Lets Go Bowling

I would like to wish these guys good luck in their Bowl Games this year. Great Season guys, proud of ya!



BCS Games

• Michael Brewster Ohio State Buckeyes - Citi Rose Bowl
  
• Jaye Howard, Lorenzo Edwards, Chris Guido, and Jeremy Brown Florida Gators - All State Sugar Bowl

Non - BCS Bowl Births

• Henry Wright UCK Knights - St. Petersburg Bowl
• Ray Ray Armstrong and Dyron Dye University if Miami - Champs Sports Bowl
  
• Ryan Dukes Air Force - Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl
  

Tis the Season For Winning

Rob Cosler and the Butler Bulldogs capped off the most successful season in school history with a victory over Central Connecticut State in the Gridiron Classic. With the win the Bull dogs finished the year with a 11-1 record for the year and their first Pioneer Football League Championship. Rob finished the year with 26 tackles and a sack.

Aaron Michelet and the Mount Union Raiders will play UW - Whitewater in the Stagg Bowl for the Division 3 Championship this weekend. The 10 time National Champion Raiders will look to take home another title with a win. Check the game out on ESPN 2 at 11:30.

Chloe Chemtob won the Canadian Squash Open this past weekend. Chloe took home the Championship in the under 13 division. This is the largest tournament in Canada and had the top players from all over the country in it. Chloe will look to win the U.S Squash Tournament this weekend.

Congrats you guys. Look forward to the Bowl Updates for the athletes coming later this week. Have a great holiday season.

Athletes in the News:

• David Barnard and Ty Darlington lead the Apopka Blue Darters to a thrilling 58 -52 win in 5 overtimes over the top ranked Dr. Phillips Panthers. The Blue Darters move on to the third round of the state play offs where they will face Treasure Coast. Good luck guys!
• Kendrick Perry point guard from Edgewater High School has been ranked as one of the Top 25 Basketball athletes in Central Florida for 2010 by the Orlando Sentinel. Kendrick who recently committed to Youngstown State looks to have a big senior season leading the Eagles!
• Jaye Howard, Chris Guido, Lorenzo Edwards and Jeremy Brown help the number 1 ranked Florida Gators stay perfect with a big win over Florida State. The win sets up a huge showdown between the top two teams in the country when they will play Alabama in the SEC Championship game Saturday. Good Luck Guys!
• Rob Cosler and the Butler Bulldogs look to finish off a great year when they play Central Connecticut State in the Grid Iron Classic. Butler is 10 - 1 will hope to push their record to an unmatched 11-1 the best record in school history.

Great Weekend For Our Football Athletes

While it was a rough weekend for my ECU Pirates many of my athletes had successful weekends on the gridiron. Here are some highlights from the weekend. Proud of you guys! High School Athletes:

• Apopka High School - David Barnard and Ty Darlington Clinched a District Championship with a big win over Ocoee High School
  
• Lake Brantley High - Danny Palmer, Joey Grant, Austin Lueck, Scott Teal, and Brye Bergeron clinched a playoff birth with a win over Lake Mary
  

College Guys :

• Jaye Howard, Lorenzo Edwards, Jeremy Brown and Chirs Guido when their 19th straight and are int he SEC Championship game with the Florida Gators
  
• Michael Brewster and the Ohio State Buckeyes put themselves in position to win another Big Ten Championship with a win over Penn State
• Ray Ray Armstrong and Dyron Dye and the University of Miami had a big win over Wake Forest to keep themselves in the hunt for the ACC Championship game
• Rob Cosler and the Butler Bull Dogs continue to be hot and push their record to 9 -0

Taking Care of the Little Things will Lead you to Your Goals

Many times with our athletes we speak to them about the importance of taking care of the little things such as eating right, going to bed early and performing every exercise with great intensity and effort. We know that performing these little things will lead to the athletes reaching their ultimate goal of performing at their peak come game time. In fact, I believe that the "little things" are often looked over by most people.
I believe that we are all guilty of setting large lofty goals that will be very difficult to achieve. We go out and work hard to achieve these goals with out identifying the small steps that will allow us to be successful. After a few weeks or months we look at where we are and realize that we have not made much progress. We have been failing to perform the little things that are necessary to succeed.
Coach Jon Wooden the legendary former UCLA basketball coach says in his book Wooden on Leadership that " the little things make the big things happen." Coach Wooden was notorious for his preparation and extreme attention to detail that he used both in his program and his personal life. With this great attention to detail Coach Wooden and his teams were always the most prepared when they faced their competition. The UCLA Bruins went on to win 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years and had a 88 game winning streak during that time. It was obvious that Coach Wooden and his teams took care of the little things and it lead to unmatched success on the court.

Here are a few tips to start taking care of the little things and watch all of your goals come true.

1. Identify - In order to perform the little things we must identify what they are. The best way to identify these steps is too look at your ultimate goal and identify what little things within this large task done correctly will lead to you reaching that ultimate goal.
2. Attentiveness to Detail -Once you have identified these little things write them down in the most detail as possible and leave nothing to chance. Often the difference in becoming great rather than good is the perfection of minor details.
3. Remove the irrelevant - Remove any obstacles or task that you see as taking away from you performing the little things and reaching your goal. This will keep you on the right track and will keep you from wasting your time and energy on task that do not directly move you closer to where you want to go.
   
4. Strive for Perfection - Coach Wooden said " perfection, as I understand it is not attainable by mortal man. striving for it, however is very attainable. And I strove for it ceaselessly." All though we all cannot be perfect it doesn't mean that we cant strive to be everyday. Hold your self to a standard of excellence while performing the little things and all that you do on a daily basis.
   
5. Patience - Like all great things in life. your goals will take more time, more work and more dedication than you think. Be patient and work on doing the little things with perfection everyday. If you can identify these little things, make them as detailed as possible, remove the irrelevant and strive for perfection in time you will reach all of your goals that you set for your self.
   

Get working on the little things today!

Building Confidence to Succeed

Often the difference between the winning and loosing team is the confidence level that the team that comes out victorious has. This confidence is something that is easily seen by the competition and often come across as arrogance. Most of the time this confidence is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication to becoming great that the confident individual or team has been put in behind the scenes. Below is the two factors that lead to confident athletes and individuals.

1. Success - Nothing builds confidence like performing well. In any field , knowing what to do, and being able to do it successfully, is the single greatest lift to a persons confidence.Former NFL great Y.A. Title said that " you have to have a past history of some success to give yourself status and self confidence. you have to have accomplished something before you can believe in yourself."
2. Preparation - Vince Lombardi said " confidence comes from planning and practicing well. Get ready during the week , and the confidence will be there on Sunday. This confidence is difficult to explain. But you do get it and the team gets it if you prepare properly." Development of skills mental, physical, and technical during your preparation lead to being confident come game day. Practice or preparation is vital to being successful when it comes time to perform.
   

Steps to Building Confidence:

1. Win - Put yourself in situations where you can experience success. Often times small victories will build confidence to move on to larger task or goals. Win in everything that you do throughout the day or practice and let your confidence grow.
   
2. Out Work them - Work hard to prepare yourself. It takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes to become confident and succeed when the time comes. Tell yourself that know one is going to work harder than you are to become great at what you do. Get up early, stay after practice, watch extra film. Anything to put you ahead of your competition.
   
3. Expect to Succeed - The mind is a very powerful tool that each of us have. Go out and expect to be great at everything that you do. Expect to be the best and to succeed whenever the time comes to perform. This will put you in the right mind set to unleash all of your preparation and hard work that you have put in behind the scenes. Expect to win and you will!

Go out and prepare today to become great so that when your time comes you are confident that you will perform at a high level and succeed!

The Make Up of a Winning Team

The Make up of a Winning Team

Athletes spend countless hours in the weight room, meetings and on the practice field preparing for game day. Coaches preach TEAM to their players during these hours of preparation and use the success of the group as the driving force behind the individuals on the team. It is widely known that all things being equal the group of individuals that believe and live the TEAM concept will come out victorious in the end. When this make up is present individuals and teams have success. Below are a few essential aspects are in the " make up" of winning teams.

TEAM - Together Everyone Accomplishes More

Goals - a winning team has clear goals that are set by the coaches and players on the team. These goals are the driving force behind everything that they do and are kept visible for the players to work towards on a daily basis. These goals are often in the form of Conference Championships, undefeated seasons or making it to a bowl game. Teams with meaningful goals will work harder, persist longer and endure more to reach their goals.

Talent - it has been said that you can win with bad coaching but you can't win without talent. Just having this talent on board is not enough to have a winning team. Talented players must buy into the team concept and goals that are set for the team. Talent must be developed and shaped into a focused, integrated unit for the team to take advantage of the individual talent and become a high performing team.

Leadership- Everything rises and falls on leadership. Leadership on teams comes in a few different forms. You have the coaches who pass on the vision, goals, and standards and hold the athletes accountable. As well as the athletes that have grown into a leadership role on the team, often these players are older players who have paid their dues and earned the respect of the team. These coaches and players provide clear direction and examples of what it takes to become a winner in their everyday practices. A winning team has players and coaches who model team first leadership and who are able to enroll the rest of the team for their cause.

Commitment - Winning teams pay the price to become the best. These teams believe in their goals and their leadership and will do whatever it takes to achieve the teams' goals. This commitment starts with the leadership and flows down to the rest of the team. Often resulting in a team that takes a "failure is not an option" attitude to its daily routines throughout the year. With out this commitment individuals will not be able to sacrifice their egos and personal agendas to for the good of the team. Commitment to is essential in winning teams

Confidence - Winning teams believe they can. They expect to win. There are two things that build confidence in these teams: success and preparation. Nothing builds confidence in teams like performing well; this performance starts in the athletes preparations for the season. Performing well in the weight room, practices and scrimmages all lead to the team being confident come game day. It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to get spectacular results. This preparation leads to a team that plays with confidence trust in them selves and trust in each other. Leading to a winning team on the field.