Varsity Insider: It's time to refocus
Editor's Note: Reed Spiller is a senior at Portsmouth High School and a fullback/defensive lineman on the PHS varsity football team. He helped the Clippers reach the Division III championship game in 2006, the program's first season in Division III. Reed's Varsity Insider column will appear each week throughout the season.
I walked off the field last Friday night in a surprised state. I was not shocked by the score based on our performance and John Stark's dominance, but I was stunned that we had just lost two games in a row. The loss was crushing to the team's morale, but we never quite hit rock bottom. After two consecutive losses and a record of 1-2, there is still no need to panic, it is just time to readjust.
In a game in which Portsmouth had five turnovers, John Stark capitalized on mistakes on its way to a convincing 26-12 victory. Despite the score, we had several opportunities to tie the game and had some bounces gone our way, we might be sitting at 2-1. John Stark is a very sound team and will exploit poor footwork and bad positioning by the defense. Combine that with meager tackling, and the Generals were able to run all over our defense.
As a senior captain, I took the loss especially hard. I feel like it is my responsibility to get the team mentally ready to play, but we were asleep in the first half. The days that followed the loss were particularly depressing. When you are in the losing funk, life is just crummy. You wake up angry, your cereal tastes like cardboard, and you mope throughout school trying to explain what happened. Only football practice brightens the day because it is a chance to move on from the previous week and an opportunity to get better. After a long day of school and exceptionally challenging classes, football is a tremendous release.
Selfishly, the only other break in the melancholy comes at night from college football coaches. Usually, one or two calls a night lead to a conversation about another football team other than my own. While it is tough to ignore the situation at the present, it makes anyone feel good to be wanted, even just a little bit. Given that I started with a list of about thirty schools at the beginning of the summer, my search is down to the single digits. It includes a few Ivy League schools, some Patriot League teams, and a couple Atlantic-10 schools. But most of all, receiving these calls allows me to reflect on the blessings that have been bestowed to me. I realize I am incredibly lucky to have these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, for which I am unbelievably grateful, and try everyday not to take for granted. But the advice I hear from every coach to whom I talk is the same - focus on the task at hand.
This week that task is the Merrimack Valley Pride. There was a slight shift in thinking from last week to now, in that we are stressing the importance of "One game at a time." Subconsciously, the goal the last couple of weeks had been to make the playoffs, but now that destination has a long road in front of it, which we can only get through by focusing all our attention on the next opponent and a win.
We travel to Merrimack Valley on Friday night for the turning point in our season, and a win puts us right back there in the playoff hunt. I am dying for a victory because there is a small sub-plot in this game - the coaches for Merrimack Valley are also the coaches for the lacrosse team, which beat us 10-6 in the Division III Lacrosse Championship last year. I know for a fact that both teams have several players that participate in both sports, so Friday night is a chance for a little payback. I'd like to steal a line from the Oakland Raiders to describe the Clippers' theme for this week - "Just Win, Baby"
