SPORTS
IA EEK'S WoRK
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Staff Writer
T
he bold green let-
ters, painted on the
wrestling room,
speak a thousand words.
Above:
Coach Joe Brandell
makes a point.
Below:
Practice begins with a
stretching routine.
if
Joe Brandell, football
coach, husband, father, is
lecturing the special teams
unit before a game.
"Today is the game of all
games," he's saying to a
room full of high school
athletes. They return his
words with blank stares,
some more intense than
others.
The players, some still not
fully grown, are wearing
protective pads on their legs,
making them look like stuff-
ed dolls.
"If we score twice, you
better bet your bottom dollar
we'll on-side the kick."
"If he gets the punt off, you
come on back and block."
"If you want to gawk, you
can stay on the sidelines."
"If we're flat like last
week, I guarantee we'll have
problems."
If:
Whoever painted those two
letters on West Bloomfield
High School's wrestling
room wall had no idea how
important that word would
be to these students, on this
day, in this place.
As Coach Brandell is
delivering one of a stream of
daily, sometimes hourly, pep
talks, his players are mull-
ing over their fate. In just a
few hours, they will take the
field against Royal Oak
Dondero High School, rank-
ed eighth in the state.
But these are students.
They want to go to college.
They have girlfriends. They
have cars. They have
parents. Why do they care
about football? Why do they
care about a team from
Dondero?
It goes back to a meeting
almost a week before, the
day after this West Bloom-
field team lost a horrific 26-
14 game to Lahser High
School.
Coach Brandell, after re-
viewing film from that
game, revved up the larynx
for an inspirational mes-
sage.