naysayers wrong!

Anybody that follows Ole Football for any amount of time knows that the underling theme in Porter Hall is Family. We talk about all the time but more importantly our guy live it every day with each other. As coaches, I know that we have to be purposeful in our commitment to our families. The passion we feel for working with our outstanding young men in this great game often times lead to us spending extra time in the office at the cost of our young families. In July, we are going to take time off and give back to those in our lives that give up so much so we can be football coaches.

Don't forget, July 19 is the Ole Football Alumni Golf Tournament. This is a great event to help reconnect/stay connected to the Oles of your time and those in the extended Ole family. Visit the TD Clubs web page for more details.

GO OLES!

Northfield Youth FB Camp

One of the things I stress to our players is giving back and being an active member of our community. Northfield is a great town and it is filled with so many wonderful people. As part of that giving back, we are very connected with the efforts of the community to help introduce the local kids to the wonderful game of football. Earlier this week I had the opportunity, along with our Defensive Line Coach - Justin Lerfald, to help coach the Northfield High School Youth Football camp. Here is the local news coverage on the story: http://www.northfieldnews.com/news.php?viewStory=53218

52 days until we report for camp!

GO OLES!

Staff Stuff & Recruiting

What an awesome Father's Day weekend. Sunday was a great opportunity for our married coaches who are dads to spend time with the family. Family is something we talk about all the time with our players as well as our staff. I am always telling our coaches that we have to walk the walk if we are going to talk the talk. Sometimes our jobs require a great deal of time away from home so when we have the chance to make it right we have to seize the day.

Saturday had the coaching staff attending another Ole wedding - this time, John Schantzen '10 and his wife Amy allowed us the pleasure of watching them begin this new stage of their life together. What a treat it is when former players grant you that access in their lives to share such a special occasion. True to form, and like most of the coaches on my staff, John out kicked his coverage in marrying Amy!

Recruit Day 2 is in the book. We had another good visit day - the numbers were a little lighter than Day 1 but the talent was still there. It is so neat to have a more laid-back visit with perspective Oles. It always strikes me, when I meet with these young men and their families, how special the kids of this great nation are and how bright our future is with them coming to fill in the next wave of great Americans. So many of our youth are doing some very incredible things, selfless things, that don't get the attention that the outrageous acts of a few seem to generate. It inspires me to continue to strive to be a better man.

More staff meetings this week in between the visit days we will be hosting. We are grinding away at the "to do lists" so we can take our break in July to recharge and get ready for the 2010 season.

God Bless & Go Oles!

Summer Visit Day 1

The summer visit program started today with our first visit day of the summer. Great day; the recruits took in an informative visit with our admissions department covering topics ranging from application process to academic programs. Even the rain could not stop the excitement of a campus tour. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful campus. It's never too early to start working the '11 class.

What a great profession we work in; showing a great school to some great student athletes. Now we are off to have staff meetings.

Young Oles & Playbooks

This past weekend (June 5-6) we held our first Ole Football Youth Camp at the Manitou Practice fields. The turn out was good for our first year and we are excited by the response that we received from the parents as well as the kids about how much the kids got out of their time with us. The Ole Football Staff did a great job of teaching basic football skills to the campers and the kids did a great job of picking up the skills during the weekend. This is going to be an annual event, held the first weekend of June, for a long time to come.

With the youth camp taken care of, the staff and I now turn our attention to the offensive, defensive and special teams playbooks. We wrapped up the special teams staff meetings last week and now the offensive and defensive staffs are in the process of cleaning up and improving what we ask our young men to do on the field. There are a lot of good discussions going on in both meeting rooms about the changes we are going to make in order to give our kids a better opportunity to succeed.

Circle July 19 on your calendar for the Ole Football Golf Tournament. Last year, we had record numbers and we hope to keep that trend going. Here is a link with more information about this great event:
http://www.oletouchdownclub.org/2010-golf-tournament-info/

God Bless & Go Oles

Great Weekend/Great Week

It was a great Memorial Day Weekend. Full of activity and remembrance of all those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for this great nation and the families and friends that carried on after that sacrifice.

On Sunday we had another chance to honor the 22 graduating seniors. A special group of young men who finished their playing careers in the fall, finished their classes this spring but will never be finished as part of the family.

After that, our football trainer Angie Selseth got married. It is always nice when the coaches can get together and celebrate and it was made even more special with the occasion. Angie is a great help to the young men in our program (and sometimes the old coaches too!) and all the coaches were honored that she wanted us to be part of her special day.

Monday - the reason for the long weekend - was humbling. Many great men and women gave everything for this great nation and the future generations to enjoy the freedoms that are sometimes taken for granted.

Of course, with the weather being almost perfect there was plenty of time for celebrating as well. The Olszewski family spent some great quality time together out on the lake. I don't think I will ever forget the smiles on my children's faces as we sped them around the lake on an tube being pulled by the boat. I did my best to try to dump'm in the water but they hung on for all they were worth!

Today we are back in the offices hard at the preparations for next fall. Our new OL coach, Matt Bacoulis, and I met all morning on some run game stuff. That meeting was followed by a meeting with Coach Stern on some Special Teams issues and now Coach Bacoulis and I are about to get into pass pro.

Tomorrow and Thursday we have special teams meetings with the full staff - I love working with guys that are so passionate about our kids and this program. A lot of work to be done between now and August 14 - a lot of fun work.

God Bless & Go Oles!

Coach Olszewski