On Friday, June 14, 2019, the Putnam County Football Team traveled to Culver Stockton College to attend their Padded Jamboree. This Jamboree, hosted by Culver Stockton, draws teams from all over the tri-state area. It is a chance for coaches and teams to work on themselves while competing against other teams. A tremendous amount of preparation goes into getting ready to travel and compete this time of year. In order to get our boys ready, a 5-day camp was put on by the Putnam County coaching staff prior to attending this event. The level of competition that our boys competed against was high and intense, but what every coach there understood was that this camp is about making our teams better and not bringing home a trophy. This was a chance for us to put our skills to a test versus players other than our own. A chance to work on blocking and tackling on somebody else other than our scout team. Our players went in with a base offensive and defensive package. We knew what we wanted to work on and get better at and stayed the course. In a situation like this it is easy to get enticed into drawing up something in the sand in order to move the chains but this is not what this camp is about. This camp also allows us to look at players in multiple positions. In order to do this and evaluate accurately we must limit our playbook for this camp so that we can get an accurate sample of players in similar situations. We have a lot of new players this year, not just in the freshman class but also in all high school grade levels. This was a chance for them to get their feet wet and not overload them with x and o terminology to soon. For us it was playing base football at a highly competitive level. As a coaching staff, we evaluate several things after a camp like this and prior to entering into this type of camp. Are our kids ready to compete at this high of a level pre-season? Do we want them to be able to compete at this level during the season? It all goes back to what was done in the offseason in preparation to get us to this point. One of the main things that our staff is evaluating pre full contact camp registration is our offseason strength and conditioning. How well was it attended? Have we made the gains needed in order to compete at that level? Have we worked at a high level in the offseason which will allow us to compete at a high level in pre-season which will in turn make us better during the season? Our pre-registration evaluation obviously determined that yes, we have done what it takes to enter into this. It’s what we realized during and after the camp the excited everyone. Our kids are as strong, agile and quick as anybody. Sure, there are some players here or there that display speed and strength, but we have them too, and plenty of them. Our weights and conditioning program is as good and advanced as anybody. Classification in a size of school does not mean that they are automatically better than us. It’s what we do in preparation for a season that ultimately determines our season. At Culver, we broke the team up into 2 groups. We had an upperclassmen group, an underclassmen group, and a few crossover players that played for both teams. One of our staff goals going into Culver was that every player was going to get significant playing time whether he was the most battle hardened experienced player or the one who has never stepped foot on the playing surface during an organized game. This was about getting better. Our upperclassman played 3 scrimmages at their grade level and the underclassmen played 3 at theirs. Every player regardless of age or experience played a significant amount of time. Goal accomplished. We had a tremendous day at Culver. We got better as the day went on and at every level. We competed against schools and players that at one time we thought were out of our league. It turns out that when you have worked hard enough and believe in yourself that you can compete with anybody and be successful. In the words of Jerry Rice, “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” Looking forward to a great season!