Entry #15 - 1/4/04 - 2/12/04

Our players returned from Christmas vacation healthy, eager and excited to get started. We had a decent semester in the classroom with a Team GPA around 2.9. I think we had over half of our roster with above a 3.0 GPA. Most of our players are very serious about their schoolwork. By serious I mean I don’t have to worry about them not studying. They know what they have to do and they get it done. Now we have a few individuals that I have to watch and check on a daily basis. Our academic support here at ETSU is very good. We have a million dollar academic center located just around the corner from our offices and our academic counselor for our athletes, Amerika Grewal, does a tremendous job. If our players struggle in their academics, it is because they simply refused to put in the work to get the job done. They have every resource available to them to insure they are successful in the classroom. I remember long ago when I was an athlete I was no different than many of my players. Many times in high school or college, I would sit in class thinking about this week’s game plan or day dreaming about getting a game winning hit or making a game saving interception, when I should have been concentrating on my professor’s lecture. But I don’t ever recall being on the field, in the dugout, or on the sidelines thinking about making an “A” on a history or English exam. Getting your degree has to be important to you because only you can do it. No one can do it for you. You have to do the work. There is no other way around it.

We began our individual practice sessions on January 14th. Our players were into their new class schedules and eager to get back to work. Everyone returned in decent condition and excited to get back on the field. One thing about this team is they like to lift weights and they like to look at themselves in the mirror. They are very vain. I don’t have to worry about them not getting after it in the weight room. After a couple of individual sessions we were ready to begin practice with the entire team. Unfortunately “Mother Nature” was not very kind in late January and early February. The days that we were able to get outside were very cold and windy. I don’t like cold weather. I never minded playing in it but I hate coaching in it. We won’t go outside just to be outside. If everyone is miserable then you won’t get anything accomplished. When you open up with a school in Florida, you have to prepare just like they are. That means you can’t let the weather deter you from what you need to accomplish. We are blessed to have maybe the best indoor facility in the country in the “Dome”. We can have a complete practice inside when we have it to ourselves. Getting it to ourselves is the problem. We share the Dome with 15 other sports. This meant that we would sometimes have to practice late in the evenings from 9pm to 11pm. This was not ideal but it was very beneficial.

Coach Skole