“I never worry about win totals. They’re a by-product of hard work—of doing our best every day, every week, every year.”—Coach Don Shula
It’s easy to look at how the Niagara Storm Junior Varsity football team has been playing over the past few weeks and to think that they might just be unbeatable. At least, that’s what the so-called “experts” are now saying on the All Canada Gridiron chat forum—these being the exact same experts who only three weeks ago had predicted that the Niagara Storm would finish dead last in the entire league.
“Every man gets a narrower and narrower field of knowledge in which he must be an expert in order to compete with other people. The specialist knows more and more about less and less and finally knows everything about nothing.”—Konrad Lorenz
Despite early criticisms, the JV Storm are officially off to the greatest start in club franchise history, starting the season with a solid record of 3-0, scoring a total of 155 points on a #1 ranked Offense, and tied for the #1 rank on Defense. But success like this doesn’t just happen overnight. And certainly not without a lot of hard work and sacrifice.
“The hard work and the effort that we’ve put in is the reason for our good start,” said Head Coach Dave Richardson. “And that’s something we must continue to do if we’re going to be successful going forward.”
This past weekend, the Storm defeated the North Halton Crimson Tide—a team that was widely considered to be the true number one team in the league, by a convincing score of 54-20 (41-7 at half-time). Despite what might appear to be an “easy” victory however, the Storm made quite a few simple mistakes and took several careless penalties throughout the duration of the game.
“Every team in this league can hurt you if you make mistakes, and that was proven this past weekend,” added Coach Richardson. “Even though we had a great result, mistakes were definitely made.”
With only five games remaining in the regular season, the Storm cannot afford to start coasting on the merits of their success so early on in the season. Truthfully, there’s never an appropriate time for any team to coast on any of their prior successes.
“Overconfidence precedes carelessness.”—Toba Beta
The ultimate goal for any team from the start of any regular season is to improve each and every week, each and every practice. If the Storm players can stay committed to that goal throughout the remainder of the season, the wins will definitely take care of themselves.
Without a doubt, the Niagara Storm JV squad all deserve to be recognized for their hard work and success. They just need to stay focused on their ultimate goal if they actually expect to compete for a championship this year.
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”—Colin Powell
Follow James Ryan on Twitter @TheSportstender
Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.
