The Turnaround – Lubbock-Cooper, Tuesday

gamestrat high school football sideline instant replay

by Max Kattwinkel
Lubbock-Cooper High School Head Football Coach
Follow @MKattwinkel

Lubbock Cooper High School football helmetDay 2 of Lubbock High preparation is complete. Lots accomplished today.

Wishbone installed✔

Unbalanced Ninja set ✔

Double reverse pass back to our QB has looked pretty solid✔

Converting to the 3-3 stack defense has been tricky, but I think we will be good by Thursday✔

And, we finally have gotten the swinging gate on in the special teams department ✔

Touché Strunky!

Editor’s note: to understand the above click here to read Monday’s blog from Strunky.

On a more serious note, (or was I being serious above?!) when I was named head coach I knew that we had to stand on four qualities in order to grow. Family, Toughness, Leadership, and Character.

I feel like if we can exhibit these traits consistently, we were going to give ourselves a chance to be a better team and grow as people as well. Losses are going to happen. Bad things are going to happen in life and in football.

What we are in the face of these bad things defines who we are. The tenure of a head coach is generally not very long. It’s the nature of the profession. As a head coach, when I go to sleep at night I have to know I am doing the best I can to help these young men be successful on the field and in their lives. If we are growing in these areas, I can live with the results.

by Jason Strunk
Lubbock High School Head Football Coach
Follow @WestTXCoach

Lubbock High School football helmetWhen a coach and his schedule is off, it leads to problems. You are so routine driven during the season that any little change up can screw you up.

Well, welcome to Thursday night football!

LHS and Cooper kick off Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. The week has gone by quick. It’s already Wednesday. Tomorrow is pregame. The week is basically done.

Tomorrow we have to go over all kinds of new stuff. Kat tipped his hat and let me know they installed Ninja, the 3-3 Stack etc. Geez. It’s a chess match right up until kickoff!

Tomorrow is another day and we will see what it brings!

GETTING BETTER
The defense has played much better the last two weeks. They had another good work day today. Steven Duke, Alex Orsa and Jacob Medrano have really done a great job. Don Jackson has come in and been a physical force at the Safety spot. Devontae Greathouse has been playing both ways and he has really been a presence at OLB. Up front, Tony Garcia, Tristan Snook, Tyree Johnson and Issac Perales have been plugging gaps. Kristian Johnson and Keyshawn Collins have been solid at Corner. Tristan Warren and Mitchell Gallagher need to come up big at the other Safety spot this week.

These kids are playing hard. We have three left to play. We need to make them all count!

KICKING FOOTBALLS, NOT SOCCER BALLS
Our kickers have been great all year. Ryan Huber and AJ Garza, two outstanding soccer players, have really given us an advantage in the kicking game.

Huber has been drilling field goals all year. Last week he hit a 49 yarder, which could be a school record. Garza has been terrific at punting and his kickoffs have been exceptional.

If you want to see how far we have come, look no further than our kicking game!

RANDOMNESS
– How bout those Royals. Unreal. Clutch postseason performers so far. It takes guts.
– Mississippi St. is #1 and they are the lowest spending team in all of Division I football. Wow! Impressive… except they used $15.3 million in 2013. Yeah. That is really having to squeeze the wallet. Give me a real stat.
– This Ebola stuff is scary. It’s real now. Nothing to joke about. Twitter is full of Ebola jokes. Kids joking about it. Cut the crap with it. Nothing funny about it.
– Had dinner from the Pita Pit tonight. Good stuff. Philly cheesesteak was good!
– Stop with final four football predictions already. Let me know when a true playoff system is in place. Yahoo panel of people picking it. Let them play it all out on the field like the other divisions. Or is that too much common sense?

All done. Thursday is close. Almost time to kick it off!

No More Fumbles

Play Football

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About the Author

Jeff Fisher
Jeff is an award-winning journalist and expert in the field of high school sports, underscored with his appearance on CNBC in 2010 to talk about the big business of high school football in America.Jeff turned to his passion for high school football into an entrepreneurial venture called High School Football America, a digital media company focused on producing original high school sports content for radio, television and the internet.Jeff is co-founder and editor-in-chief of High School Football America, a partner with NFL Play Football.