The Bulldogs season ended after a humbling loss in their playoff opener in Oakville last weekend. However head coach still has a special message for Bulldogs Players, Sponsors, Media and Fans.
This past weekend we traveled to Oakville in a Quarter-Final game in hopes of advancing to the Semi-Final to meet a team we met earlier in the season. Unfortunately, we hadn’t met Oakville earlier and they were very ready for this game. That in itself is a complement to our team, because they did not take us lightly, they prepared and knew that if we go by them, we could have won the Championship. Their coaches informed me that we were the sleeper in this mix that had the capacity to beat any team and that if they could beat us, they would have a legitimate chance at the winning the Championship. It was a feeling among many in the south that the winner of this game would go on to win the Championship. This was conveyed to me by their coaching staff, of which they have 8 coaches! The Semi-final is this week, we’ll see.
As much as it hurts to see our season come to an end and especially for the highly competitive players and coaches of this team I was given a message by a number of people that must be conveyed publicly. After the Oakville game a number of North Bay fans came to me with a message:
“Thank you Marc, the players, the other coaches and staff for the excitingly entertaining season you gave us at home and away games. As hard as it must be for you to end your season this way, we are so proud of you and the boys, for the courage and sheer guts you guys displayed for us this year. We absolutely love going to games to see you people represent us and perform some amazing things on the field. We can’t describe to you how much entertainment and joy you guys brought us. We hope that you all come back to entertain us again next year. We love you!”
Guys….we did something very few people can claim to have done…we captured their hearts!
I know that many of us work so hard to make ourselves competitive, that a loss like this seems to take the wind right out of our sails and we feel empty. Players train all winter in the gym and train all spring in preparation for these 8+ games we play in the summer. I know that I work all winter and so hard all summer to try and give the players as many advantages as I possibly can to position them to win. My father films everything that moves on the football field, I look at every frame. Our coaches and players put so much effort to arrange their work and personal schedule so that they can make practice. And the end of the season just seems to hurt so darn much that one can feel so empty inside, like it was all for nothing. Its ok to feel that way, but don’t let it consume you.
Those of us who feel that emptiness after such effort are always winners because we know that there is no purpose in doing anything unless you put out your absolute best effort in every respect, not just enough for you to say you did your best…but to put it all out there. Commitment: the action of committing your energy in one direction without leaving yourself a back door to escape, knowing that if you fail, you’ll feel like it was all hard work for not. Having the courage to put absolutely every ounce of your being into something while ignoring the possibility that you might lose is a sign of a champion competitor and one that I’ll always be proud to compete beside, because I know we are heading in the winning direction. That is simply a fact that is history proven. Coach Vince Lombardi was quoted as saying: “Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.”
Can we simply say that its not whether you win or lose, its whether you have fun or not? No! That motherly statement is not something that rings well in the ears of highly competitive athletes and coaches.
But highly competitive people must realize that you can’t only enjoy the wins, because the wins come much tougher if you don’t enjoy the preparation and the fight that comes before the final whistle. If we commit ourselves to genuinely enjoying and having fun preparing in a business fashion (in the gym, at practice, in meetings) and fighting (the work during the games themselves), the wins will come easier and more frequent and will have positive influence on your life. As players, if you look around you and ask yourself: “Who did I meet through football?”
There are a lot of good people on this club and a lot of friendships have been made. I know that thanks to D.G. (“T-Bone”), I had the opportunity to get to know Jason Ferriera much better this time around and I can tell you that I greatly appreciate him as a person as well as a player. Thank you… and I thank Jason for taking the risk.
It would be naïve to think that with the challenges we had early in the year, we should be able to gel completely as a full team in just one year. We can hold our heads high with what we are able to accomplish given the small fraction of the resources that all the other teams have at their disposal.
We were tremendously successful in bringing entertaining football to the football community in North Bay and we represented our city well. It’s important for us to thank Kelly Lloyd, Duke and Stuart for their time commitment to helping me coach this year and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the experience, even with its ups and downs. We owe thanks to our fans & supporters, including the media for all their terrific coverage and support, The Moose and all our sponsors for being part of North Bay Bulldogs Football. We look forward to your support again next year as we will work hard in the off-season towards making the needed changes to improve again and get to a Championship.
Special thanks goes out to the volunteers that spent a significant amount of their personal time with us to help us put our product on the field and they include: Kristen, Melissa, Robbie, Donny, Jordan, Dad, Greg, Tony and our great friend Tom Graham. Without you people, there would be no Bulldogs football for players to belong to.
I hope that players take the time to reflect on the accomplishments of the 2007 season, especially in the light of the message from our supporters I shared with you at the top of this letter. I sincerely hope that all of you will consider coaching youth football or high school football this fall to help build this great sport in North Bay. Further, I sincerely enjoyed my time this year with all of you and genuinely hope to see you soon in the off-season as we continue with Bulldogs activities and work on the changes to build a better team for next season.
In closing I think it is equally important to thank the girlfriends, wives, children and parents of all of us who play, coach or volunteer with the Bulldogs as without your support and patience, this club would not exist. From me, and everyone in the Bulldogs family, I say with love…THANK YOU…and I leave all of you with this:
Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory.
They did it because they loved one another!
Vince Lombardi
Marc Mathon – Head Coach
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