Chicken Coops and Championships!

We have an old saying in coaching that, "you can't make chicken soup from chicken crap" and that alludes to the fact that it takes talent to win games and be successful. I agree with that sentiment and yet this week find myself literally embedded in the analogy. Not in the sense of not having talent to win because we do have talent here at the Gladiators and have proven to be successful in reaching the teams third consecutive Swiss Bowl. The Swiss Bowl pits the two top teams in Switzerland in  National Championship title match that is the Swiss version of the Super Bowl although slightly less Super!

Today we have the opportunity to take on arguably the best team in Europe in the Calanda Broncos, a team that has been assembled for the express purpose of winning a Eurobowl Championship. They are immensely talented and boast imported players from all over the world. They have been the nemesis of the Gladiators for the last two Swiss Bowls as well so there is a history renewed tonight at Rahnkof Stadium in Basel.
While it is incredibly exciting to be playing for another national championship which makes my fourth one in three different countries now in Europe at the senior level, I was struck once again by the differences in American football here. That is where the said Chicken coop and its by-products comes into play. While in the U.S. any National Championship in American football brings with it enormous media pressure, and a strong sense of achievement, here in Switzerland to say that that sense is missing is a bit of an understatement. While at home I would be enmeshed in studying film, dealing with practice schedules and balancing the extra pressures of a National title game, here it is business as usual which means cleaning chicken coops.

Yes the glamour of a national title game here calls for the defensive coordinator to clean chicken coops along with other various tasks. You see besides preparing for the game through studying film and game planning coaches don't make what they would make in the U.S. so we do what we can to scrape by. In many ways it is a tent-making process as the apostle Paul explained. During the day I do odd jobs to make some money and this week included cleaning out an old hen house which has been vacated by its previous tenants. Hence much shoveling, scrubbing, and washing down of the entire building was needed and that was the glamour of championship week. Don't get me wrong it was actually a good task in that I was able to accomplish something and look at the final product and see a clean building.

That does not mean that the smell was completely wonderful even after the washing down with a pressure washer, those who have raised chickens will understand what I mean about the olfactory sensations of a hen house even after it has been cleaned, but it was better. It also was a great illustration for me in understanding that success is not always what we envision it as being glory filled and exciting. There is much hard work that has to precede the eventual success and if the work is not put in then there will be no success.

Our players have spent their own time cleaning out the chicken coops of the season through hard work dedication and determination. We started out very slowly losing our first 2 league games and yet were able to bounce back and make the playoffs and beat a very good Zurich renegade team last week in the semifinals 15-13, holding onto the narrow victory through the miss of a field goal by the Renegades on their last drive with seconds left in the game. It was not a pretty victory but it enabled us to advance to the final today. It was another picture of a clean chicken coop, it still smelled a bit like chicken poop but it looked better than it had earlier in the season.

As far as the fame and glory, that is also something that is not huge for the sport here. Most people I know don't even know this championship game is being played here in Basel today. Will there be a huge crowd, probably not, but it will be a decent following that will hopefully see a game that will  further peoples appreciation for the sport here in central Europe.  So today the question  for us is whether we have enough strength and character to overcome a great Broncos team in a final that pits us against them for the third time this season. I know this, our players will play hard and give it their best shot whether it smells a bit of  chicken poop or not at times. The thing I am most proud of with this group of men is the way they have handled adversity this season and have remained focused on getting here to this Swiss Bowl when most people had written them off. We are hoping for a great batch of chicken soup today because we have the right ingredients.

Blessings,

Jim