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Winston Churchill

                Welcome to Liberty Patriot Football. You have volunteered to participate in an activity that will stretch you in every possible way: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. You will face all kinds of adversity. You will experience all kinds of success. Friday night football games will be one of the most intense activities you will participate in your entire life.

            Each of you is playing football for a different reason: you like the camaraderie, you like hitting people, you like the glory, and so on. Regardless of why you are playing, I want you to be explicitly clear on one thing: our success is contingent upon the degree of unity, belief, and commitment we have to each other and to Liberty High School. Otherwise we are simply 50 players and 10 coaches who are acting as individuals. We develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker by far, than all of us are together. Our primary objective is to develop into a team focused on and committed to a common goal. Commitment is crucial to any success we experience as a football program. With this in mind, I share with you a phrase I use with all players and future players: There is nothing wrong with NOT playing football, but there is a whole lot wrong with saying you are a football player and making a half-hearted commitment.”

            I invite you to dive in with both feet to Liberty Football. Don’t simply dip your toe in the water to test it out – go for it all the way! The team’s success is directly proportional to each individual’s level of commitment.

The key ingredients of successful teams include:

·        Trust – it comes from staying true to each other and our common goal. The more we trust each other, the more likely we are to feel comfortable. The more comfortable we are, the more likely we are to take risks. The more likely we are to take risks, the more likely we are to reach levels of success we have never before attained.

·        Ownership and personal responsibility – each individual feels personally responsible for the success of the team. He puts the team first and himself second.  The mentality is BIG TEAM, little me. Or, BIG PATRIOT, little me.

·        Loyalty – to each other, to your coaches, to your school. Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He was describing the condition of our country as war loomed in the future. Our house is this football team.

·        Standards of Excellence – a real winning attitude comes from being the best you can be – and doing the best you can. Individually and collectively we must set standards of excellence in all areas and hold one another accountable. To become an Upper Limit team, we individually and collectively must set upper limit standards of excellence.

·        A Heart – as your coach, my job is to find who the heart of this team is and bring it out. Sometimes the heart is one key player, or, in most situations it’s a group of players. The heart of the team can bring out the best in everyone else. The person with heart inspires the entire team. It’s like chemistry. He’s the one who makes the formula work – the one element that sets off the explosive reaction.