"The Turaround": Coach Tull, One of the Boys

by Jason Strunk
Lubbock High School Head Coach

Coach Strunk in action
Photo courtesy of Lubbock Avalanche-Journal 

We started practice off yesterday a little today than usual. OC/OL coach Neal Tull went against some of our players in  a OL/DL pass rush drill. Obvioulsy, nobody had hemets on. Whenever the kids see a coach get involved in a drill they immedialtey become excited. This was the case yesterday. 

I felt it was getting a little stale and boring at practice. I like to mix it up and avoid falling into the same old dull routine. So yesterday, following a tough loss, was a perfect time to switch things up. In my opinion, it was what we needed and the kids responded with a good practice. 72 hours following our loss to Coronado, there are no signs that the game even existed. That is always good news.

The coaching staff this week is focused on raising the expectation levels of practice. Our job is to the show the team that we are not backing off from what we expect from them. Now isn't the time to let up and feel sorry for ourselves. It is time to kick it in high gear and start getting some wins. They will respond. When that first paycheck comes (a win) they will be looking for that check every Friday. It becomes addicting. Our guys haven't experienced that as of yet... but they will. We are very, very close to putting it all together!

Following practice we got a good lift in. We lift three times a week during the season. Our objective is to maintain the max weights they ended the summer with. I never understood why teams would lift all year and then stop when the season starts. If you have a 300lb bencher in August, you want him benching 300 in October too, not 250. Strength training and nutrition are the backbone of everything we do here. I will talk about this a lot over the course of this season. 

Some awards for Coronado game:

Offensive MVP - RB, Brandon Hernandez (200 total yards)
The Black Hammer Award - Safety, Keefe Gallagher (2 weeks in a row)
Special Teams Player - Punter, Dalequoin Love (great job with considering the wind he dealt with).

Later today, I will be putting together the second of our coacing staff features. This week it is going to be Defensive Coordinator, Duane Toliver.