by Jason Strunk
Lubbock High School Head Football Coach
Follow @WestTXCoach
When I have time on my hands I like I write. I have said it on here before: this is therapeutic.
Jeff Fisher of High School Football America gave me a blank canvas and he said run with it. He offers advice on topics and different story angles. I may be able to piece paragraphs together, but I am no award-winning author. However, I am thankful for the opportunity he has provided me and the guidance he sends my way in giving football coaches across America some insight.
Some thoughts for the day
Be thankful for what you have:
January 12th will mark 20 years since my mother died while I was a senior in high school. I don’t mask death with phrases such as “passed away” or “is now in a better place”. Look, my mothers death taught me that life is a tough thing at times. It’s not easy. I directly correlate that thought to football.
Our sport is tough at times and it’s difficult. Football is like life in every sense. Little did I know that my mother’s death 20 years ago would shape me into the person and coach I am today. I made it through the tough times. Tough times build tough people. I am able to teach this to our football team. We are all about real world applications at LHS. Football is hard; life is harder at times.
With the recent health scare of my dad, an ICU stay included, it made me once again be thankful for what I have, not what I don’t have. I already lost a parent. On a sixty minute drive to the hospital last Friday, I thought I lost my second parent. Those sixty minutes were brutal. But we made it through.
Again, be thankful for what you have. Enjoy life and embrace everything that is thrown at you. It’s all you can do. Life and football go hand-in-hand.
X’s and O’s on the blog
Just wrapped up my 19th year of coaching. I have learned a lot. I have coached every position on the field. My career has taken from high school football to the Big Ten Conference. You don’t do this without knowing X’s and O’s.
I was recently asked why I don’t talk X’s and O’s on the blog. For me, it is a simple answer. To get to this point, X’s and O’s are only small part of it. You won’t find me on here breaking down Cover 2 or how we run our Key series. To be honest, that stuff bores me to death. Coaches thumping their chests on Twitter when breaking down a play during a game is annoying. Really annoying. It drives me up a wall. I get it. You know how an NFL team just ran a play. Impressive.
This blog isn’t about that. This blog is to offer behind the scenes and insight into rebuilding a program. It is way more than X’s and O’s. It’s more about relationships, unity, chemistry etc. Draw up the plays all you want. But you won’t win unless you have the ingredients I just mentioned!
Some random thoughts for the day.
