Road worriers: Coaches prep for more than opponent when traveling
| Thursday, Sep 24 2009 10:45 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Sep 24 2009 10:50 PM
No place like road
Part of keeping your team prepared on the road, local football coaches say, is keeping routines the same as they are at home. To that end, Bakersfield coach Paul Golla plans out every minute of each gameday between the time players arrive at school and when the game kicks off. His schedule can be used home or away.
7 a.m. Parents serve breakfast at BHS cafeteria
7:30 Light lift in weight room/study hall
8 Players released for school
3 p.m. Brief coaches talk focusing on character or leadership
3:15 Players are given 45-minute rest and "visualization" period -- can be done on bus or at school
4 Game film study -- on charter bus TVs or at school
4:30 Mealtime -- Golla prefers light cheese pizza with extra tomato sauce
5 Walk-through practices
6 PowerPoint presentation to players, teachers and alumni focusing on how life and football interact
6:30 Players break to get dressed for game
6:45 On-field warm-ups begin
7:30 Kickoff
Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way.
-- "Born to be Wild," Steppenwolf, 1968
There's just always been something about hitting the open road.
Something exciting. Something free. Something ... quite possibly horrible, if you're a high school football team.
"The bus getting lost and you getting there right before kickoff, that's no fun," Frontier coach Rich Cornford said. "Kids getting there without the right equipment. Being in a little school bus for hours.
"When I was at West, we played Clovis East and we went over there and no one told us where our facilities to change were. We ended up just changing in a public restroom."
Some of Kern County's best high school football teams will load up the bus this afternoon, pass the time with sleep or an iPhone or a conversation, then dress in a strange locker room and try to stretch their legs to play a team that's been waiting all day for them.
"I guess that's why we call it home-field advantage," Cornford said.
Frontier tries to stretch its record to 3-0 at Exeter, while Bakersfield, at Clovis-Buchanan, and Stockdale, at Clovis, take on Fresno-area foes. All games start at 7:30. And if the opponents weren't enough -- Buchanan and Bakersfield are two of the section's best -- all three will face an afternoon of traveling first.
Sometimes, the road-team disadvantage borders on ridiculous.
Stockdale coach Mike Snow, when he was at Frontier, had a junior-varsity trip to San Diego that was halted by forest fires, forcing his bus to stop on the Grapevine.
"They were on the road for nine hours," Snow said. "They literally rolled off the bus, dressed and played the game. That's tough."
Bakersfield coach Paul Golla had his team's playoff trip to Fresno-Bullard last year derailed by a blown bus tire, forcing the Drillers to a freeway rest stop for an hour while another bus came.
"Then we're late, now we're just messed up," Golla recalled. "We get to Bullard, get dressed and play. That was a nightmare with the stress of the playoffs."
Golla has also experienced visiting locker rooms with the heater turned on full blast, without toilet paper or non-existent, forcing his team to a cafeteria.
"The biggest thing (about traveling) is it knocks you off your routine," he said.
But for all the risks, the reward of travel is great, too. Teams that can win on the road -- especially Bakersfield and Stockdale, who could come away with victory in Clovis -- gain valuable experience and help the reputation of the entire county when it comes time for playoff seeding.
To add to that, it can prepare a team for the grueling league schedule that begins next week for the Southwest and Southeast Yosemite Leagues.
"Unless you're really fortunate and really, really good, in late November, you're going to be traveling at some point (in the playoffs)," Snow said.
Also hitting the road looking to continue hot starts is 3-0 Wasco, at Lindsay. On Saturday, Garces plays its traditional Holy Bowl game at Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial.
So how do coaches maximize the gain and minimize the pain of road trips?
Cornford, Snow and Golla agree: It's all about the routine.
Stockdale, for instance, will leave Bakersfield today at about 3:30, in hopes of arriving at Lamonica Stadium at 5:30. That gives the Mustangs half an hour to dress before pregame meetings should begin, as usual, at 6.
"I always want to have the same pregame routines," Snow said. "That way they're never confused, there's no indecision or mental breakdowns. Everything's the same."
Golla takes it a step further. Even for home games, he'll keep his players at BHS' campus after school, scheduling every minute between the final school bell and the opening kickoff. That includes a nap between 3:15 and 4 and a meal at 4:30.
Then, if the team takes a road trip, he can still stage the nap and meal on the bus.
"That's our biggest thing: Keep our routine exactly the same," Golla said. "So when you get a blowout (of a tire), and you're at a park with cheerleaders, that's not the best-case scenario."
And that's the bottom line. Prepare as best you can, but you've got to be a little born to be wild to win on the road.
Cornford prefers to show his players a movie on long bus rides so they're loose when they arrive, but budget cuts have forced him to use a school bus on the way to Exeter.
Something in Golla's precise schedule will get thrown off by traffic.
When Snow gets to Clovis tonight, his team will have to change in a cafeteria -- Lamonica Stadium doesn't have a visitors locker room.
But at the end of the night, when things are more relaxed, the coaches will all know it's been worth it -- especially if they win.
"Your guys have to know how to travel," Snow said. "They have to be able to win on the road."
