Andrew Rode '09 - August is my favorite month of the whole year.  It beats December which has Christmas and November which has Thanksgiving and even the months of June and July which are home to summer time.  The eighth month of the year brings with it a lot of 90 degree days and the first signs of the changing season, but more importantly it brings the start of the football season.  Our football family has been waiting since early December of 2007 for this day to get here.  We have been upping the ante every day of the offseason to prepare ourselves for a better finish than a loss to the national champs in the elite eight. 

Football camp is a dread for some programs, but I look forward to going to Twin Lakes camp for four days with 120 of my best friends.  Yes, we play a lot of football and learn the X’s and O’s of the game, but knowing a lot of football will not make you a GREAT team.  Only a team that truly exemplifies a family and cares for each other will have the opportunity to be GREAT.  So, we spend a lot of time at camp building relationships with the freshman and growing in the relationships we already have with each other.  It has been an absolute blast to rely on my teammates to catch me after I jumped off a thirty foot platform, ride down a zip-line together, watch 300 lb. offensive lineman walk a tight rope thirty feet in the air, and spend time getting to know the new freshman as they enter the next chapter of their lives.  We spent two weeks doing a lot of crazy and fun activities and playing a lot of football. 

I have just finished the last football camp of my life, and it was an incredible experience.  We had a great start that has begun to prepare us for a season that will lead us deep into the playoffs and quite possibly to the national championship.  This season we WILL play some GREAT football while scoring lots of points on the offensive end, and in turn we have a hard-nosed defense that will bring the hammer down on any formidable offenses that we face.  However, our GREAT football will not be the heart and soul of this team.  Our heartbeat will heard loudly through the relationships and family mentality that we established and deepened during the last two weeks we spent at camp.  WABASH ALWAYS FIGHTS!