National Championship Coach Ola Adams addresses Broadwater Football Team

Football is often measured in yards, touchdowns, tackles, and wins. Long before a team can worry about what happens under the Friday night lights; however, something far more important must occur.  A group of individual players must become a team.

Talent can win a play.  Athleticism can change a game. Speed can create a touchdown, and strength can make a tackle. Over the course of a season; however, successful football programs are built on something that cannot always be found on a stat sheet.  That is Trust.  Trust is knowing that when you line up and look to your left and your right, the players beside you are ready to fight just as hard as you are.

On the evening of Thursday, August 20th, the Broadwater Academy Viking football team heard from Coach Ola Adams, Safeties Coach with the defending National Champion University of Indiana Hoosiers.  His resume includes stops at Penn State, Villanova, and the Denver Broncos, along with an accomplished playing career as a defensive back at Concord University.

Adams’ impact extends far beyond teaching defensive schemes and developing players. His approach to football emphasizes accountability, commitment, relationships, and trust.  All lessons that apply not only to winning games, but to developing young men. His message to the Broadwater Academy football team was powerful.  “Talent may help a player succeed, but teams become special when players learn to believe in one another, sacrifice for one another, and refuse to quit on the person standing beside them.”  Broadwater’s football team is very young this year and Coach Adams message laid groundwork for many years to come.

Coach Adams also emphasized that building trust means getting players to understand that the person lining up beside them matters just as much as they do.  An offensive lineman must trust that the player next to him will make his block.  A quarterback must believe his receiver will be where he is supposed to be on a route.  A defensive player must know that his teammates will fill their gaps so he can do his.

That type of trust does not suddenly appear on game day.  It is developed during summer workouts, difficult practices, team meetings, weight-room sessions, and all the moments when players are challenged to put the goals of the team ahead of their own.

Most importantly, trust is built in those moments when a player must decide whether he is playing for himself or playing for the person beside him.

Inevitably there will come a moment during the season when things don’t go according to plan.

There will be a bad play.

There will be a missed tackle.

There will be a dropped pass.

There will be adversity.

When that moment arrives, a team’s greatest strength will not necessarily be its fastest player, strongest lineman, or most talented athlete.  Its greatest strength will be the bond between the players wearing the same jersey.

Ultimately, the strongest football teams are not simply groups of good athletes wearing the same uniform. They become families with a common purpose, players willing to work for one another, sacrifice for one another, and understand that no individual accomplishment is more important than what they can accomplish together.  Coach Adams summed up the talk with the Vikings with this closing statement “It is hard to beat a guy who won’t quit and even harder to beat an entire team that has decided it won’t quit on each other.”  The Broadwater Academy football team certainly has the grit and trust with one another to make this season a memorable one.  The young men on the field are committed with Senior Eli Destro commenting “that camaraderie is more important than the wins and losses.  The interaction with your teammates and how you push through adversity with your team is what gives you fortitude.”

Head Football Coach, Eddie Spencer summed up his hopes and philosophy for the season with the following, “Football is about a lot more than what happens on the scoreboard. It’s about teaching young men how to work together, trust one another, overcome adversity, and understand that being part of a team means putting something bigger than yourself first. At Broadwater, we want our players to compete hard and be successful on Friday nights, but more importantly, we want them to leave this program understanding the value of commitment, accountability, and being there for the person beside them. If we can teach those lessons, then we’ve accomplished something much bigger than winning a football game.”

Plans for additional football speaker series for the Broadwater Academy Football Team will continue throughout the season.  For more information on Broadwater Academy and Broadwater Academy football please visit their website at www.broadwateracademy.org.