Little Giant Football

April 07, 2009

Getting After It

Spring is a wonderful time of the year. After going somewhere warm for break and spending time with friends, we start spring ball. I will be a senior next fall and this is my last year of spring ball. This year I feel a great sense of urgency to really soak everything up and have a ton of fun… this is my last shot at football. I feel like this sense of urgency is boosting my confidence as well as making the game more fun. Do not get me wrong, I have always had a ton of fun. However, this is my senior year: My last shot! I feel like everyone is working their tails in the classroom as well as with training. I am so excited to step on the field come fall. It cannot come soon enough. I am confident that all of the guys on the team are in it for the right reasons and are working hard to get to that next level. The coming football season is going to be a great year for Wabash College.

Summer is a great time, but we cannot lose sight of our goals. D3 athletes are limited with many rules and regulations but I know that everyone will be working hard over the summer. I know guys are not going to skip out on lifts or take the easy way out. Everyone will come back stronger than ever. For myself, I have a lot of lofty goals for the summer. Most importantly I will not settle for anything but hard work and focus on the upcoming season. I will be taking classes over the summer while maintaining a part time job. I need to work on some pre-requisites for Physical Therapy or Athletic Training, therefore I will be taking Anatomy and Physiology I and II. Also, I will enroll in another class or two for distribution credits to fulfill basic requirements in the Wabash Curriculum. With all of these things going on, I will definitely work out 5-6 days a week to maintain and increase my strength as well as speed. Getting faster is number one on my list for things to accomplish for football.

Summer is definitely about having fun as well. I will be going on a few weekend trips here and there and watching the Cubs play once or twice with Chad “Meat” Sorenson (#89). I will definitely spend time with the family and the ol’ lady Ms. Kirah Fifield. My family will be getting together for a week in July to spend time together at my aunt and uncle’s farm in Wisconsin. That will be a blast. Finally, I will cap the summer off with the senior trip. We will have some awesome adventures and build even stronger relationships before we come back to get after it on the field together. This is our year to do something special and I am confident that we will!

In it,

Addrian #31

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March 17, 2009

Wabash Always Fights!

It seems that each day since my arrival at Wabash a little over a year ago I experience at least one instance in which I am thoroughly impressed with the work ethic and commitment of our players. I still catch myself thinking about how lucky I am to be a part of this very special school. The gains our players have made during the winter workouts are impressive to me. Spencer Whitehead, the junior kicker that booted the game-winning FG against conference rival Wittenberg, came to our house for dinner last week. Spenser has added 10 pounds of muscle due to the hard work he and the rest of the team have invested while attending 6:00 A.M. workouts since returning from Christmas break.

Spring practice is set to begin in less than a week and I can say with absolute certainty that both players and coaches are anxious to return to the field together since the end of the 2008 season. The level of confidence within the program is very high due to the experience gained by everyone involved in the program since the coaching change occurred a year ago. A combination of players with significant experience at the varsity level and talented young players at nearly every position should make for some good competition.

The majority of our players spent their Spring break immersed in different cultures both here in the US and abroad. While they were off-campus representing Wabash, the defensive coaching staff (minus Coach House) attended a coaching clinic at Eastern Illinois University to share ideas on defensive strategy. After examining the 2008 season through intense film study we identified several areas in need of improvement prior to next season. Over the course of this two-day clinic we shared ideas with other defensive coaches from across the country regarding defensive strategy and position specific teaching points. We spent the entire trip back to Crawfordsville sharing the ideas we picked up and discussing how valuable each one might be in helping us improve on defense.

Check out the blogs from the guys on the team that were off-campus studying abroad or part of an immersion or service trip:

Derrick Yoder – Junior RB from Fairfield, IN spent Spring Break in Germany & Belgium.

Dan Eddleman – Senior DB from Columbus, IN spent Spring Break in Belize.

Adam Miller – Sophomore WR from Fairfield, IN spent Spring Break in New Orleans assisting with reconstruction efforts.

Seth Tichenor – Senior DL from Whiteland, IN spent Spring Break in New Orleans assisting with reconstruction efforts.

Skip Tokar – Senior OL from Zionsville, IN has been studying abroad in Australia.

Denver Wade – Senior OL from San Francisco, CA has been studying abroad in various parts of Europe.

The following players spent Spring break doing service work in Botswana, Africa:

Chris Beedie – Senior DL from Chicago, IL

Josh Miracle – Junior QB from Hobart, IN

Matt Hudson – Senior QB from Salem, IN

Evan Issacs – Senior OL from Indianapolis, IN

Chris Daniel – Sophomore OL from Indianapolis, IN

DJ Singfield – Junior LB from Indianapolis, IN

Brady Young – Sophomore WR from Muncie, IN

Nick Durm – Junior OL from Indianapolis, IN

Geoff Wright – Sophomore WR from Vernon, IN

Tyler Buresh – Sophomore DL from Hamilton, MI

Wabash Always Fights!!

Coach Rogers

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February 23, 2009

Eat For Africa

Getting ready to go on a mission trip takes a lot of planning and organizing and most importantly, fundraising. Myself and 13 of my fellow teammates have gone through these past couple months in preparation for our mission trip to Botswana, Africa. The cost for the mission trip is expensive, so fundraising has been huge for all of us. Josh Miracle came up with the idea of having a spaghetti benefit dinner because someone from his hometown had a benefit dinner for a trip and they were able to raise enough money for their trip and then some. We began to plan it out and went out to almost 60 stores around Crawfordsville. We were a little uneasy for a couple weeks because we initially were not able to get anything at all, but when it got down to crunch time we were blessed and started receiving everything we needed by donation. In the end, we hardly had to spend any money of our own to put the dinner on.

The day of the dinner we started getting everything ready and Miracles mom and grandmother where able to make the two and a half hour trip down to help us make the spaghetti, sauce and bread. It took us a few hours to get set up and Eat For Africa was ready to go by 5. Things started off really well and we started getting a consistent flow of people in and out. We had great support from the community and Wabash students. It was expecially rewarding because the attendees of the dinner also stayed to support our Basketball team and their last home game of the year (which Wabash won 68-43 over rival Wiitenmberg). We even had a few moments where we ran out of food and were in the process of running more over from the Beta house to refill. Luckily we got the hang of things and it didn’t happen again. In the end we were able to raise over $2700 which is a huge chunk for each of us going on the trip. We want to thank all that came out and supported us, each and every meal and donation helped us out greatly.

If you would still like to make doantions please send your donations to OneWay Ministries at:

OneWay Ministries, PO Box 2211, Naperville, IL 60567.

Brady Young '12

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February 19, 2009

Busy Time of the Year

When ask to write a blog on President’s Day, I immediately thought of Abe Lincoln playing our X receiver spot opposite Kody LeMond and Brady Young in the slot. Since I am now coaching D-line, I would put George Washington at the mike linebacker spot and move Watson and CJ Gum outside. Seriously, people often wonder what college football coaches do in the off season. I can tell you it’s very, very, busy, but in a number of different ways. The majority of our time deals with recruiting, which never stops at our level. We as coaches always hope we make a difference! I remember a player in 1991 that we were not at all familiar with or recruiting became a three year starter for us. Sean Satterfield was an alumni referral from Hawaii.

We start recruiting rising seniors in April of their junior year. It’s a daunting task because we usually start with a pool of around 800 names and only want to recruit a quality class of around 50. Academics are always the first hurdle in finding outstanding scholar-athletes. As I tell recruits, “At Wabash, academics come first, football comes second, and girls come on week-ends.” Most coaches around the country know Wabash. They know the types of young men that can make an impact in our program. We certainly do not need numbers, but are now looking for those young men who are borderline D-II or D-I guys. These are the guys who will help us win a national championship. Our current players do an amazing job of hosting recruits. They know that the key to our recruiting success rest upon their shoulders. Our alumni have played a very active and vital role as well. We get referrals from all over the country.

Our partnership with admissions and the administration has been great. It takes team work. So now we are like the Marines, “looking for a few good men.” My years here at Wabash have been wonderful. We as coaches always hope we make a difference! Next year will be my 44^th football season but I could probably still name my starting line- up as a head high school coach in 1964. The relationships a coach builds with his players are very rewarding. Of course winning is fun too! Four straight NCAC championships set a high bench mark. Congrats to our seniors as they will surely become, “impact men.”

God Bless,

Coach House

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February 13, 2009

Riley Hospital Trip Personal for Freshman Baker

Isaac Baker '12 - My older brother was in and out of Riley with heart problems for most of our childhood, so when I heard of the opportunity to go and visit some of the children at the hospital I jumped at the opportunity.

The day started with us arriving at Riley Children Hospital where we were going to be able to experience something special. There were six players total that went on the trip to visit the children at the hospital for something call “Activity time.” It was a time where we built jewelry boxes for the girls and toolboxes for the boys. We were greeted with very warm welcomes from the nurses and they said the kids were excited to see us, and it didn’t sink in until the nurse told us that some of the kids were coming to the Activity time who usually didn’t come just because they heard that the Wabash football players were coming.

Whether it was one of the boys that went to his first Wabash game this year and had a disease that only 1 in 900,000 people in the country have, or the freshman in high school with Lymphoma, the smiles made the trip worth it. To see the children’s faces light up when they saw us was an amazing thing. These kids didn’t know us, the one thing they knew was that we were college football players and to them we were some type of celebrities. None of the players think we are celebrities, but for some reason our participation in Wabash football gives us the ability to brighten these kid’s days.

We have been given a talent to play football that has in turn given us the ability to have a great affect on the kids at Riley. We have this platform and it feels great to be able to use it in a good way. The ability to brighten these kid’s days was an awesome thing and I can only wish to be able to do it again and I would encourage anybody to go if they ever have the chance.

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January 21, 2009

Watching TV Games Makes You Thankful

I’m always anxious for the start of the spring semester. When our players are spending the holidays at home with their families, you realize how much you appreciate and miss them. As the semester begins, it is really impressive to watch how hard they work in an attempt to make themselves better. For that, I am thankful!

This year as I watched the bowl games and the end of the NFL regular season, I was constantly reminded how fortunate our coaching staff is to work with the type of men we have on our team. Sometimes I take for granted our teams’ great work ethic, the great sense of family we feel for each other, or their unselfish attitudes as they always put the team ahead of themselves. We should never assume that all coaches get the privilege to work with those types of men.

As I watched the Cowboys, a team loaded with talent, self destruct, it was clear there is no sense of family in Dallas. Our guys care about each other. So, even when things don’t go our way Wabash Always Fights! When adversity hit in Dallas, the Cowboys Always Complain! It was one press conference after another.

Alabama had an excellent season and I was looking forward to their matchup with undefeated Utah. What an awesome opportunity it must be to play in the Sugar Bowl? Imagine how surprised I was to find out that Alabama’s best offensive linemen, maybe their best player, was suspended. He was so selfish he couldn’t wait until after the Sugar Bowl to talk with an agent about his NFL future.

Thank goodness our guys are so unselfish.

Coach Erik Raeburn

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December 16, 2008

Wabash Always Fights

“Wabash Always Fights” is a saying that defines Wabash College. This season, our football team lived that motto in all aspects of what we did. There were great “Wabash Always Fights” moments that occurred on the field. Like Kody Lemond’s incredible catch to start the season in the Denison game. Or everyone’s performance against Wittenberg to not only score a late touchdown to tie the game, but to ALWAYS fight and get ourselves in position to kick a game-winning field goal in the waning seconds of the game. Or the time Wes Chamblee converted on 4^th and 15 late in the first round of the playoffs to keep our chances alive, but again we were not done. Wes followed it up with an improbable TD catch where he outran everyone to reach the end zone capping an amazing comeback. These on the field triumphs definitely proved our ability to Always Fight.

More impressing to me, however, was our team’s ability to fight away from the field on Saturday afternoons. The whole year we faced adversity. From the get-go, some said we would fail because we had new coaches, new schemes, and new players because all we lost to new jobs and graduation. Instead of being overcome by doubt, our seniors lead this team through the uncertainty of everything. We also had to fight through heart breaking family losses. We had countless players lose loved ones throughout the year. It seemed like each week another player or two suffered another great loss. The guys turned to one another to help them fight through the pain asking for our prayers and encouragement.

main2_case%20liska1.jpg Just because the season did not end the way we wanted it to does not mean Wabash Football changed its attitude or approach. Instead, it has made us more resolved and more determined to work harder than ever before. Our men were in the weight room the week after the season ended preparing to improve on the accomplishments of this year. They have some big shoes to fill. This year’s senior class is the all-time winningest class in Wabash history compiling a record of 40-7 with 4 straight NCAC championships. Some Little Giants indeed.

It is time to wash the unfortunate taste of defeat away with hard-work and dedication. To reach the next level, we will have to work harder than we ever have. Fortunately for us, we have already started and will continue to live the idea of “Wabash Always Fights”.

Coach Pynenberg

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