As our season rapidly comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on our last four months as a team. This has been one of the most enjoyable groups of kids that I have worked with in my eleven years with Edge. It is not the most talented team nor have we won the most games of all the Edge teams I’ve coached, but I can’t think of a team that has been more of a pleasure to bond with over the course of 25 practices and 20 games than the 2008 16U’s.
This team has improved, in my opinion, as dramatically and noticably as any team in our Edge program. On offense, we have consistently cut down on the number of turnovers we were guilty of committing in the beginning of the season. Our team man-to-man defense has led to many victories in our last three tournaments as we have earned 9 wins in our last 13 games. During this successful run, we have held teams in the 50s four times, the 40s three times, the 30s three times, the 20s twice and the teens once. While we are far from an offensive juggernaut, our team’s effort on the defensive end is proof that you can win more games than not with a total team defensive effort.
In the Sunday morning game in this past weekend’s KOM tournament, we trailed the Heidelburg Thunder 16-13 at the half. In a testament to how well our team has applied our defensive principles, we won the game 47-23, winning the 2nd half by a 34-7 margin! In fact, the defensive play and unselfishness on offense has caught the attention of numerous Edge and opposing coaches alike.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the following Edge athletes and their parents for agreeing to “play up” on the 16s: Tyler Lipscomb, Julian Martinez, PJ Metz, and Al Brown. All four of these young men, who by AAU age guidelines are 15U players, agreed to move up to the 16U team in February which allowed us to have a 16U team this season. Without their consent, quite frankly we would not have had a 16U team in 2008.
At the same time, I’d also like to commend Eric Schantz, Jevon McClendon, Taylor Wilson, Tyler Smith, and Maxxwell Faircloth for accepting the other four and treating them as equal teammates. There has been a palpable sense of cohesiveness and a growing comrodory since our year began. That’s a true compliment to these five and their families because not everyone would have handled this as admirably as our kids have.
Looking forward to seeing you guys for our final practice on Thursday! Thanks for a special season! Let’s end it on a memorable note!
As always, if you have any comments, concerns, or questions, you can reach me at mhayes105@hotmail.com.
Enjoy the week,
Coach Hayes
