News and Announcements
Congratulations to Tommy McCormick for winning the week #10 Golden Gerka Award. Tommy’s focus and determination to improve were evident all week, and he followed that up with an excellent performance in our crucial game against Lassen. Tommy is already a star in our league and is used to the limelight, but that is not what this award is about. The Golden Gerka must be tough, intense, focused, a leader by example, and grimly determined to improve personally and as a team. This award is won or lost between the ears, not with your hands and feet, and Tommy displayed it better than anyone this week. I hope this will be a new beginning for Tommy, where he is no longer satisfied with being a really good player but becomes relentless in pursuing GREATNESS because he (and several others on this team) can get there if he only decides to pay the price. The Golden Gerka is an award but it is not THE Reward – a beginning and not an end. There is no greater reward in life than knowing you pursued something you loved to the utmost extent of your ability and wrung every ounce of potential out of yourself. When you have done that then you are a Champion, no matter how many games you won or lost.
-Coach Little
Past winners:
Week 1 – Devin Souza
Week 2 – Gabriel Hardy
Week 3 – Nico Hofheins
Week 4 – Andrew Phillips
Week 5 – Gabe Hardy
Week 6 – Reile Cole
Week 7 – James Harmony
Week 8 – Brock Richardson
Week 9 – Quinlin Jackson
Congratulations to Quinlin Jackson for winning the week 9 Golden Gerka Award. Quinlin’s outstanding hussle and determination at practice along with a super game on Saturday earned him this award. Quinlin is the youngest player on the team, a full year or more younger than most of the others, and had to be granted special permission to "play up" with the Mavericks this year. I am very glad he did! Not only can Quinlin keep up with the older boys, he pushes our best players every practice. This, along with his great attitude and super play, makes our team better. As a result, Quinlin will be an automatic Captain this week, will wear the coveted Golden Jersey all week at practice, and will lead all of our breaks. Congratulations again Quinlin!
-Coach Little
Past winners:
Week 1 – Devin Souza
Week 2 – Gabriel Hardy
Week 3 – Nico Hofheins
Week 4 – Andrew Phillips
Week 5 – Gabe Hardy
Week 6 – Reile Cole
Week 7 – James Harmony
Week 8 – Brock Richardson
Congratulations to Brock Richardson for winning the week #8 Golden Gerka Award! Brock’s talent level has never been in question but this week his hustle, focus, intensity and toughness were markedly improved. Anytime you can get a player with a high talent level to "buy in" and understand what it takes to be a champion – and then go pay that price – there is no limit to what that athlete can accomplish. His great week in practice was followed by a stellar performance in the game against McQueen. Offensively we are running alot of new plays this year, and many of them were called on Saturday to great effect. Brock completed a TD pass and a pass for an extra point, along with another completion for a first down. He also ran the ball effectively and displayed alot of leadership on the field. As always, our Golden Gerka Winner will get to wear the Golden Jersey all week in practice, will be an automatic Captain, and will lead all of our breaks. Congratulations again, Brock and keep it up!
-Coach Little
Past winners:
Week 1 – Devin Souza
Week 2 – Gabriel Hardy
Week 3 – Nico Hofheins
Week 4 – Andrew Phillips
Week 5 – Gabe Hardy
Week 6 – Reile Cole
Week 7 – James Harmony
Congratulations to James Harmony for winning the week #7 Golden Gerka award. James is a new player on our team, and has really grown alot this week. James showed the biggest improvement in aggressiveness, hustle, and intensity in a week where several other players also improved. James was a little timid early in the season but really came out of his "shell" in practice this week and delivered some of the biggest hits we’ve seen all season against some of our veteran players. James needs to continue to develop his football knowledge in game situations but has definately earned the right to be on the field. Good job and keep it up!
-Coach Little
Past winners:
Week 1 – Devin Souza
Week 2 – Gabriel Hardy
Week 3 – Nico Hofheins
Week 4 – Andrew Phillips
Week 5 – Gabe Hardy
Week 5 – Reile Cole
I spend alot of time trying to figure out ways for our team to win. As I told my coaches in our first pre-season meeting – if this team doesn’t win a Championship before they get to High School then we have failed them. My job as Head Coach is multi-faceted. I need to recruit talented atheletes away from Pop Warner and Soccer. I must develop an offense that is flexible enough to adopt to any defense. I also need to call the correct plays at the right time. Defensively, I need to make sure we know how to tackle and that we can can read offenses. Those are X’s and O’s – but my most important job isn’t about X’s and O’s, or about recruiting talent. We have loads of talent on our team – and that’s great. We can’t win without talent. But what I value even more than talent is HEART.
The most important (and most difficult) job I have is to develop heart, and we need a lot more of it on this team. This is my 3rd year as a Head Coach and I have never had a team come from behind to win a game. Mostly that’s because we just don’t ever get behind, which is a good thing. But I’m not sure yet if we have the heart to come from behind, because I’m not sure about our players’ love and trust of one another. Do we believe in one another? Or do we rely on a few "elite" players to bail us out all the time? Our runners must believe that our blockers will block. Our blockers must believe that our runners will read the blocks correctly and take the correct routes. Everyone must believe that our defense will always dominate our opponent. When we stop hoping that Tommy will score for us or that Brock will make a desperation tackle – and start doing our jobs all over the field – when we stop wondering how someone else will bail us out and start thinking about how I will do my job to dominate my opponent – and when the "elite" players remember that they go NOWHERE without the help of every other teammate – when every player plays with not just DESIRE (which everyone has, strong, weak, good or bad) but HEART (which is rare because it costs you something to show heart) – then by God we will have what we’ve been looking for all along. We wont just have HEART – we’ll have ONE HEARTBEAT. And if we ever do… there is no limit to where we can go.
-Coach Little
