By Juan Adams
As the early morning fog of mid-August burned off the ground and as the sun shone through, you could see the football field with all of its training equipment strategically placed in order in the morning’s silence.
You could sense something different in the air. It was the first day of football practice.
We were briefed on the order of operation, our equipment from helmet to knee pads. Mouth piece and shoes were our responsibility.
After receiving our gear we were briefed again on everything from the time practice began and ended to expectations on how we were to conduct ourselves away from the football field and how to take care of our bodies.
Monday morning after getting our equipment on, we were shown the sequence of operation, stating with a regimen of exercise, drills and wind sprints. A repeated whistle would blow every 15 minutes and you would hustle to the next drill station.
After the first morning and return back at 5 p.m. we lost a handful of players who choose not to continue. In all honesty after the first week of daily doubles I asked myself why I was doing this. Through it all I could sense that what was taking place in our midst was something bigger than football.
These men, the excellent football coaches, they were was teaching something deeper than the X’s and O’s of football on the chalkboard and field.
They were teaching us about life. Little did most of us realize that much of what we would experience on the football field we would use later on in life. A multitude of young men who have played for these coaches have gone on to pursue successful lives in their professions.
In my travels as a high school football official for 20 years in three different states, encountering many coaches, there was an underlying common quality with those coaches who were winners in the locker room, on the field and outside of school.
That quality was honor. They demonstrated it by treating players their staff and those in the community with dignity and respect.
These men from my years at Everett High School — coaches Bert Slater, Larry Hatch, Bill Dunn and Craig McLennan — instilled courage, confidence and character in their players. I am honored to have been a part of their lives and thankful for what they meant to the nation and their community.
Juan Adams is a 1972 graduate of Everett High School and now lives in Spokane.
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