Marines Help P’ville Football Team Enhance Leadership Skills
The Pleasantville High School varsity football team has been enduring practices in the summer heat to get ready for their season opener on Sept. 5.
But during last Wednesday afternoon’s drills it wasn’t the coaching staff that was putting the players through their paces but rather a group of about 10 U.S. Marines who took over the practice field at Parkway Field.
Players were divided into groups where they competed against each other to complete a series of grueling combat fitness training exercises, such as rope pulls, turning oversized tires down the field and carrying and lifting heavy loads around cones.
While the drills were exhausting, getting into shape for the approaching season wasn’t as much the focus as it was to develop some of the other important qualities that go into making a winning team and helping the players be successful after they graduate high school.
“We’re trying to teach them leadership skills, some of the elements of leadership that are learned in the Marine Corps,” said Sgt. Maj. John Calhoun, one member of the group leading the players through session. “The Marine Corps has perfected a lot of this when it comes to leadership, and we try to pass that on.”
Head Coach Tony Becerra said last winter he attended a coach’s football clinic, where having the Marines come in was suggested as one way to promote team bonding and challenge the players to be their best.
Entering his 12th season as the Panthers coach, Becerra thought that it could be beneficial to have the Marines at the practice field for an afternoon to help the players for what he called “the ultimate team game.”
“You never know what’s going to be the spark that brings it together,” said Becerra, who participated in the exercises alongside his players. “It could be something like this, it could be something else, it could be something totally unrelated to athletics or football.”
During the latter stages of the competition, the last players to complete the exercises were exhorted by their teammates to make it across the finish line. That spontaneous motivation on the part of the players was what Becerra and the visiting Marines wanted to see.
“It’s a great team-bonding experience and I think our team got a lot out of it,” said Logan Schneeweiss, a senior tight end and outside linebacker and one of the team’s captains. “It was a good workout and it was a good way to bring us all together.”
Another captain, senior Jack Drillock, a defensive end and tackle, said the squad may be able to draw upon last week’s experience if they find themselves in a close game with time winding down.
“I think guys didn’t know how far they can go and what their limits are, but they really pushed it today and exhausted themselves today, so that should translate on the field in the fourth quarter late in games,” Drillock said.
The Marines who participated in the practice were based either in Albany and Peekskill and travel to schools throughout most of the state to help student-athletes develop their leadership skills, Calhoun said.
While football may be the sport most closely associated with these types of challenging workouts and practices, Capt. Carolyn Giebel said she has led sessions for teams in a variety of boys and girls high school sports. This week she’ll be in Binghamton to assist a high school varsity cheerleading team.
“It’s young men and women learning leadership skills and applying them in their lives,” Giebel said. “It’s easier to apply them to a team, a sport, but it’s life skills. We were all 16, 17 at some point in our lives.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/