Entry #66 - 8/21/07

Wow! Another school year is right around the corner. This Thursday evening our team will be together for the first time and I can't wait. It has been a very productive summer and our staff is extremely excited to get everyone back on campus. The final third of last season left a miserable feeling in my gut. This feeling has been with me all summer long and I haven't been able to shake it. I've come to the conclusion that the only way to remedy this feeling is to get back on the field and get back to work. As always, during the summer months, our staff always evaluates everything we do in our program. I always talk, share ideas and pick the brains of other successful coaches throughout the country to see how they do things. Our staff left no stone unturned in our evaluation and we are excited about the direction we are heading. My father instilled in me at a very young age that failure is not necessarily at the end of the road. Many times it is at the beginning of a new and more exciting journey. Our staff is energized and ready to get this journey started.

As with every year I am extremely excited about our new players which we have coming to campus. We will have eleven new players in our clubhouse Thursday evening. On paper from top to bottom, this is the deepest class we have ever brought in at ETSU. I really like what each of these players can bring to our program.

One thing I am especially pleased with going into the fall is the size of our roster. I have always liked keeping our numbers in the 24 - 28 range. Last year we had a 32 man roster and it was just too much. As a coach you are never going to keep everyone happy, and when you have that many players, bad attitudes and negativity seem to sprout up more often. Those of you that read this digest that have been involved in our program in the past, know firsthand that I don't like to have to coach attitude. It will always be my belief that if you are blessed to have the ability to compete at this high level of athletics, having a great attitude should be a given, not something that your coaching staff should have to worry about. I am confident we will be very good in this department next season.

The first day a young person steps on a college campus for the first time is always a special day. Although it was a long time ago, I remember mine like it was yesterday. I am excited for our incoming freshmen. The great thing about a new year or stepping on a college campus for the first time is everyone has a fresh start. When our guys walk into that clubhouse for the first time on Thursday, they can instantly decide who and what they are going to be. Examples of this are: Maybe a young man is shy and introverted, he now has a fresh start to learn how to be more outgoing. Maybe someone has always been a "goofball", now he has a fresh start and can be taken more seriously. Maybe someone hasn't always been the hardest worker, now he has a fresh start and can have a great work ethic. Maybe someone hasn't always given his best in the classroom, now he can have a fresh start and really buckle down on his academics. That is the beauty of a new year. Everyone gets to start from scratch.

In closing I'm reminded of the story I recently heard on a motivational tape I was listening to. It is about two construction workers having lunch. As they open up their lunch boxes, Joe totally "flips out" that his lunch is a sardine sandwich and goes on about how much he hates sardine sandwiches. In turn, Bob offers to share his tuna sandwich with Joe, but Joe insists it will be okay; but he just can't stand sardine sandwiches. Well, the next day at lunch as they open their lunch boxes, Joe again gets upset that his lunch is a sardine sandwich. He can't believe it since he hates sardine sandwiches! Then, believe it or not, on the third day as they open up their lunch box, again there it is, a sardine sandwich. By now Bob has had it and says to Joe, "If you hate sardine sandwiches so much tell your wife to quit making them and to give you something else?" at which time Joe then tells Bob, "Oh, I'm not married, I make my own lunch every day." Uh huh, you get the point. "We all make our own lunch each day." Until Next Time...

COACH SKOLE