Entry #33 - 9/10/04

It is great to have everyone back on campus. The beginning of the school year is such an exciting time. Whether you are a freshman stepping on a college campus for the first time or a returning athlete back after a long summer of hard work, there is just a special feeling in the air on our campus. Obviously for the new players there is a tremendous amount of anxiety being away from home for the first time or at a new school for the first time. But this group has jumped right in and they have not missed a beat. When you are a returning player it is always nice to get back to school and see your teammates again. There has been a great cohesion between our new players and our returning players. Our veteran players do a great job of making sure our new players are comfortable. We assign all of our new players with a returning player (“Big Brother”) to make sure they are able find everything and comfortable with their surroundings. It helps that we have a very high quality of young man in our program and it shows every day. We have already had three team functions where our players were together as a group in the community and every event I have been complimented on their appearance, etiquette and friendliness. It sure makes it fun to come to work and be around these guys.

As far as baseball is concerned, we have been conducting individual skill work and doing some lifting and conditioning to get ready for our fall season. To say there have been a few sore bodies walking around is an understatement. Since our coaching staff has been here, our player’s work ethic has always been great. As a coach when you don’t have to motivate your players to work hard, you can really concentrate on baseball and making sure your players are improving themselves. We will be outside today for our first intersquad scrimmage. It should be exciting. I am excited to see our new players perform and I am excited to see the improvement our returning players have made. It is going to be a fun weekend of baseball.

I am excited to say that our athletic department and administration has stepped it up a notch. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like without football. Being an old football player myself and of course a fan of the sport, I was sad to see it go, but I definitely understood the reasons behind it. Our administration has really taken it to a new level in order to make sure all of our programs have a chance to win a championship. Things are really improving at a rapid rate around here and I appreciate our administration’s commitment to winning.

This time of year definitely brings back many memories for me. The start of football season along with hurricane season are two things which always stick out in my mind. I’ll never forget in 1989 when Hurricane “Hugo” struck Charleston, SC with all its might. It was one of the most devastating things I have ever witnessed. I have a brother and many close friends who currently live in Florida and are stuck right in the middle of this awful hurricane season. We also have players in our program from Florida and our thoughts and prayers are with their families and they try and get through this difficult time. I’ll also never forget how I almost cost our football team one of the biggest wins in Citadel history.

I remember when “Hugo” was coming and they evacuated The Citadel and the entire city. We actually were traveling to Annapolis, Maryland to play Navy that weekend so we left a day early on Thursday. It was a tough time because many of my teammates were from the “low country” of South Carolina and obviously they were concerned about their loved ones and their homes. Our football team was off to a great start that year as we were 4 and 0 and ranked #5 in the country heading into the weekend. I vividly remember the beautiful campus in Annapolis and the beautiful fall afternoon the day of our game. It was very windy as the storm was making its way up the east coast, but besides the wind there was not a cloud in the sky.

It was a close game at half time with both teams exchanging a few scores. Our defense was playing well and we felt that if we could make a few stops in the second half that our offense would put up enough points on the board to win. I was having a pretty good game through three quarters as Navy was an option team and in our defensive package I had a lot of run support responsibility. Sort of like an extra linebacker. Basically all I had to do from my safety position was follow the ball from sideline to sideline and make a tackle. This was my kind of game plan because I was a pretty good tackler. I enjoyed running into people with all my might, but pass coverage was not my specialty. So we were up by a few points early in the fourth quarter and we force them to punt around mid-field. I also returned punts for our team and my coaches put me back there not because I was a threat to break one for a touchdown at any time, but because I was sure handed and would not fumble. I returned a lot of punts in my college career and we went for the block on most of them, there weren’t many returns set up for me.

Navy was kicking into the wind and as usual we were going for the block. They were kicking straight into the wind and the wind was really beginning to pick up. The punt was high, short and wobbly, sort of like a knuckle ball. I immediately sprinted straight ahead to catch it in full stride. I was not a big fan of the fair catch. I was thinking that maybe if I caught the ball in a dead sprint I could split the defenders and make a big play for our team. Well as soon as I caught the ball and took a few steps, the two defenders I was planning to split, put the “sandwich” on me and I fumbled. Navy recovered. Our head coach at the time was Charlie Taaffe, who is currently the offensive coordinator at Maryland. Coach Taaffe is a genius and is as intense of a competitor as I will ever come across. He is an unbelievable coach who instilled many valuable lessons in me which I still use on a daily basis. He also had no patience for mistakes and was definitely not someone you wanted on your rear end.

After the fumble as I headed back to the defensive huddle, I peered through my face mask to take a peak at Coach Taaffe’s reaction. The ball was on the other sideline, but I could still see the steam coming out of his ears. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to that sideline. It just so happened that on Navy’s next play they ran an option toward our sideline. As I headed for the ball carrier to make the tackle, I didn’t wrap him up and he broke free and went in for the go ahead touch down. Now I was in the huddle for the extra point and I sure wasn’t going to look at Coach Taaffe on our sideline. They kicked the extra point and as I trotted off the field I tried to hide behind some of our defensive linemen to avoid the wrath. Coach Taaffe was headed straight for me. He wasn’t running but he wasn’t walking either. To say he was pissed was an understatement. He was trying to get his headset off and the manager he had controlling the wires was trying to keep up with his frantic pace. When he finally got to me, I could see the fire in his eyes. He latched onto my facemask and gave me an “ass-chewing” which has to rank with some of the great “ass chewing’s” in sports history. Luckily our offense scored on their next possession and Dwayne Smalls, one of our linebackers, intercepted a pass on our own ten yard line in the last minute of the game to preserve the victory. Boy was I glad.

So now whenever I hear of a hurricane forming it brings back these memories. Mother Nature is something you should never take for granted. She is very powerful. I’ve seen Hurricane Hugo up close and I’ve also seen Hurricane Taaffe up close. I’m not sure which one was worse, but both we always be in my mind. Until Next Time…..

Coach Skole