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SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
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Pirate Notebook No. 295
Monday, January 22, 2007
By Denny O'Brien |
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Emory mantra still applicable
today
By Denny O'Brien
©2007 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
In today's college football — a game marked
by sweater vests and luxury boxes — you can't help but wonder if Ed Emory
could have survived.
That's the question I've been pondering
since Emory announced his resignation as Richmond Senior High's football
coach last week. And my guess is he wouldn't have gotten the chance.
Because Emory is a member of a coaching
fraternity that is quickly approaching extinction.
He, like many others in this dying breed,
isn't the slick, polished image schools now seek to lead a major Division
I-A program, a profession that nowadays requires as much ego-stroking and
booster schmoozing as it does player development and gameday strategy.
To some degree, Emory might even be
considered a fundraiser's worst migraine, a coach who states his mind
instead of parroting the spiel the fan base wants to hear. And much of what
he says will be delivered with a speech impediment.
But that never limited Emory's abilities as
a football coach, and he was 100 percent just that. He's never been one for
the golf course or fishing hole, the common sanctuaries coaches use for
mental and emotional escapes.
Only football.
Be it at the high school or college level,
the gridiron has been more than a career for Emory. It has been a lifeline.
And when you bundle the stories of a life committed to the molding of men,
you have to admit that Emory's has been one enriched by success stories that
almost everyone considered surprising.
Everyone but him.
Emory expected achievement because he never
used circumstances or parameters as a crutch for a lack of success. He
certainly acknowledged the hand he was dealt, but he never once folded
because it wasn't as attractive as the one across the table.
That served as a motivator for Emory, not
rationale for eluding a challenge. He instead twisted what others would
label unfavorable factors into a decided mental advantage for East Carolina,
just as he did at each stop throughout his coaching career.
He bottled this philosophy into a term he
calls "want power," which he describes as that relentless drive that fuels
someone to accomplish what they want most. If a player, coach,
administrator, or fan wants something bad enough, Emory's firm belief was
that nothing could stand in the way of achieving it.
It has nothing to do with hoisting an
oversized chip on your shoulder, as has often been a battle cry among ECU
faithful. That would suggest a sense of not belonging or a lack of
entitlement.
Perhaps "want power" explains why he
embraced his speech impediment as not a handicap, but rather a gift from God
given for the purpose of understanding the plight of African-Americans he
coached in the racially-charged '60s. If that's too much of a stretch,
certainly the correlation can be made between inheriting a team that had no
weight program and quickly propelling it into the Top 20.
It was proof that fast food football can be
successful if started with the ingredients already in the fridge. For Emory,
that meant first improving the personnel he inherited, a process that began
with generating a sense of school pride throughout the roster.
We've witnessed a similar mindset most
recently with current Pirates coach Skip Holtz. His requirement of players
to know the school fight song and the removal of names from the backs of
jerseys put the emphasis on school pride and off of individual efforts.
And in an era during which outside forces
are often cast as a barrier to success, Holtz hasn't once blamed the Bowl
Championship Series for any misfortune ECU may have experienced. He
acknowledges its existence, but doesn't use it as an obstacle or the central
theme of an outcry against the sport's injustices.
Just like little to no attention is paid to
certain advantages neighboring schools might possess, be they the size of
their bank accounts or facilities. Doing so would seem futile given the
relative ease with which the Pirates beat N.C. State this past November.
ECU's fans would be wise to embrace a
similar philosophy. Instead of channeling so much angst towards other
schools, leagues, or the BCS, ECU's constituency should funnel all of its
energy into seeking solutions to reach its ambitious goals.
That's the essence of "want power." And
that timeless element of football hasn't passed Emory by.
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02/23/2007 02:05:25 AM |
