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It was a problem I didn’t anticipate, surely one they never mentioned in football coaching theory class at the University of Wyoming.
We had over half the team limping after the first practice, not from contact, but from tendonitis.
This was Lusk, Wyoming, a town with two banks, four bars a handful of churches, and a lot of cattle ranchers.
A few of the kids from town didn’t have any problems, but the boys who lived out on the Rawhide and near Jay Em south of town, and the kids from Manville, Lance Creek, Keeline, and Lost Springs west of town had problems with their feet the first two weeks of the season.
Not to be outdone, the boys from Hat Creek, Red Bird, Node and Van Tassel weren’t exactly dancing either.
These were boys whose footwear of choice was cowboy boots. The elevated heel tightened their Achilles tendons. When they put on a pair of football cleats their tendons stretched and it hurt.
There wasn’t much to do about it but endure the pain and keep moving.
There were things you could do about other “off the field” or “off the court” activities, however.
We had a great kid at quarterback in 1980 and 81. Troy Hladky was everything you could ask for in a football player, fast, strong, aggressive, and intelligent. Troy was also quite a cowboy.
He earned the nickname “stubby” when he lost the first joint of his right index finger in a roping accident. We didn’t throw much, but on occasion in practice, as Troy stepped up to release the ball on a pass, it flew out of his hand, spinning in the air above him.
Head coach Jerry Fullmer laid down the law when it came to roping, bronc riding or steer wrestling during football season.
It was a double-edged sword. Rodeo can injure the best cowboys, but the toughness of kids who rodeo is more than welcome on the football field, especially the defensive side of the ball.
After Fullmer’s edict, our starting slotback and backup quarterback Tye Reed showed up early in my classroom one Monday morning. I was usually in my room by 7:15 am and Tye came in just after I unlocked the door. He had a loose bandage over his right hand.
“What did you do Reed?” I asked him.
He opened his hand and across his palm was a nasty rope burn.
“Calf roping?” I asked.
Yes, he had been and suffered a rope burn on his palm in the process.
“Coach is going to kick me off,” Tye said. “What can I do?”
I thought about saying, well you could stop roping, but this was a lifestyle.
Instead, I asked him if he’d fixed the muffler on his truck. My question surprised him, but he was a very smart kid and quickly understood. He had burned it changing the muffler. That was our story.
Jerry bought it. Tye healed up and the season went on. It was our secret until today. Hopefully, the statute of limitations is in place as Tye closes in on 60 years of age.
Basketball is another sport where off the court activities and sports can have devastating results for a player, and by default, a team.
Skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, motorcycles, and indoor rodeo are all things that can injure a player.
It was my mantra during football and basketball season. Don’t ride motorcycles, don’t go skiing, don’t ice skate, stay off your horse, do your homework, and don’t sass your mother.
The junior high kids always asked, “Why Mom not Dad?”
I’d respond with wisdom from my own home, “Why? Because mom’s take away things when they’re mad, like sports. If your dad is like me, he’ll just smack you and tell you don’t do it again.”
Knowing nods always followed that statement.
One of the best kids I ever coached was a giant. Jake was intelligent, strong, tall, hardworking and eternally hungry.
We were shorthanded one season with just a single senior, one junior and a group of hardheaded sophomores with potential but also strong wills that didn’t like to listen.
Jake was 6-5 and built like the offensive tackle and shot putter that he was. He excelled at both sports, but he had soft hands, could catch anything thrown at him and had good feet.
The problem was his speed.
If he took off a few pounds he’d be unstoppable in the low block. I told him that often, and he was willing to put in extra work, to get off a few more pounds.
In most winter locker rooms, it’s the wrestlers who have the sweatiest gear, but it was Jake with us. He’d stretch his sweat soaked t-shirt across a couple of lockers to let it dry and the next day during school he’d take the crunchy, starched shirt and stick it at right angle to his locker like a sail. It crunched when someone hit it.
One Christmas Jake was down 17 pounds since the start of the season, he could take off seven or eight pounds after an intense practice.
Jake was from a big family, and that Christmas break they traveled to their grandparent’s home.
What kid can resist grandma’s cooking?
I couldn’t, you couldn’t, and Jake couldn’t.
When practice resumed a few days after Christmas I had Jake weigh in. All those 17 pounds were back.
I understood family, especially spending holidays with the grandparents, but I was a little miffed that he had regained all the weight he’d worked so hard to lose.
I acted angrier than I really was, and we went back to work.
For a sophomore, in a very tough conference, Jake was a beast. He averaged 17 points a game and 11 rebounds over the second half of the season.
His only flaw was that he was such a nice kid, he’d never foul hard. We spent many sessions one-on-one after practice working on his aggression.
I’d repeat to him, “You’re as big as a house, when you foul somebody, let them know it.”
I should have been more careful, when the light finally came on it was me he smacked, and yes, I felt it.
Good kids in different locations hundreds of miles apart, but the memories of working with them is one of the joys of my career.