It was a big day last Sunday to see 18 of our kids march at graduation. I noticed also there were 13 kids who we had recruited for football, but did not finish out with us received degrees too. It is a testament that BC can be a great place for kids without sports even if they choose to go in another direction. Spring grades have been posted and although we will have some kids who will have work to do over the summer, the team’s academic effort will give us a good chance to keep key kids on the field. Thirty kids had GPAs in spring above 3.0. There is a lot of individual work that will need to be done over the next 12 weeks for us to be a team to challenge for the ODAC championship. The seniors have a pretty good sense of urgency about them, and their off field efforts have set a pretty good standard to follow. Coach Healey did Strength and Conditioning clinic last weekend for a group of High School coaches and they were impressed with the video he had of Bieler, Burris, and Tate. The numbers of these “Non-Scholarship” athletes surpassed those of the kids of the Division I coach who shared the stage with him. To make it to the National level you need about 10 kids in Division III who we use the term “play-up.” Kudos to these kids and over the summer they need to pull teammates up with them. On the other end of the spectrum it will be the ability of the group in the rising sophomore class to mature and add a sense of urgency to their summer preparation that will be important to our success. We are razor thin on the defensive side of the ball everywhere but at LB. In the offensive line we will need about 5 young linemen to grow up quickly over the summer. You can have great skill kids, but if you lose control of the line of scrimmage that speed does not show as often.
At this stage now we have to buy into the process. The product will then take care of itself. Recruiting numbers are good, but there is a big difference between team members and players. Team members are easy to find, finding or developing players however determines success.
~Coach Clark
*(Click here to send questions or comments about the BC football program to Coach Clark.)
