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  • April 19, 2009

    Air Assault Football Camps


    GSHL Football is proud to let you know about Air Assault Football Camps.GSHL Football is proud to let you know about Air Assault Football Camps.

    All athletes entering grades 9-12 are welcome. Athletes from Clark County are strongly encouraged to make the short trip up to Longview. Air Assault Football Camps ensures your tips will be worth it.

    This summer in Longview two former R.A. Long Lumberjack football players will be putting on the second annual Air Assault Football Camps.

    Air Assault Football Camps is a camp geared towards quarterbacks & wide receivers, and new to the summer of 2009 we have expanded and added a section devoted to offensive linemen. The camp offers participants a wide range of mechanics, footwork, and drills (agility & position specific), along with the chance to compete with others across the area in a fun and hardworking environment. Former Whitworth University quarterback and current East Valley High School QB coach Mike Peck along with former record setting R.A. Long All-State wide receiver Luke Fowler will provide participants the knowledge, attitude, and skills needed to be successful. Former University of Washington offensive lineman Mike Nahl will be heading up the O-Line unit. An emphasis will be placed on run and pass blocking, agility and proper techniques. Numerous area coaches will also provide assistance.  Air Assault will give student-athletes more reps and one-on-one coaching than other camps for  a price cheaper than our competitors. Come experience the mentally and physically intense camp that will launch players to the next level.

    • WHERE: R. A. Long Practice Facility (Behind Longview Memorial  Stadium)\
    • WHEN: August 3-August 6 (Monday-Thursday)
    • WHO: Grades  entering 9-12, 5 p.m.-8  p.m.
    • COST: $80 ($20 session)
    • Check out our Website at AirAssaultFootball.Com
    • DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS JULY31!!

  • April 15, 2009

    Former Hudson’s Bay WR JD Ponciano On Idaho State Football ’09 Schedule Desktop Wallpaper


    Former Hudson's Bay WR JD Ponciano On Idaho State Football '09 Schedule Desktop WallpaperFormer Husdon’s Bay Eagles wide reciever JD Ponciano has been featured on an Idaho State 2009 Football Schedule Desktop Wallpaper. The wallpaper features Isaiah Burel, Jaron Taylor, and JD Ponciano, the three top returning receivers for the Bengals along with the complete 2009 schedule.

    The wallpaper is available in the following sizes

    • 1600 x 1200
    • 1280 x 960
    • 1024 x 768
    • 800 x 600

    You can get them at The Bengalblog!

    If you have not read JD’s interview with GSHL Football you are missing out. JD was our first interview in the popular THE NEXT LEVEL series.

  • April 13, 2009

    Chasing The Dream: Life As A Graduate Assistant


    Chasing The Dream: Life As A Graduate Assistant - Former Evergreen QB Joe Bever's Quest To Coach D-1 FootballFormer Evergreen quarterback Joe Bever has a dream: coaching college football.

    Becoming a college football coach is not as easy as one may think. While just about any dad can sign up to volunteer for his kids Pop Warner or CCYF football team, and many others could possibly even land a gig working on a Freshman or even JV high school team, becoming a member of a Division 1 college football team’s coaching staff is no easy task. You have to have knowledge, desire, drive, experience, an almost unhealthy love for the game, and you also have to have the right job open at the right time.

    Let’s all keep in mind, “It’s division 1 football! It’s The Big XII! It ain’t intramurals!”

    We caught up with the former Plainsmen signal caller and asked him what life has been like since he led Evergreen to the 1998 playoffs.

    You played your high school football at Evergreen where you made starts as a sophomore and Junior prior to becoming the full time starter as a senior. How did you end up at Clemson playing football?

    I wanted to get away from home (and particularly the rain) and do something different.

    Joe – That’s an extremely long story, but the jist of it is I knew as a freshmen in HS I wanted to play in the in the south, I wanted to get away from home (and particularly the rain) and do something different.  So starting that summer (prior to my sophomore year) I started going to college camps.  By my senior year I had camped at about 10 different schools and a few of them multiple times.  While at the Bowden Academy camp, which was held at Auburn University, I really hit it off with Coach Rod (Rich Rodriguez) who at the time was the OC at Tulane University.  He recruited me through my senior season, at the end of the season Coach Bowden (Tommy Bowden) who was the Head Coach took the head job at Clemson University.  Coach Rod went with him as the OC and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to follow him.  It was truly a God a thing that I ended up there, it was the perfect spot for me and I loved every minute of being there.

    Describe the difference between the Northwest and the Southeast as far as the fans passion for football.

    Joe – Oh wow, nothing against NW fans but it’s a whole other world down there.  On my visit to Clemson I remember they told me for big games fans show up in RV’s 3 or 4 days before the game starts and I remember thinking “okay, if that’s not a recruiting spiel,” but it wasn’t.  There would be 30 RV’s parked outside the practice fields on Wednesday before we played and by Friday there were 150.  But the most impressive thing to me was, we’d sell out our stadium (which held 82,000 at the time) and there’d still be 20,000 fans in the parking lots with big screen TV’s strapped to the back of their trucks watching the game, they just wanted to be part of the environment even if they couldn’t get a ticket to the game, it’s really something that has to be experienced, but after a while it just becomes part of the deal.  That’s football down there, which is the reason I wanted to go south for college, I wanted to experience that.  Like everywhere else they have 3 athletic seasons, it’s just in the south it’s football season, recruiting season, and spring ball.

    You earned a letter your senior year at Clemson, however you never were the full time starting quarterback. Did you ever consider transferring out of Clemson so you could start at another school?

    I had to come ready to work everyday just to keep my spot on the team…

    Joe – Quite honestly I never really considered it, there were times I thought “ah, maybe,” but when it came down to it I was in the right place.  Like I mentioned earlier, God knew what he was doing.  There’s so much that goes into enjoying your college experience and for me it wasn’t just about playing time.  I loved the opportunity to play with and compete against some of the best players in college football, I was nowhere near as talented as the majority of the guys on our team, but that’s what made it fun for me, I had to come ready to work everyday just to keep my spot on the team, let alone to try to get on the field.  I had a few different opportunities to transfer, but it wasn’t worth it for me.  I knew God had me where I was suppose to be.

    When did you decide you wanted to be a football coach?

    Joe – The same time I knew I wanted to head south for college.  I always knew I’d probably be a coach.  I grew up around coaching with my dad being a coach and I always knew it’d be something I wanted to do.  It wasn’t till about my freshman year that I knew I wanted to coach in college.

    You’ve had the opportunity to be around a lot of different types of coaches, you played under current Camas HC Jon Eagle in HS, Tommy Bowden and Rich Rodriguez at Clemson, Dan Hawkins at Colorado, and some more I haven’t mentioned, who’s coaching style would you say yours is most like?  How would you describe your style?

    Joe – I’ve been very blessed to have been around a lot of great coaches, all those guys have had an impact on me and who I am today.  Coach Kiesau (WR coach at Colorado) is another guy who has had a significant impact on me, he really took me under his wing these last 2 years and been real mentor and friend to me on and off the field.  But to be honest my style isn’t too far from the family tree, no question it’s much like my dad’s.  It’s hard to grow up around a successful coach and not do a lot of similar things.  As for coaches I played or work for it’s definitely a mix of Coach Rod and Coach Petersen from Boise State.

    My coaching style completely revolves around relationship, my players are going to know I care about them…

    As for my style, quite honestly I don’t know that I really know how to describe it.  My coaching style completely revolves around relationship, my players are going to know I care about them and I’ll do everything I can for them with the teams and their best interests at heart.  I’m very demanding and I have high expectations for my players. I believe that as a coach if you’re going to help a player achieve his full potential (many coaches forget that’s actually their job) you’ve got to have higher expectations for the player than the player does for himself.  We all have a breaking point, no matter how mentally tough we are and as a coach it’s my job to push them past that breaking point, I don’t believe my job really starts until they get to that point.  You can’t push them past that point if your expectations aren’t higher than theirs.  And to be able to do that the coach has to have a genuine relationship with the player, without that the coach has no shot at pushing them consistently past that breaking point.  Coaches that have made me better as player had that kind of relationship with me, there are a few coaches that I’d run through a brick wall if they told me to.
    As a coach I will adjust my style and how I react to different situations depending on the player and the relationship I have with him.  Relationship determines my reactions to every scenario I encounter with my players.  But I do have to admit, I pride myself in being tough and caring at the same time.

    After you graduated from Clemson, where did you first start coaching?

    …we had played 21 ineligible players in our game…

    Joe – HAHA, I laugh because wow was that an experience.  It was truly something you usually only hear about.  My first coaching job was at St. Peter’s college, a D1-AA non-scholarship in Jersey City, NJ (they no longer have a team).  Another story that I’ll shorten for ya’ll, I was hired as the QB Coach in July about 2 weeks before the season started.  I had no connection to the HC, just applied for the job and got it.  Well after our first game, which we lost by 24 points, it came to the attention of our compliance office that we had played 21 ineligible players in our game, yes I did say that number correctly and oh ya 2 of them weren’t even enrolled in school.  There were only two coaches on staff who had any knowledge of this and needless to say they were fired.  So we finished out the season with only 6 coaches, I ended up taking over the RB’s as well.  It was one long season with only 6 coaches, but through it all I loved the coaching side of it.  I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, I learned a lot in the 4 months I was there, stuff I couldn’t have learned or experienced anywhere else.  Bad situations aren’t always a bad thing.

    You next ended up at Boise State as a volunteer. How did you end up in Boise?

    Joe – LOL, once again another long story I’ll give you the short version of.  I resigned from St. Peters at the end of the season and came back to WA.  I was still looking for coaching jobs, specifically a G.A. job, but none of my coaches had anything open.  I had been framing houses for about 3 months, when I had a family friend ask me if I’d be interested in taking over his construction company in Boise.  I have a BA in Finance and a working construction background so he thought it’d be a good fit and needed someone he personally knew over there (he ran the office in Portland and didn’t want to move).  So since I didn’t have anything going on the coaching front and this was really great opportunity, I took the job.  Once I got settled in I just randomly called Coach Hawk at Boise State and asked if he’d be interested in letting me volunteer my time in the office.  He met with me and graciously allowed me to hang around for the 2005 season.

    What was your most memorial moment at Boise State?

    Joe – I wouldn’t say there was one moment; I loved my time in Boise.  I absolutely loved working with the staff there.  They knew how to have a good time and get work done at the same time, which in my experience is a rare quality in people in general.

    What was your most embarrassing moment while at Boise State?

    Joe – To be totally honest, I really don’t have one.  I don’t really get embarrassed, I let things roll off my back pretty quickly and easily.  One my sayings is “it is what is,” and that’s kind of my approach to every situation.

    Then Boise State coach Dan Hawkins took the job at Colorado, how did you end up following him there?

    Joe – Here’s the one time I don’t have a long story.  It was pretty simple, he took the job at Colorado and once he got down there and knew that the current G.A. they had wasn’t going to stay he told me to pack up and come down.  That’s really all it was.

    What exactly is a Graduate Assistant (GA)?

    An on the field GA can do everything a full-time coach can do except go on the road to recruit.

    Joe – I can only speak for Division 1; I believe the rules are significantly different at lower levels.  In a Division 1 program there are only 2 GA’s and that’s mandated by the NCAA.  Now you’ve probably heard of programs having 3, 4, or in some cases 5 GA’s, but only 2 of those guys can actually coach.  The other guys are referred to as off the field GA’s, meaning they can assist with administrative tasks, but they cannot in any form coach.  Most big programs have guys like that now, but they all have different names Quality Control, Technical Intern, Video GA, etc.
    An on the field GA can do everything a full-time coach can do except go on the road to recruit.  They can recruit prospects, they just can’t go on the road to do it, everything they do has to be on the phone or on campus.  Other than that and obviously the pay, they are no different in terms of what they are allowed to do than a full-time position coach.  In fact our Defensive GA was the OLB’s coach.

    Are you really a “grunt”, or is that kind of blown out of proportion?

    Chasing The Dream: Life As A Graduate Assistant - Former Evergreen QB Joe Bever's Quest To Coach D-1 FootballJoe – Oh definitely you are the “grunt” no matter what school you’re at, but how much grunt work is required depends on the staff.  I was very blessed to end up working under Coach Hawk and his staff.  We still did all the film breakdowns, self scout analysis, video work, scout team, playbooks, drawings, cutups, etc, but the great thing with Coach Hawk and his staff though, was we were treated like full time coaches.  They gave us many responsibilities that went beyond the grunt work, they mentor you instead of just give you stuff to do. Very few programs give their GA’s the responsibilities that Coach Hawk and his staff let us have.  Because of those extra responsibilities we put in a lot of extra hours to do those things and do the typical GA stuff at the  same time, but it’s completely worth it because you now have experience and proven yourself in those areas that normally a GA might not get the opportunity to do.
    As for getting coffee, picking up dry cleaning, washing cars, etc…..I’ve only heard about that never experienced it.

    As a GA, are you still attending school?

    Joe – Oh ya and let me tell ya, that is the absolute worst part of the job!  Very rarely does someone become a GA just to get their Masters, so school work is honestly an after thought.  And by that I mean you have to find a way to make it work, it’s not like as a player where if you have a class during practice you get to miss practice, as a GA it means you either don’t take the class or if its required you don’t get in that Master’s program.  I actually changed the program I was in when I first got there because there were going to be two classes during times that I had football responsibilities.  I was fortunate enough to end up being able to get into a program where I could download the classes off the internet, but not all schools or programs offer that.  There were times I’d get up at 3 in the morning to watch class before going into the office, you make it work or you find a new job.

    Do you get paid as a GA? Are there any benefits?

    Joe – Yes and yes.  As a GA you are paid exactly like the scholarship athletes are, no difference.  You get a monthly stipend that is determined using some crazy formula the NCAA has based on Cost of Living.  Unlike the players you do get health insurance paid for.  Now, not all schools pay for it but they are allowed to.  Fortunately Colorado does.

    Describe a typical week as a GA during the season.

    Coach Hawk gives Sunday mornings off for those who want to go to church

    Joe – Sunday:  We don’t have to be in the office till noon (Coach Hawk gives Sunday mornings off for those who want to go to church), but I’ll come in early before church and input the data from the game the night before.  I’ll come back in at noon with everyone else, we’ll grade the game film, have a staff meeting, team meeting, player meetings, and then go out to practice.  While they go out to practice I stay in and break down the game from Saturday of our next opponent.  When they come back in from practice we’ll watch an hour and half or so of game film of that next opponent as a staff and then call it a night.
    Monday:  This is our long day (every staff is different).  We’ll come in about 6.  As a staff we watch film separately before coming together, so we have the entire morning to our self.  I use that time to watch blitzes we’ll be running that week on scout team and put together my scout calls for the week, meaning what we were going to call each defense and blitz, every team uses a different technique so I’d have to make sure the scout team understood the differences in technique from one week to another (we were no huddle, which means the scout team didn’t have time to look at cards, so I had to teach them calls for the week).  I also used that time to finish the special teams breakdown if I didn’t finish it the prior week.
    We’d come together in the afternoon as a staff put our thoughts on the board and talk through everything.  Once pass plays started going on the board I had to start drawing them on the computer.  A typical game plan would take me about 4 hours or so to draw, assuming there was no technical difficulties with the program, which is a very bad assumption.  Ultimately I’d get out of there around 10 or so.

    We’ll come in about 6… Ultimately I’d get out of there around 10 or so.

    Tuesday:  In at 6 again, we’re on our own for the morning again.  I’ll usually breakdown 2 games for the follow weeks opponent (as GA you’re always at least a week ahead), put together scripts and practice plans for practice that day, and then usually draw 7 or 8 pass plays that were added to the game plan that morning.  Then the afternoon and evening is meetings and practice.  After practice if I hadn’t finished the break downs I’d do those or if those were done I’d doing some recruiting or random organizational stuff (I hate being unorganized).  Evenings and early mornings were the times when I’d either get caught up or try to get ahead on different things, there’s always things to be done.
    Wednesday:  In about 5, usually to finish up some thing I hadn’t finished the night before or get some class work done.  We’d watch practice as a staff at 6 and then the rest of the day would be much like Tuesday.
    Thursday: In about 5 for the same reasons, full staff at 7, then practice film, and the rest of the day much like Tuesday and Wednesday.
    Friday:  If it’s a home game we come in at 9 and have a recruiting meeting and if we’re on the road than it’s just our travel schedule.  All the work has really been done by this time, if I got behind on a breakdown I’d use Friday to get it finished, but I very rarely had to do that.  I usually busted my hump through the week to get stuff done so that Friday I could relax a bit, I love plane flights and the last thing I wanted to do on a plane flight was homework or breakdowns.  Plane flights and the hotel room Friday night was my own time to kind of relax and not have to worry about getting something done.
    The great thing about our schedule and Coach Hawk will say this is he gives you enough rope to hang yourself, the bad thing is he gives you enough rope to hang yourself.  He’s not a micro manager, you have your job and it’s up to you to figure out how you want to get it done.  It’s awesome and very family friendly.  We are free after practice we don’t have to hang around if we don’t want to or need to, but that might mean you have to come in earlier than everyone else to get your job done.  It’s awesome, one our coaches comes in at 4am sometimes but leaves right after practice and he’ll tell you “I can choose when I get up, I can’t choose when my kids need to go to bed.”  There’s a lot of time spent in this profession away from family, but Coach Hawk gives his coaches every possible opportunity to be with them.

    What was your most memorial moment as a GA at Colorado?

    Chasing The Dream: Life As A Graduate Assistant - Former Evergreen QB Joe Bever's Quest To Coach D-1 FootballJoe – Probably have to be beating Oklahoma at home when they were ranked #3.  That was a big win for us in many ways.

    What was your most embarrassing moment while at Colorado?

    Joe – Like previously mentioned I really don’t get embarrassed, but I will say there are some great shots on video of me getting hit or ran over while running the scout team…..I think I got hit more as a GA than I did as a player.

    How long can a person be a GA?

    Joe – You get 2 years no matter what as long as you can stay in a Master’s program.  However if you complete 24 hours of course work in those 2 years you can get a waiver for a 3rd year.  Most GA’s only do 2 because they don’t get the 24 hours.

    Your time as a GA is now over at Colorado. What is your next plan?

    Joe – Find a job! This profession is not easy to stay in.  There are coaches with 15+ years of experiences at some big places who are having to GA at schools this year to stay in the profession.  This profession is all about who knows you (not who you know like many think) and timing.  I don’t care what division I’m coaching at, I just want to stay in college.  If I don’t find full-time spot somewhere, I’ll go volunteer at an NAIA school somewhere (NAIA volunteers can actually coach, no restrictions on them).  I’ve been living on peanuts for all but 9 months of my life, I think I can do it a little longer, you get pretty resourceful after a while.

    What is your ultimate goal as a coach?

    Joe – Oh, personally it’s definitely to be a Head Coach at a Division 1 school.  Whether that’s in the plan for me or not only God knows..  We don’t know what tomorrow will bring; right now I’m just praying to stay in the profession.

    Which would you choose: Be the Head Coach at a division II school and win a national championship, or be the Quarterbacks coach at a BCS school that wins the national championship?

    I’m not into coaching for anything but the fact that I love it…

    Joe – Believe it or not that’s a much more complicated question than you think.  It’s all about the people you work with.  There are some Division 1 coaches that I wouldn’t even consider taking a job with and there are some lower level coaches I’d go with in a heartbeat.  True joy in your job comes from two things and I don’t believe you can have it without both of them and that is: loving what you do and enjoying the people you work with.  I’m not into coaching for anything but the fact that I love it, it offers me the opportunity to be the last real influence on a young man before he hits the “real world” and it satisfies my competitive nature, but I’ve also learned that you can love what you do but if you don’t enjoy the people you work with your job still takes the life out you.  You gotta have both.  So to answer your question, don’t really care as long as I’m coaching with people I enjoy being around.

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