The Camaraderie of a League

[Reginald Rutledge]

It's Friday evening and I just left a high school women's volleyball game and now I am headed to my son's high school football team football team to watch them climb up the state polls. While at the game, I get the call from fellow coaches discussing the line on a 1 star rated game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots.

Minutes later, another coach want to get on a conference call with about three other coaches to discuss what the Raiders (coached by Rober "The Don" Don) should do to win. While this great high school team is playing lights out, I know I've got to make my exit from this game and go to another part of the town to see this game. Why? Simply put, the camaradie!

It's about 9:30 pm and my wife, daughter and I are rushing from watching my son's team play because I know, "the guys" are having a good time. I get constant updates on what's happening at the Network Associates Stadium. The Patriots, coached by Freddie "The Ghost" Penn, is one of those teams you want to root for! He's called "The Ghost" because usually, after week 2, we don't see Freddie anymore. That's a shame because Freddie's a great guy and family man! Those type of guys, you want to do whatever it takes to keep them interested. However, they must show committment too.

It's about 10:30 pm and I finally make it back to Arlington from the game. I drop my family off to race over to "The Don's" house. "The Don" is one of my proteges'. "The Don" has made a name for himself in this league because of his tireless effort to compete. As a 1st/2nd year coach, he has made more strides than coaches who have played for more than 5 years. He is well on his way to capturing league honors (I hope it's not my expesne). But the great thing about "The Don" is his enthusiasm, his vigor for the game, and his good-natured attitude about being apart of the league.

I get to the house to my amazement that there is 10 other coaches at the game! This is a 1-star game on a Friday night after 10:00 pm, mind you! I hear all the hoopin' and hollerin' as things take place in the game. The normal entry of a coach to a game is met with heckling, cheers, and jeers towards that coach. It's just our way of welcoming you to the action. You have got to be "thick-skinned" to hang around these guys. But like anything that comes to this league, it's just a way of getting some hype started. We definitely love hype here in the DFW!

As the game progress, the "Peanut Gallery" is in full force as the Raiders start off pounding the Patriots and go up 28-3 by half. The second half became one of sheer unadualterated entertainment as we began to throw a barrage of comments at the host team, the Oakland Raiders. This type of behavior helps a good coach prepare to be a great coach. He has to remain focus on the task at hand. "The Don" got caught up in hearing "The Peanut Gallery" harrass the Raiders players and like any protective coach, he comes up in the stands to handle the situation. While that was happening, Laurence Maroney of the Patriots made 2 runs of 70 plus yards to make the game close. By game's end, the Patriots had made arun to lose 34-17.

At the end of the game, while at most NFL stadiums, the coaches who come out to see games in the DFW will stick around and discuss the game and future games. By the end of the night, the game had ended at 11:00 pm but the hecklers did not leave the house til 1:08 am (Saturday morning). There was about 2 hours of busting each other chops on all the amusing things that make up the DFW League.

A night later, a crowd of 15 coaches come out to see the Dallas Cowboys make it's 2007 debut. The telelphone is blowing up! You've got coaches who are not there physically but want to be put in the stadium on speaker phone to listen to all the action and heckling. A few even get their two cents in as well. Not to mention, there are about 15 people watching the game on our Internet TV.

Being apart of this is something that must be cultivated and nutured over time. It takes a league of dedicated coaches who are willing to be selfless in their approach to the game. We do have strikes and issues from time-to-time but when it's going good, it's great. I love the Texas Shootout but what you see at the Shootout is magnified 12-fold and with many more coaches. On any given night, you could have as many as 25 coaches watching one game and ragging on the two coaches who are in battle. We don't take it personally because we understand "The Hot Seat". But what we do sometimes forget is how the camaraderie of a league has a way of fueling the passion and energy to make it through one more week of work to get around to the next set of EFL games.

If you can ever get down to Texas to see what we do, I would recommend it greatly! In March of 2008, we will have our 14th Super Bowl and that weekend is simply a festival for all the work we've done. You could definitely come here and experience the camarderie that makes what we do so special. What are some of your experiences about league camaraderie?

Reginald Rutledge
DFW Miniature Football League

[LARamsfan]

I sent you an e-mail regarding graphics for the game board. Did you receive it?

[artlax]

Stuff like this continues to get guys jacked up to play. Love it. Can't wait for league play to begin.