Football team feeds of coach’s newfound tradition
By David Leisering, Sports Information Director
After an 0-4 start to the 2014 football season, head football coach Marty Schaetzle was grasping for a way to turn the season around and to salvage something from that dismal start. Seven straight victories later, Schaetzle appears to have found a new tradition for the Laker football team that has taken the cake – and eaten it with a spoon. Schaetzle and the Lakers fnished the 2014 season with a 7-4 overall record and a 7-3 mark in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division. As the Lakers entered the feld dur ing the seven-game winning streak, Schaetzle met them holding a large silver spoon. Each player touched the spoon on his way to the feld – a new tradition that captured national attention when the Lakers defeated Slippery Rock at Michigan Stadium on Oct. 18. The spoon comes with a great story that Schaetzle explained to the team prior to its win over crosstown rival Gannon University – the game that started the winning streak. “We started out 0-4, we’re young, and we’re still not a very good football team, but we’re headed in the right direction,” Schaetzle told the team. He tried to explain to them the fne line between being good and not being good. The coach told them the story of the guy who wanted to know the dif erence between Heaven and Hell. “An angel took him to Hell, and he was shocked to see that it didn’t look all that bad. It was nice, a kind of paradise.
“There was a big pot of stew in the middle. Everybody gathered ‘round and everyone had big, long-handled spoons in their hands, but they were still famished. “Everybody in Hell kept trying to take those spoons and feed themselves, but they couldn’t get any of the stew into their mouths, so they were wasting away.” When the guy and the angel went to Heaven, it appeared to be the exact same room. Beautiful. Paradise. Eden. Everybody was holding the same spoons, but everyone was plump, healthy, red-cheeked, feeling great. The guy didn’t understand but the angel explained, Schaetzle told his players. “In Heaven, everybody’s learned to feed each other. Each one takes a spoon with a long handle and feeds the guy across from him, and the guy feeds him in return.” The coach told them, “If we start feeding each other, we have a good chance to become a good football team.” Hence the spoon. The team’s 7-4 record clinched its third straight winning season, the frst time the program had accomplished that feat since stringing together seven straight winning years from 1983 to 1989.
Photos by Ed Mailliard
If it weren’t for a 2014 rule change, the Lakers would have played for the conference championship on Nov. 15 against the ff th- ranked team in the country, Bloomsburg, who had earlier beaten the Lakers during the 0-4 start. But, the tradition that Schaetzle has started points towards a bright future for the Mercyhurst football program. Despite its dings and nicks and the beating it takes from each and every player who touches it on the way to the feld , the spoon is still perfect.
21
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online