Upon Further Review: Success will come one step at a time
It’s December, and I’m talking high school football.
One chapter has been closed and a new era has started with the introduction of Chris Madwell as the new head football coach for the Pioneers.
Madwell is no stranger to Warren County football, and has been involved with the high school program for the last two years. He has seen the ups and downs of the high school program and now has the opportunity to lead the program in a successful direction.
With six coaches over the last 13 years, Pioneer football has been — let’s say, not exactly one of the top programs in the state. But with new ideas comes new hope, and a breath of fresh air for Warren County football.
We all have different ways of measuring success. For some, wining is the only way to call yourself successful. But sometimes you have to understand success is measured by taking steps forward, and not backwards. The Pioneer football program has many areas for improvement, and as the old saying goes, you have to crawl before you can walk. This certainly applies to our football program.
With only three wins in the last five years, this program has to start from the ground up. We can’t expect coach Madwell and his staff to go out and win four or five games next year. That would be nice, but anyone who has a clue about football or any type of athletics knows we have to work on the little things in order to be successful. Winning would be nice but it’s not going to happen right away.
Over the next two years we as a community will have to measure success by the number of small victories on the field — and not by what the end result on the scoreboard says. If the team has been giving up 400 yards of offense a game and next year that total has been cut in half, then it’s a small victory of success, and a sign of going in the right direction.
Scoring has been a big problem for the Pioneer offense over the last couple of seasons. Sometimes the team didn’t score in the first half or even until the final quarter. But if we take those small steps, and put points on the board in the first quarter, then the team will have confidence in each other and that confidence will breed success into the second, third and fourth quartesr.
We are going to have to measure success of this team and it’s new coaching staff by looking at the small improvements they make from week to week.
For some the success will be hard to see, but for others those small baby steps will look like giant leaps. One thing we have to remember is that all the success really lies in the hands of each player on the team. The coaches can teach and help the players improve their skills, but it all boils down to how much work each player is will to do on his own. Just working out during the season and hitting the weight room only when asked will not make this team any better. It’s all the work each kid is willing to do on his own that will help this team succeed.
It’s very easy to blame the coaches but the real blame falls on the shoulders of each and every player. Some will never understand the true effort it will take to make you a better athlete. Only the few who are willing to sacrifice many hours during the off-season will understand the benefits of small steps to success.
And only the combined efforts of everyone involved in the program, from the new head coach down to the last player on the Pioneer roster, will make that success possible.