Onward Armies of Green! Crush the Bearcats!
10/31/2009


Great battles have always been led by great generals.  Tonight is no exception!  Reaching back more than 2,000 years to one of his great ancestors - Joe Au-GOSS-stus Cesear - the head coach of the Mustangs has taken visualization to a new level as he stepped out onto the green fields of KCH this morning!  Yes, tonight's field general channeled the tactical brilliance of ancient Rome and declared that Solvay would fall under the stampeding rage of 33 Mustangs!




Who could argue?  Indeed, history has taught us never to argue with a man holding a plastic shield and wearing calf-high sandals!

So go forth tonight and rally the legion for conquest is in the air and victory has been declared!  One does not stop destiny so prepare for battle and expect to dominate the Bearcats - AGAIN!

GO MUSTANGS!  Long Live Coach Au-GOSS-stus!


Victory has been declared!



A morning rally of superheroes ...
An evening stampede of Mustangs!





Marcellus 32 ... Solvay 6
BEAT SOLVAY --- AGAIN!





The "right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.  What stands in your way is that you have much too willful will.  You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen." - Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

 

It is one of my favorite quotes.

 

For some, it is confusing.  For others, it is a riddle.  Still others, find it contradictory.  It is none of those.  It is clear and loud and profound in its proclamation of the essence of excellence.

 

It does not use the words "purposeless" and "aimless" in the way in which most of us understand their translation.  It does not tout the highest point of achievement to be void of meaning or without focus.  It does not celebrate the emptiness of success but rather the fullness of mastery. 

What it says is that the more we pursue the goal for the sake of the goal; the harder it is to reach.  It is not about the goal; it is about playing to a new level of excellence.  Reaching the goal is not the objective;  playing the best football of your life is the objective; reaching the goal will be the result.

 

Do not go out and play Friday night because you want a trip to the Dome a week later.  If the goal is winning a sectional title then realize that the harder we try to reach that goal the less successful we will be in attaining it and the farther it will retreat from our grasp.  That is because the highest goals require the highest efforts; the toughest challenges require the toughest attitudes; the pinnacle of team excellence comes from the collective pinnacle of individual excellence.

 

The game against Solvay is not about moving on as much as it is about moving in.  It is about moving inside yourself; about playing the game not so you can go to the Dome but so you can look yourself in the mirror and know you played the best game of your life.  The reason why we do something can be just as powerful as what we do because it taps that subconscious motivation; it triggers that inner drive that compels us to succeed. 

 

Solvay is a good team that can have a great night.  Just ask Chittenango.  They have athletes who can burn us if we are lazy or complacent or arrogant or reckless.  If we are anything less than our best, then we can expect nothing more than the worst.  But Solvay cannot beat you if you play to your potential.  You are the better team.  You have the better athletes.  You have the stronger match-ups.  You dominated this team once; crushed them; put them away with a statement that Marcellus has not made against Solvay in years.  You had them complaining about us moving the ball with our second team.  They cannot beat you if you do not let them.

 

So do not let them.

 

Play Friday night like the champions you are.  Play not so you can advance past them but so you can roll through them!  Give 110% on every snap; no let downs;  no missed assignments; no dips in motivation.  Play the best football of your life on Friday night and the outcome will be a forgone conclusion.  They cannot match your best; they cannot touch your best.  So give them nothing but your best!

 

Friday night is not a semi-final game; because we are not even close to being done.  This game is a privilege that allows us to take the field one more time together; play like brothers; execute like champions; feel the thrill of the game on one more autumn evening.  Solvay is just another different colored uniform across the line of scrimmage from us; we do not care who it is on the other sideline; we are not playing them; our opponent is ourselves.  We are challenging each other to deliver one more time the best football we are capable of playing; to set a personal best in our one-eleventh of the game because we know that if all 34 of us do that then there is not an opponent anywhere who can interrupt our march to excellence. 

 

This is not a semi-final game; it is 48 minutes more of the ultimate team sport - nothing comes close to the game of football - and we have the privilege of taking the field as a band of brothers and basking in that gridiron adrenaline for yet another contest!  And as long as we keep giving our personal best every snap; as long as each of us does everything in our power to perform the best we have ever performed; as long as together we never lose faith in ourselves or our teammatesl as long as we leave everything out there on the field on every play and until the final whistle blows; as long as we do that there will be another Friday night and another and another. 

 

We play them one at a time; we win them one at a time; we live them one at a time.  Now, it is time!

 

Work harder than you have ever worked this week.  Push each other, accept no slacking off, demand that everyone executes, that everyone commits, that everyone believes.  Friday night will be one of the most memorable nights of your life; not because you are going to win a semi-final game but because you are going to play the best football of your life with the brothers that have fought with you every step of the way and led by people who believe in everything you are and see in you all that you have yet to achieve.  It does not get any better than that!

 

GO MUSTANGS!