Building Team Unity with the Games Inside the Game

These days the game of football is broken down to a science. Sure, most coaches preach lip service about blocking and tackling but they are usually the same ones that spend a great deal of money and countless hours filing into clinic discussions trying to find the latest innovative offensive scheme or researching a bone-crushing defense. So instead of searching the ends of the earth for the newest scheme or end-all technicality, some coaches have turned towards the intangibles like developing team chemistry in order to separate their squad from the rest. While the X’s and O’s are still an essential part of the game, some coaches find that developing the mental, and not physical part of the game, gives them the advantage. Such was the case with former Linfield College (McMinnville, OR) head coach Jay Locey. It was early in the 2000 season when Linfield was running through a 4-0