Better Every Day
How do you improve on perfection? Maybe the answer is never letting yourself get comfortable.
After an undefeated regular season last fall, the Springfield College football team continues to follow its motto: “Better Every Day.” The Brotherhood Council, a group of players elected by the team, met with the coaches this past winter to look into team-building activities and decided to plan a retreat at East Campus. “The idea was to put guys in uncomfortable situations they are not used to and see how they interact with each other,” said offensive coordinator Greg Webster ’09, G’11. East Campus facilitators designed activities that presented the players with new challenges, allowing the coaching staff to observe how they worked through them. “Football is a game where you’re going to be uncomfortable at times, things aren’t going to go your way, and you need to work around them and adjust. So the retreat really helped get people out of their element,” said captain Josh Thomas ’19. In a sport with 11 players on the field at once, unity and cohesion become especially important. The retreat was a way to keep everyone focused throughout the offseason.
“This is the best offseason I’ve ever been a part of and it gets better every year. This program is really special, it’s constantly improving. Everybody is in it for the team and the tradition,”said Thomas.
All of the retreat’s activities promoted teamwork, so even if one player was on the high ropes element, the rest of his teammates were down below cheering him on.
“You’re up 60 feet in the air; it can get scary. But the staff did an excellent job explaining it to us and helping us through it. It was something you had to work through and conquer while your teammates were down below rooting you on,” said Thomas.
For many players, this was their first time competing together outside of football. The retreat was a good measure of how committed they were to the program and one to another.
“It was good to see the same goals and values that coach sees and holds us to, that we were able to hold those same values and standards in a different setting,” said Shamar Martin ’20. Webster noted that the retreat forced players to interact with teammates they might not normally interact.
“East Campus is a great tool we have on this campus, not only for the athletic teams, but for the entire student population. It’s a resource that not a lot of other colleges have and we can use it whenever we want,” Webster said.
