Coachs Corner

COACH'S CORNER

Oct 4th 2009

TEAMWORK…

“Great teamwork is the only way we create breakthroughs that define our careers.”

~ Pat Riley

We are down to a 3 game season. What I mean is that our season hinges on the next 3 games. We are at the midpoint of our season and it is time for us to come together and be great… in practice and in the game. This is a game we can and must win. Sand Springs has a good team, and are very well coached. We must be sound and not give the game to them.

Effort will be everything and our players will be evaluated on how close they are to the ball when the whistle blows!! The 3H’s are going to be a huge determining factor in this game… Nobody should be able to outhit, outheart, or outhustle us!! These are three things that we can control. Three other things we must win are Turnovers, Tackling, and Third down!

Nobody expected to be winless at this point in the season, but I also don’t think anyone expected to be playing 14 sophomores and our first 5 opponents to have a combined record of 20-5 (with the only losses coming to each other)… However, if we are the team I think we are, we will come have a great week, and this will be our breakthrough game that will allow us to define our careers!!

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subject: coach's corner

Sept. 19th 2009

GOALS…

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with the plan.” ~ Tom Landry

When we started this season, we set some very specific goals…

1. Make the Play-offs

2. Win State

We also had a plan in place… it involved getting better every week, maturing as a football team, and be playing our best football when the play-offs hit. We have played a very tough non-district schedule for a reason… to evaluate our performance in a realistic manner. If you don’t play great teams, sometimes your deficiencies don’t get exposed until it’s too late.

We are still on track to reach our goals, and the plan has not changed. We must continue to improve on our deficiencies and eliminate the mistakes we are making. I am like most competitors and hate to lose.. so on that note I am disappointed, but I am definitely not discouraged. I believe that we are improving and if we stay focused on our goals and more importantly the plan to get there, we will be where we need to be at the end of the year. We had 12 sophomores and 1 freshman either start or get significant minutes last Friday… although this makes it a little tough at times now, it will pay off in the end!

Bartlesville is a very good football team with some very talented players. We must come out and start fast, play fast, and execute! If we do this, we will win the game. Hopefully you can make it to Bartlesville this week and help us get that “W”!!

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subject: coach's corner

Sept. 13th 2009

MISTAKES…

“You don’t win by making sensational plays; you win by not making mistakes.” ~ Bum Phillips

I feel like we corrected some of the mistakes last week that we made in game 1… however, we still have far too many mistakes happening. NC basketball coach Dean Smith once said, “What to do with a mistake: Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it… don’t let it happen again” That’s what we must do this week, and it must happen during a great week of preparation. Although, the game was short last week, I feel like we still matured as a team. We must continue this maturation process and it all starts with recognizing our mistakes and fixing them… during practice! Friday night was one of the stranger games I’ve been involved with, but I was proud of the fact that our kids didn’t quit although we had a bad start. In fact, we feel like we were starting to find our groove offensively and were in a good situation at the end of that first quarter. HOWEVER.. it goes down as a no contest… so we will only have 9 regular season games this year… and they don’t get any easier…

Obviously Union is a great football team, so we must have a great week of preparation from everyone. The scout team is never more important than they are the week you play a really good football team. Every player, coach, and everyone involved in this program must bring their “A” game so we can pull that upset that will leave everyone in the state talking!! Don’t just be good this week…. BE GREAT!

Matt Hennesy

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subject: coach's corner

Sept. 8th 2009

LOSING…

“Losing doesn’t make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.” - Bear Bryant

I knew we would hit some bumps on our way to the State Title. We just hit our first bump… However, I can tell you that our coaches and players came to work on Saturday and have been working harder than ever on fixing the things that went wrong against Owasso. I thought our defense played great, and being down only 4-0 in the 4th quarter was actually pretty good, given the predicament our defense was put in throughout the night. Our inexperience showed up against Owasso, and will show up again as the year goes on. The true measurement for us, will be… are we getting better every week, and are we fixing the mistakes we made the week before. I truly believe that we are going to be a great team by the end of the year, but only if we use every moment as a teaching opportunity!

The crowd was great Friday night… keep coming and know how bright the future of the Rougher Football is…. And you know when I say future, I mean this year!!

Matt Hennesy

rougher@rougherfootball.com

subject: coach's corner

Sept. 1st 2009

UNCOMMON

“Success is uncommon, therefore not to be enjoyed by the common man. I’M LOOKING FOR UNCOMMON PEOPLE.” - Tony Dungy

As I’ve been reading Coach Dungy’s book, I’ve realized that I’ve managed to surround myself with a bunch of uncommon people.

It is uncommon to totally commit yourself to something that the end result is not guaranteed.It is uncommon to be willing to show up every day and always be giving 100%.
It is uncommon to be willing to sacrifice everything for a bunch of other guys.
It is uncommon to not worry about what others think, and just come together with a single goal.

Although we graduated a lot of good players, I am excited about this season. Our kids and coaches have worked extremely hard to silence all the critics. Although we may hit some bumps in the road early in the season, I believe that this team has the chance to be very good by the time the play-offs roll around.

We will get a chance early to find out what we need to work on, as our non-district schedule is brutal. We open with #4 Owasso, #8 Norman North, and then #1 Union… not to mention we have already scrimmaged #5 MWC, #10 Mustang, #3 BA and 5-A#3 Bixby… then of course we have #2 Jenks, and #7 Sand Springs in our district… So as you can see… we will have to grow up on the run.

This is going to be an exciting year for Rougher football and you don’t wanna miss a second of it! We all know that there is only one “Roughers” mascot in the world… which would seem to make us uncommon… but then again, I already knew that!!

No Fear-No Doubt / All In-All Out! We are THE Muskogee High School and we are THE ROUGHERS!!

One God / One Nation / One Rougher!

Matt Hennesy

rougher@rougherfootball.com

subject: coach's corner