Team

“ And in his Senior year he was on the team, the champion football team of America. The fearless way he used to charge down the field like a fighting elephant and smash those old-fashioned flying wedges—by flopping down in front of them—is now a matter of football history. ”

“ A gate opens at the farther end of the grounds, there is a vociferous cheer from the nearest section and the team in whose success our hopes are centered, trots out on the field, to be met by a tumult of welcome. Big fellows they are, stout of limb and victors through the season over every team they have met. ”

“ The relation of the members to one another in a well-organized team amounts to an affection which is never forgotten. The words of cheer when the team is hard pushed and has to take a "brace"; the fighting spirit that plays the game to a finish, no matter what the odds ”

“ My idea of perfect play Is when a team performs strictly as it has been coached to perform ... following a system through to the very last regardless of the breaks of the game or the preconceived notions of the individual players. That is team-work in the fullest—that is genuine football. That you failed to win does not alter the fact that you gave a faultless exhibition insofar as your experience and training permitted. ”

“ Your team is a member of the larger team, and should play its part therein as loyally and keenly as you want the individuals to play their parts in your team. You should try to arouse their pride in having their team do its part well, their interest in the success of the larger team, and their belief in the ability of its leader. ”

“ Say you are mostly freshmen, and you make yourselves candidates for the team because you love the game, and because you would love to bring honor to your college. You go out and try. You meet, the first day, an implacable team of skilled veterans who show their scorn of your poor ability, their hatred of your opportunity, and ride roughshod—I should say, run with spiked shoes—over you. You hear the roar of four thousand students applauding these hero veterans. ”

“ Showing fine interference - team play. To strengthen the impression in the mind of each of his ten comrades that he himself may be relied on to do his part should form the foremost endeavor of every member of the team. He must show the others that, when the emergency comes, as it does come in every play, he is doing his duty. With such zeal firmly instilled in the mind of each man, football reaches its highest state of perfection. ”

“ Here we have individual manliness and initiative highly developed, together with a sense of subordination, teamwork, and the requirements of leadership and discipline. Here we find instant, unquestioning, cheerful obedience to commands given in action, and an esprit and morale which make the team cheerfully tackle the toughest opponents. Where any leader may need in his group a discipline of quick implicit obedience to orders, let him consider the spirit of the football team as his model, rather than the spirit of whipped obedience which was found in the galleys of old. ”

“ When each member not only does his own work as well as possible but plays well into the hands of the other members, we speak of the excellence of the team work. And in nine cases out of ten it is not brilliant individual play, but fine all-round team-work that wins the game. ”

“ I mean, Captain Harven, that it is the coach’s place to select the players. That I take to be one of his duties. If he is to instruct a team in football he certainly has the privilege of deciding who shall belong to that team ”

“ The men must chum together on and off the field. Team work on the field is made much easier if there is team work off the field.
I never hear the expression "team mates" used but I recall a certain Princeton team, the captain of which was endowed with a wonderful power of leadership. There was nothing the men would not do for him. Every man on the team regarded him as a big brother. ”

“ It's just that eagerness to aid the next man, that stand-and-fall-together spirit, that makes the ideal team. I don't want to see any man on Saturday standing around with his hands at his sides; as long as the ball's in play there's work for every one. Don't cry 'Down' until you can't run, crawl, wriggle, roll, or be pulled another inch. And if you're helping the runner don't stop pulling or shoving until there isn't another notch to be gained. Never mind how many tacklers there are; the ball's in play until the whistle sounds. ”

“ It isn’t a great team to-day judged by Yardley standards, but it may be a great team on Saturday. It’s a well-rounded team, a team of hard-working, willing players, every one of whom is ready to do his utmost—and a little more—for the school the day after to-morrow. And now it’s up to the school to help the team, fellows. I want you all to believe in it, to stand back of it, to encourage it by thought and action every minute between now and the last whistle on Saturday. ”

“ An occasional visit of a team of Old Boys would arouse a little excitement, but only of a transient character, and with the arrival of spring the schoolboy's fancy would lightly turn to thought of other games. ”

“ If the practice is not interesting enough to burn an indelible impression of every rudiment of football into the player's working knowledge, it is wasted. The coach can best instruct his men by putting on his football suit and illustrating exactly what he wants done, not only in fundamentals, but in team play. Confidence of the members of the team, one in the other, and constant interest in how each comrade is developing will in time form a team spirit, a factor quite as potent in carrying a pig-skin as an extra hundred pounds of muscle. ”

“ Every football team has a slogan, and each coach has his own theory as to what makes a winning team. We are no exception. Our slogan is, “Winning is not everything, but it sure beats anything that comes in second.” Our theory on how to develop a winning team is very simple—WORK! If the coaches and players will work hard, then winning will be the result. ”

“ Having dealt with the most important member of a football team, it will be necessary to consider, in the first place, the best measures for filling to the best advantage the various positions the players under his command will have to occupy, and secondly, the duties each will have to carry out to make the combination effective. ”

“ The mere fact that they had won, satisfying as it was, counted for little compared with the enormous benefit of the game in welding the team together. It had taken eleven stars and molded them into a team. No individual brilliancy, however great, can atone for the lack of team work. To-day they had tested each other, supported each other, played into each other's hands, forgotten [73] that they were anything but parts of one great, smoothly moving, swiftly running machine. ”

“ Five fellows who are on the two first elevens—five fellows who are candidates for the school team! And right in the middle of the football season to sneak off and break training, and run the risk of being fired from the school, when you know how you're needed to help build up the school team! ”

“ There is not much territory remaining, and the big questions are, “Who is going to come out on top?” and “Who will end up with the ball when the dust settles?” If we give our team a sound plan and teach it to them well, and they believe in it and in us, we will do all right. ”

“ From across the field a loyal encouragement is still given by the visitors to their beaten team. The hopes of months are going down to defeat, but the men who are beaten have done their best and, when the final whistle is blown and the game is over, the players of each team gather close together and cheer each other after the style of true sportsmen who have tested each others' mettle with mutual respect. ”

“ Each player of a team should occupy his position so unfailingly in practice, and the team should indulge in combination work to such an extent, that, in a match, a forward ought, at times, to be able to slide the puck to an assistant without even having to look to know where the latter is. ”

“ I have endeavoured to represent, as concisely as possible, the essentials for the acquirement of any great degree of excellence in any of the positions which constitute the formation of a football team. ”

“ Each team is assigned to a different corner. A leader stands in front of each team with a bean bag, cap, or ball. At the signal to start the leader tosses to and receives from each member of his team in turn the bean bag. Having received the bag from the last one in his line, he takes his place at the foot of the line, and the one at the head of the line becomes leader and proceeds to toss the ball to each member as did the preceding leader. The group, in which all have served as leaders and which successfully completes the game first, wins. ”

“ During the period that should be given to the team the graduates come around, and the tendency is to neglect the team for the individual. The bulk of individual coaching should be done in that part of the season in which it should naturally come. So much in general. Now a few suggestions to the captain, in settling his work for the season, may not be altogether out of place.
First day out, the squad upon going upon the field should form a circle, and pass the ball around. ”

“ A team must pass sufficiently in order to keep the opposition from putting all of its strength on or relatively close to the line of scrimmage. A team also must be able to advance the football with its ground game so the opposition does not have to defend against only one phase of the game, the passing attack. ”

“ Each man has his particular place to fill, his own work to do, and each position on the team, from the goal minder's to that of the centre forward, differing essentially from the others in the duties that it entails, calls for work that may not he used in any other. ”

“ The team which has the do-or-dare spirit, the never-give-up-until-the-last-gun-is-fired determination, is usually the team that wins. And the spirit of the captain is the controlling factor in any contest. If he be no desperate fighter, his followers will not be desperate fighters. ”

“ During the game let the team know that you’re there and right with them all the time. Don’t cheer just to make a noise, and don’t cheer just to rattle the other fellow, but cheer because you want your team to win and want to tell them so. ”

“ Second only to the judicious selection and thorough training of a football team is the acquisition of a capable captain, for no matter how well the eleven may be qualified for its work, individually and as a team, its efforts will be barren of success unless the men are ably led on the field. ”

“ Individual strength, wit, courage and agility must be there, but they must weld themselves into a chain that makes every advantage possessed by one of the members of the eleven a common asset--one that is used to its utmost and on every possible opportunity. For the last time, it is team play and only team play that will yield success, and no eleven can get along without it. ”

“ They propose to work sums in teams and teamlands. They spend immense pains in ascertaining that here there is ‘land for half a team’ or ‘land for half an ox.’ We are accusing them of laborious folly unless we suppose that they can at a moment’s notice convert teams into oxen. ”

“ A team consists commonly of twelve dogs, and it is of importance that they should be accustomed to draw together. The quick and steady going of the team, as well as the safety of the traveller, mainly depends on the docility and sagacity of the foremost dog or leader. ”

“ You’ll have the start of a good team, for only six of the fellows who started the game to-day graduate this spring. Then there’s a lot of good material on the Second team. And right here I want to thank the members of the Second for the way in which they worked with us. ”

“ From each team a man detaches himself and, with a man in citizens' clothes, looks over the field. He is the captain and his companion is the coach. He tests the consistency of the surface of the field, notes the direction of the wind, the effects of the sunshine and the other conditions which, if properly observed, will give one side an advantage over the other at some stage in the progress of the game. A couple of wet spots are carefully noted, for in a close game these things may mean victory or defeat. ”

“ The first trait, “Be dedicated to the game of football,” is a must for all coaches, assistants as well as head coaches. Don’t ever try to fool yourself or anyone else. If you are not truly dedicated to your work, and you dread spending many hours every day working and planning on building a good football team, then you are in the wrong business. I’ll guarantee there is no easy way to develop a winning team. If it were an easy task, all of us would be undefeated and “Coach of the Year.” ”

“ Take eleven corking men, each one a master of his position, and get them so that they play together like a well-oiled machine, and then run them up against a team of ordinary players without much team-work or anything else except a great, big, overwhelming desire to win, and what happens three times out of four? ”

“ The coaching staff will meet together early Sunday morning and go over the film of Saturday’s game. While the assistant coaches are studying and grading the film, I will meet with the assistant coach who scouted the team we will be playing this coming Saturday. In addition to receiving a thorough scouting report from him, I want his recommendations offensively and defensively of what we should do against the opponent. The scout will then complete his report as he will present it to the squad members on Monday night. ”