We got us a ballclub... the annual trip to Highlands

Visiting with Coach Mueller before a July 7 on 7

Every July before workouts would begin, I would be concerned.... will everyone show up, work hard, do what they are suppose to do, etc?  The days between July 4 and July 10 could be a little stressful. As I have been told before, I think too much. 

When I was at Mason County, we really benefitted from doing 7 on 7 with the Highland's Blue Birds, coached by Dale Mueller.  Dale was an elite football coach and the Blue Birds are one of the finest football programs in the nation.  Fort Thomas was only about an hour from Maysville. In fact, during my time at Mason County,  Coach Mueller, his staff, and their program were good resources. I could visit a spring practice or workout and always benefitted from those experiences.  

To stay out of the heat on those 7 on 7 days, we had to get up there pretty early on a July morning. We always wanted to make that trip the first Thursday after the dead period. 

We would take around 25 guys. When we would get there, they would have about 60, or more. One time, Dale caught me off guard.... he wanted to split our squads. We would have offense on one end and defense on the other. Now, keep in mind, to compete with the Birds, it was going to take all we had just to keep seven fresh guys out there out of our 25! They could run bodies off and on that field like nobody else and they could all play.  I acted like it was no big deal, but wasn't sure how in the world we could hang with them for two hours with the limited bodies we had. Still, I was smart enough to know that we were getting more out of the experience than they were, and if that is what is was going to take for us to get this workout, that's what we're going to do. 

Well, we split our squad, and had about 12 guys on each end. We would move guys back and forth between offense and defense so they got both sides of the ball. It seemed like every guy in a white helmet could run, and they had an endless supply. We did that for two hours, non stop. Our guys worked their tails off and hung in there. It was doggone tough but they battled. And, we got a ton of reps and good work. It was always one of the most productive days of the summer. 

After 2 hours of chasing the Blue Birds all over both ends of the field, we would let our guys get a drink. Then, we lined them up to run our conditioning. We called them Royals. Most of the guys (Danville & Highlands) familiar with the conditioning we did, called them jingle-jangles. Now, most of the time, we dramatically abbreviated the number we would run that day. Our legs were shot. But, we start them,  just to see how our guys would react.  Our guys would line up and be ready to go.  No complaining. Tired, but no bad body language.

The best part of those July 7 on 7s... when  they were over and we were headed back to Maysville, I knew we had us a football team.  I knew our guys were tough, would compete and they would work. By the second Friday in July, I felt good about our football team. 

Seems like everyday, something comes up to remind me of an old team, player, game, memory, coach, etc. I guess when HS football has been such a big part of your entire life, it's gonna be that way.  A July morning in Fort Thomas with the Blue Birds and Royals... those were great days.