Football is the ultimate team game. All 11 players on the field must do their job or the play will break down. Football is also a game built on trust.
Trust in the guy next to you, lining up on the line of scrimmage, trust in the quarterback to execute the called play and trust in what the coaching staff is telling you.
That is why, although it is only the second week of the regular season, it is a very important moment in a team’s season. It is especially important to a squad who lost in the opening week.
If a team lost its first game of the season — maybe badly, doubt could begin to creep into the minds of the players. They may start to wonder if what the coaches were telling them all through camp and the previous months in the weight room, were truths.
To play winning football, you must have a positive attitude and trust the guy lined up next to you. Hopefully, he feels the same way. But, if a team dropped its first game, the message from the coaching staff becomes even more telling for the second game of the season.
This also applies to teams that play a less than arduous nonleauge schedule. If a team breezes through some cupcakes in the first two or three weeks and then can not compete when the slate becomes more strenuous, the players have a tendency to think the coaches have lied to them about being a quality squad.
This is why, especially at the high school level, that the coaching staff must convey its message in a truthful, positive tone. Winning football can not be played by a team with doubt about its ability in its collective minds.
Although the regular season is only in its second week of scheduled games, a pattern of doubt may develop if a team does not perform well in its first couple of contests.
Football, for most teams, begins the first week of January where a team gets together a few times a week in the weight room to get stronger.
The players and coaches spend a large amount of time together with the coaching staff urging and nudging the players to perform and create a winning attitude built on trust.
Teams usually come out of summer camp feeling they are the team to beat, or at least they should feel that way if the coaching staff is doing its job. Hope springs eternal and teams feel they can tackle any obstacle put in front of them coming into the first game of the season.
The best coaching staffs will rally after an opening week loss and keep the positivity and spirit at a high level. So, even though we are coming up to just the second game of a 10-game regular season, this week for teams that lost its opener, may be the most important game of the campaign.
Trust must be established. Belief in the guy lining up next to you. Belief in the coaches who are telling you if you do things this or that way, you will be successful.
And although no league titles or playoff spots will be clinched in the second week, a team may very well set its course for the rest of its slate by listening and trusting in its coaching staff and the guy lining up next to him.
Football is a game based on trusting each and every guy on the roster. It is never too early to trust what you are doing is enough to win. It is a lesson for the football field and for life.
To believe in each other and feel responsibility to do your job to be successful. it is never too early to believe in each other and yourself.
Peter DiGiovanni covers scholastic football for the Daily Local News. He can be reached at pdgiovanni07@gmail.com.
