Today was pretty calm at the office due to the offensive coaches having meetings all day.  I was able to meet with Coach Land in between his meetings and discuss some goals of mine and asked him for his feedback and advise on how to obtain those goals.  He suggested I continue to be involved with the program and expose myself to as many aspects of the game as possible.  This includes talking to position coaches and learning from them, becoming involved with the recruiting process, and also learning about the finances and management of an entire football program.  
    I talked with the Recruiting Coordinator about possibly recruiting around where I live and he seemed very receptive about the idea.  This will allow me to get my feet wet in the recruiting process without requiring me to travel long distances.  Recruiting such a small area will be beneficial because I can find my own style of recruiting and talk to some coaches I am familiar with.  
    I did run into one small problem today that I am not sure how to handle.  I am sure the coaches are just giving me a hard time and joking around but one will ask me to do something and then another coach will ask me to do something.  If I say I already have something to do, they will respond with "What? I am not important enough for you?".  If I then say OK, I will get your task done, the coach will say "Now you're saying the other coach isn't important enough for you?".  At that point, I basically have to say you have to wait then and if they get mad, they get mad.  I just don't want to make a coach mad

The preparations for the beginning of camp continued today as we made sure every player had a locker and we had enough equipment for each player.  This year, our roster will start with 172 total players.  At the Division III level, numbers are always important because it increases total enrollment, which the administration always like to see.  I also printed off the defensive coaches manuals for this year and found out what my responsibilities will be during the season.  My job title will be assistant safeties coach and assistant to the defensive coordinator.  My primary duties will include diagnosing the opposing teams favorite route combinations and also assisting will game film breakdowns.  I was also asked if I wanted to help with recruiting, which I gladly agreed to.  Any experience I can obtain through this mentorship and throughout the season will help me in my endeavor to become a college football coach or work for a sports organization.  Whenever I am asked to take on added responsibility, I feel the coaches trust me and know I will give it my all to do the best job possible.  
    Before my mentorship started, the coaching staff knew I was interested in becoming a football coach but I don't think they realized how serious I am about it.  I believe I have shown a willingness to learn and do whatever is needed to ensure the success of the football team.  I feel all I need is an opportunity to demonstrate my knowledge of the game, along with my work ethic, and I can prove I am an asset to any organization.  
    The only difficulty I have experienced so far is being able to juggle work with school, my mentorship, and my home life.  So far, I have been able to do a satisfactory job but I think I could do a better job of managing my time and devoting it to either my ssch

    Today was a very informative day for me because I sat in on some offensive meetings and also talked to Coach Land of the duties involved with being an athletic director at the collegiate level.  
    During the offensive meetings, I was often lost when blocking schemes were talked about because I never had to worry about them when I played college football or coached at the high school level.  It was a great experience for me because I was able to learn something new which will help me become a better coach.  The more I know about the game, the more I can understand why certain things work and others will not.  
    The main thing I learned from Coach Land about being an athletic director is you sacrifice a lot of your time.  Whether it be meetings with school administrators or conference meetings with other schools.  Throughout the summer, Coach Land has had several meetings each week and his time to relax is minimal.  And, because he is not only the athletic director but the head coach of the football team, he has even less time to enjoy himself and his family.  It takes a great deal of sacrifice to hold both of these positions and it is very crucial to be detailed and well organized.

Today, most real football activity was halted due to the school switching out the old computers and replacing them with newer models.  The IT department came and took all the computers in the office around 11 am and failed to bring over the new ones by 5 pm.  So in order to pass time, I was sent on the mission to make sure returning players had the correct color and numbered practice jersey and had to count all the practice jerseys we have for incoming players.  Our equipment room is located under the bleachers and is not as air conditioned as the offices.  With temperatures over 100 today, it made counting jerseys a very hot job.  Once I had all the jerseys inventoried, I had to make a list of all the jerseys we need to buy for both the offense and the defense.  When I completed that task, I studied my playbook and ran miscellaneous errands for other coaches.  Then came by pop quiz, given by the defensive coordinator and safeties coach.  I was asked to draw formations on the dry erase board and then describe the duties of the secondary based on the coverage he asked me.  I also had to know any checks that were needed to be made based on the offense's formation.  I was doing really well until I was asked about the checks in our man-free coverage.  I knew the checks but was overthinking everything and confused a couple with a different coverage.  Needless to say, the defensive coordinator was not very happy about it.  After I was done with my quiz, I went right back to studying my playbook and memorizing the checks for each coverage because I felt like an idiot for not knowing two of the three checks.  Next time I am quizzed, I will make sure

Starting to sound like a broken record but today was consumed with adding more recruits to our database and watching film.  It was very boring adding all the new recruits this morning but it is a necessary evil and this part of recruiting is very important to the program.  The good part about knowing my way around the recruiting program we use is I was entrusted to show our new assistant coach how to use the system and navigate his way around the site.  It feels good to know the coaches believe I am capable of teaching others and they feel I will be thorough when doing the task at hand.  My afternoon was filled with watching film and continuing to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the players in order to improve their performance this fall.  During my film sessions, the defensive coordinator periodically stops in and asks me questions about what I am seeing and what can be done to fix the problem.  I am able to learn a lot from these sessions because I can break down the film with an experienced coach and he can help me better understand certain concepts and what he is trying to do when he calls a certain play. 

Today was a very busy day in the football offices.  I was greeted this morning with a list of about 75 players that need added to the recruiting database.  Coaches attend summer camps throughout the area and bring back a list of players they believe could play at the college level.  Apparently, the coaching staff had saved four of those lists for me and got me started on those right away this morning.  After working on the recruiting list for about an hour or so, the defensive coordinator called the defensive coaches into the staff room and wanted to go over the defensive run fits as well as coverages.  It is always beneficial to sit down with the different position coaches and learn about the responsibilities of other positions and what coaches think about certain defenses.  This meeting also turned out to be a pop quiz for me because the coordinator kept asking me questions about the coverages to see if I had been studying them.  Fortunately for me, I answered the questions correctly and showed the coaching staff I am dedicated to being a coach. 
After the meeting was over, I thought I was going to be able to get back to adding the recruits but I was wrong.  It was back to counting shoulder pads so we could figure out how many pads we need to order.  Once again, I would like to reiterate, it is very boring counting equipment and reorganizing it.  When we finally finished going through the pads for the fourth time, it was back to the computer and back to adding recruits.  I was able to get about half of them added today and will continue putting them in first thing in the morning.  Even though the system makes this part of recruiting easier, it is also very mundane and can get boring after a few ho

Well, I thought I was done counting equipment for the summer.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  I spent the first part of my day counting practice pants and separating them into piles according to size.  After I was done doing that, I had to separate and count both our navy and white game pants.  The most difficult part of the game pants was figuring out how to store them in the limited locker space we have.  When we finally figured out our locker situation, I had roll the pants back up and put them in their appropriate place.  Today, I counted over 600 pairs of football pants.  As I said in an earlier post, taking inventory of our equipment is probably the worst part of my mentorship so far. 
It wasn't until 2 pm when I finally got to sit down and actually work on a football activity.  I was able to sit down with the special teams coordinator and look over the responsibilities of each of our special teams units and make suggestions regarding schemes.  I really enjoy being able to sit down with a coach and discuss with him different schemes.  It allows me to take what I know and receive feedback from coaches who have been teaching the game for a long time.  I think one of the keys to becoming a successful coach is being able to take principles from another coach and adapt them into your own style.  After I was done reviewing special teams, it was back to watching film from last year  

Most of my day was spent watching film and charting mistakes I saw during last years games.  The football team uses a service called Hudl to upload game film, practices, and other teams' game film.  This allows not only the coaches to watch film but also players.  Being able to navigate and edit film on Hudl will be very beneficial to me.  Since high school, I have always been a person that likes to watch film because, paired with insight from the coach, it is the most beneficial learning tool.  I also believe watching film determines how good of a coach you want to be.  Some coaches spend countless hours breaking down film and learning everything possible about the opposing team as well as correcting mistakes made by their own players.  Other coaches, who I believe don't want to be as successful or are not as dedicated, do not watch hours of film or do not correct the small mistakes they see.  In all aspects of life, the small things matter and if you don't fix those small mistakes they will add up to a larger problem.  Film also holds players accountable for their actions on the field because the film never lies.  What I mean by that is, during a game, a coach may not see something or a player may see or do something else that conflicts with what the coach saw.  By watching film, they can talk about the play and correct the problem so it doesn't happen again in the future.
My other responsibility for the day was to go through emails and watch highlights of prospective recruits.  I find this part of my mentorship to be very interesting as well because I am able to decide if a player has the tools to be successful in our program as well as our University.  Because Trine is a private university, academic standards are high and GPA or test scores are the first criteria that has to be met.  If their grades are good enough we then add them to our recruiting database so we can contact them throughout the season to gauge their interest.  Adding and deleting players from the database is by far the most boring thing I have done so far.  Each day I learn more about the behind the scenes work associated with coaching college sports, and each day it further solidifies my feelings of wanting to be a successful college coach.  

As camp looms nearer, activity in the football office is picking up.  We were able to finalize our camp schedule, create position specific responsibility packets, and finish our equipment inventory.  To any equipment manager out there, my hat is off to you.  Counting helmets, shoulder pads, practice uniforms, and travel gear may be one of the most boring jobs in the world.  And then, we had to make sure we had enough of the right size helmets and shoulders to match up with the sizes of the incoming freshman.  While making the packets, I was responsible for making sure all coverages were in the packet and created a inventory of skills for all safeties to possess.  I also had to make sure all the coverage checks were covered as well as blitz responsibilities.   Our camp schedule was not as easy to finish because we had to follow NCAA practice regulations and had to work around orientations and other school events before classes start.  I also had the joy of delivering expense reports to the business office, passing out mail, and making coffee.  So far, if I have learned anything, it is to make sure the coffee is hot or you make the head coach