Gut Week...It's What's For Breakfast

Gut Week...it's whats for breakfast. That is my new tagline for next week's early morning conditioning sessions.



It is fun to se how hard our girls are working and they step up to every challenge we give them. This morning they did 2 sets of 8 reps of 120 yard intervals (sprint 20 yds then jog 10, repeat) throw in some abs and pushups...then top it off with 8 100 yd dashes. This of course was after dynamic stretching and a 1.2 mile Indian run (not politically correct for which I apologize). An Indian run is where the team jogs in a single file line and the last person sprints to the front while everyone is still jogging. Once they get to the front, then they call for the next person to go, and so on. The point is that our players our really working hard and putting themselves in a sacrificial state with their effort. I cannot confirm the origin of the name Indian Run. They are investing in each other and encouraging each other even when it gets hard to do so. I don't know if we will win a game this year but there isn't a group that I would rather compete with than this first group.



The History of Gut Week.



I believe it was my second year at Westbury Christian and I was an assistant coach under Greg Glenn with the boy's team and we were coming off a year where we had lost in the state championship game and had a sour taste in our mouths. My assistant coaching counterpart was Casey Farris. Casey is a Faulkner graduate and was a student assistant here when he was in school. He is now the Elementary Principal at WCS and is doing a great job coaching in a different manner. I will always maintain that he is one of the best coaches I have ever been a around. He was always thinking ahead about his primary responsibility which was strength and conditioning. With our head coach's blessing, Casey decided to impart two major changes to the boy's basketball program. The first was that he was taking our State Runner-Up plaque and he was nailing it up above the mirror in the weight room so that every time our guys lifted, they were reminded of that bitter loss. Last I checked, the plaque was still there. I think everyone was afraid to touch it as it may be jinxed. The second major change was Gut Week.

Gut Week is the title for the week of conditioning that precedes the first day of practice. By it very name, you can tell what it is designed to do...see who has the "guts" to make it through and succeed. Those who finish every aspect of Gut Week walk away from it with an exclusive t-shirt and the pride in knowing that they were a more mentally well-conditioned team than any possible future opponent. That is it's origin and we have stolen the concept and brought it to Montgomery. It is the beginnings of a legend that will become an annual rite of passage for the players in our program to be allowed in to practice. People who win championships have to be "Uncommon". They have to be willing to sacrfice in ways that ordinary people don't. The greatest part of that is in knowing that you earned your championship or that you overachieved if the talent was not there to win. In either of those scenarios, the end result is satisfying and there are no regrets.

Thanks to Coach Glenn and Coach Farris for the Gut Week concept. I thank you. Our players hate you....but they will thank you later.

Blessings,

Coach S

I Cor 9:27