The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1922-01-22

play the game the easier It becomes
TO persuade that man to develop his
body and keep IL In decent running re-
pair. More men go out TO play soccer
or tennis or golf in a football-crazy
college than can be driven out in one
which has no team or in which the
team 10 not supported. This Is not
theory. but matter OF cold statistics.
as any physical director win hotly tes-
tify IL you give him the chance.
Nothing win help any boy to show
sense and discretion like the right
atmosphere In the college. The mo-
mentS public opinion is taught TO ex-
pect and demand Of him that kind OF
behavior which Is an adjunct of promi-
nence and popularity, the job OF keep
ing out Of mischief and staying sound
In mind and body is enormously sim
plified for him. The right football
spirit In any school requires than every
man who even hopes to play on the
team shall stand well In his classes
and behave himself outside OF them,
ment win accomplish this with those
over whom nothing else under the sun
Will have any visible influence.
have seen IL work like a miracle
on men who, wanting the support and
restraint of their fellows opinions, had
proved impossible for faculty or coach
to manage.
And no coach can afford 10 forget
that a good football player means a
pretty good citizen, and that II is i'm.
possible TO develop the one. without
some intelligent effort to develop the
other.
win to win.
have also found 1t a stark impos-
sibility to develop successful foot.
ball combination on the field unless I
had. or developed, a winning atmos-
phere In the institution. The coach's
job begins right there and never stoUs.
!. The task of stirring enthusiasm be-
hind team during the paying sea
son is a relatively simple affair. The
excitement of the game itself, the
stimulation OF perennial rivalries,
make IL fairly easy to wake an uproar
OF cheers and songs at mass meet
ings and parades at practice games,
but, although this has it's share In
producing the winning football at
Inosphere, II 10 the lesser part OF the
spiritual side-if may use that
rather solemn word-of .coach's
work.
II IL not enough to convince q stu
dent body that IL wants to win. The
coach must manage to connect and
correlate winning with what leads up
to winning-with the cleanliness and
wholesomeness Of body and brain,
which football, above all other games.
demands as a primary requisite in
those who try to play 1t.
Hero worship may be a bad thing.
but anyone who has had even little
experience with the young OF the
human species knows that II Is uni
versal and ineradicable. You must
deal with IL whether you like II or
not, and my preference is to make It
as useful and helpful as / can.
II boy has nobody else to admire,
gambler quite as blindly as he will
follow a splendid specimen of the
sound mind in the sound, clean body.
] have seen too many decent young
fellows acquire miserable, distorted
views OF life from fixing their adj
miration on unworthy objects to be in
any doubt whatever as to the relative
value of giving them fine, straight,
outstanding football heroes to serve an
patterns and examples.
For without claiming that football
works any miracles, I can say en-
phatically that a first-class player
simply cannot be a cad, a bully or a
crook. There Is not much room for
debate on that point: at least have
never met man who played football
with the right sort of spirit who did
not have qualities which went Ear to-
ward reducing his defects.
Must Enthuse Entire Body.
It needs, however. the right football
atmosphere to make the players real
ize their obligations to themselves and
to their schools. Unguided. they are
apt, some times, to think their duty
ends with the whistle and that off
the field they are free TO do as they
please. II is important for n coach
to make the creation OF what call
the winning football spirit in the whole
student body the foundation OF their
work and see to It before and after
everything else. II they do, they viii
find Il pays in more ways than one.
This spirit, once awakened will bring
cut a squad of candidates which in
cludes every possible piece III foot
ball timber and a goodly quantity
of material, too, which seems i'm
possible but often isn't anything of
the sort. believe in giving not merely
u warm welcome to every ms,n who
presents himself at the field house,
but in putting special and careful
effort on the candidates who show lit
tie immediate promise.
Some OF the best players ever
developed were drawn from this
class OF candidates--men who had
failed TO make prep school teams,
because of relative slow develop
ment, and who as freshmen or sophie
mores were still well behind their
mates in football knowledge and ex-
perience.
Such men are sometimes slow to
take hold on the field and the first
impulse Of coach overwhelmed
with the distractions of trying to
distinguish between 100 strange faces
Is to clarity his problem by elimi-
mating them at once. There could
hardly be n more serious bhinder.
The experienced and confident player
Ia sure OF himself and knows a little
OF what IL to be done. but the be-
ginner feels shy and strange at the
best of Il and needs encouragement
not only for his own sake but for
the effect on the rest OF the squad.
~ AE( a..