Photo By Sgt. Levi Schultz | Students with the Grand Island Senior High School football team complete a workout led...... read more read more
The Grand Island Senior High School’s football team tackled a unique challenge during their preseason conditioning.
Marines with Recruiting Sub-Station Kearney, Neb., lead the team in a workout themed around the value of commitment and leadership principles at the Grand Island Senior High School football field Aug. 2, 2017.
“When we go out to these high school teams, it’s an opportunity for us to put our job as a recruiter aside and teach these young players the importance of values,” said Sgt. Tyler Ward, a Marine Corps recruiter in Grand Island, Neb. area. “We challenge them with a difficult workout and teach them how to look out for one another.”
The workout consisted of 8 stations with exercises such as burpees, squat jumps and pushups. Between each station, the groups worked as a team to form arches while players crawled underneath, one at a time. If a team member got tired and rested, the whole group was held up, taking longer to complete the exercise.
“As we went through the workout, we realized it was a lot harder than it looked at first,” said Dylan Thomson, 18, Grand Island Senior High student and captain of football team. “I learned that we need to always be there for our teammates. If they are struggling and having issues standing up, you have to be there to help them so we can finish together.”
Ward, an Owosso, Mich. native, enlisted as a motor transport operator and deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.
“The values and skills I’ve learned in the Marine Corps. . . I use them in everyday life, whether it’s with fellow Marines, your family or someone you just happened to meet on the street,” Ward said. “What we are trying to convey to the players, is that the values that they learn playing on the team or while in the military can be applied to everyday life. It’s something you take with you everywhere you go.”
Marine recruiters like Ward hold these camps across the nation, ultimately with the future development of young athletes in mind.
“I think it’s huge as far as team dynamic and seeing leaders emerge,” said Jeff Tomlin, Grand Island Senior School head football coach. “We try to pattern our program off of the core values of the U.S. military. It’s a natural progression for us and it culminates in a real challenging workout that forces them to come together as a team. Our foremost goal of our football program is to build men of character. As a team, we want to exceed our standard with the outcome winning a championship or qualifying for the playoffs. These outcomes are only accessible by controlling the process and these camps are one of the ways we do that; I’d highly recommend it for any program.”
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2017 18:13 |
| Story ID: | 243635 |
| Location: | GRAND ISLAND, NE, US |
| Hometown: | GRAND ISLAND, NE, US |
| Web Views: | 364 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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