As
a football coach, Coach Dungy stresses the concept that the key to post season
success is to continue to do what you do and be who you are. He points to Bill
Belichick and the New England Patriots as a prime example of a team that
continues to do and be what it is all through the season. According to Coach
Dungy, the secret to the Patriots is Belichick’s wisdom in not adding things
special for the postseason. Coach Dungy played for Chuck Noll, the Hall of Fame
coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers who won four Super Bowls. Chuck Noll was the first coach he witnessed
to follow that lesson- continue into the postseason to be who you are and do
what you do.
Coach
Dungy uses the David & Goliath story to illustrate that point in his book, Quiet
Strength. In prepping his Colts for
their 2007 AFC Championship win over the Patriots, he pointed out that David
rejected King Saul’s armor for the battle because he was not use to it. David
went into battle doing what he always did.
Of course, David was victorious and the Colts were as well.
Before
reading Coach Dungy’s book, I learned he was right the hard way. In 1999, when we were preparing for a great
opponent in Lexington Catholic, we used a formation that was too big of a
change. They were the better team, but I didn’t help us by making our team
uncomfortable. I had thought they were too quick up front for us to block them.
I was wrong. When we settled in to doing what we could do, our kids played well
on the offensive side of the ball. We
had also placed our defensive ends in an uncomfortable spot by having them drop
and cover the flat from our 50 front. That was the last night that a 50 was our
base defense.
In
2003 when we were getting ready for Highlands, I had the same concern that they
were too quick up front for us to block them. But, I remembered the lesson from
1999 and gave our kids a chance to block them. We didn’t win the game but we
did well enough to have a chance to win and we did play the best game we have
played in my seventeen seasons here.
If you want to purchase a copy of Black Shoes & White Shoestrings: Football and Life Lessons, go to the top of this blog and use the Pay Pal Buy Button. Some of the other NFL coaches included in Black Shoes & White Shoestrings are Bill Arnsparger, Billl Walsh, Brian Billick, Blanton Collier, & Vince Lombardi.
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