The Scout Team

The team that doesn't get any credit. The team that works just as hard as the starters but never sees the playing field. The scout team. For those of you who don't know what a scout team is it's a team made up of second and third string players who face the starters. Their job is to run the opponents offense as fast and accurate as possible that way on game day the starters know what to look for and can perform at a high speed.

This past season I was a part of the scout team and was a part of it every day. I embraced my job on scout team because I knew it would make the starters better, but more importantly it made me a lot better going up against our starters every single day. I was the second team center so I played center every day on the scout team which brought a new challenge to me that I've never had before. I had to learn and know calls for the opposing team as well as my team, and make calls to the scout team line so everyone knows what is going on for the upcoming play. This is hard in many aspects. For one I got rotated in with the first team offensive line quite regularly so I knew what I was doing and had support alongside me. On the scout team everyone is not at the skill level of the starters and most of them don't know all of the plays because they never get reps, so I literally have to tell everyone what they do on every play. A second problem is that we will be out manned on every play. The defense is going to be bigger, faster, and stronger than we are and that's just the name of the game. Finally learning the other offense is hard. It takes a summer and the regular season to install and perfect our own offense, we have to learn and try and perfect another team's plays in one week. The leads to high intensity at practices because if we mess up then it's a bad rep and every one lets you know you messed up.

When going up against starters day in and day out you get better. I faced Mason Jacobs and Dalles Jacobus on every snap this past season and wouldn't have traded it for anything. My partner in crime was Gunnar Height. He was always the guard and with me at center we were allowed to double team most of the time. Scout team sessions made practices fun for us two. We made calls that only we knew, always knew what the other was going to do, and always got the defense fired up. How did we do that? We blocked them well, stayed on them until the whistle blew, and continued to block them after the whistle blew. Did this lead to problems? Well sure! Considering Gunnar and I are considerable smaller than both of the guys we blocked the outcome for us didn't always go well. Sometimes one guy would get thrown to the ground, or knock the other guy down and have a little tussle on the ground. No matter what though us four were always friends at the end of practice, and because of it we grew together as close friends throughout the year. I miss that. Some parts of the game aren't missed after the year is done, but that is one thing I would love to do again.

The scout team is important. Without them the starters wouldn't be as good and it correlates. Teams with good scout teams have success during the season and teams who don't prepare as well might not have as much success. I loved every minute of it this year and can't wait to be on the other side this year upcoming year.