Three Days in the Valley Propels Royals Into New Season

Ron Estes and the Blissfield varsity football coaches teach many lessons at Sauk Valley each August. Estes also learns a lot during the grueling, three-day camp that has become a Blissfield football rally cry over the years.

“You can tell a lot about the kids on your team just by watching the way they work, and the way they push themselves, and push each other,” Estes said.

Estes isn’t one to predict how many wins his team will get, or to venture a guess about a team’s playoff potential. But after a couple days with the 2010 edition of the Blissfield Royals, he was willing to say this:

“I like these kids. This group works really hard and they listen. This is going to be a really good group,” he said.

The Blissfield coaches and 26 players left for Sauk Valley on Sunday, Aug. 8. Monday, they went to work.

Each morning, at 5:45 a.m., the Royals wake up in their no frills bunks and head for the practice field quick stretching exercise in the dark. It’s an important exercise, considering what comes next. The group jogs a kilometer to “The Hill,” which according to Blissfield football lore, is the highest point of Lenawee County. Still in the dark, the group begins running up and down the hill. Over and over again.

At one point Wednesday morning while the team was catching its breath at the bottom of the hill, Estes commended the work ethic of three Royals. As a reward for their hard work, Estes challenged the trio to make a special trip up the hill.

“That’s what leaders do. They welcome the challenge,” Estes huffing and puffing Royals, as they watched the trio run up the hill.

Later, after the group completed another run up, and down and up the hill again, the group took a knee and Estes gave his annual speech about leadership as the sun began to shine over the trees. Estes recalled General Dwight Eisenhower’s speech to the troops before the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

“He said what we need on those beaches is leadership, and then he gave the best example of leadership that I’ve ever heard,” Estes told the team, still a bit winded from his trips up and down the hill. “He said, ‘Leadership is like this. Take a nice flat table. Put a piece of string on it. Get behind the string and push it and the string goes all over the place. But if you get out front and pull the string, that string will go in a nice straight line, wherever you take it.’”

He announced the team’s captains, as elected by the squad. This year’s team will be led by seniors Eric Schmidt, Eric Diesing and Dalton Goetz. But Estes told the team that there will be many leaders on this year’s team.

“We have a lot of leaders here. It’s the guys up front and out front, to be the first in line to do whatever we’re doing – whether it’s running or stretching, or the first ones on the field. It’s the guys who take responsibility and sometimes take the blame for the others,” Estes said.

The group jogged back to camp for more work at the five stations. At one station, the team worked out with weights. At another, the group flipped a giant tractor tire and dragged a football dummy. At another station, the kids did several variations of pushups.

Over in another corner of the field, a group did pushups, sprints and bear crawls, reacting to the orders as they were barked out by Estes.

Estes challenged the young men. With Josh Knorr and Haupricht speeding through a tough drill, Estes yelled out, “Here are our two fastest guys.”

Then he turned around to Eric Schmidt and Dalton Goetz, down in push-up position, kicking their feet, and ready to go.

“Eric Schmidt might have a problem with that. Dalton Goetz might have a problem with that,” Estes said.

Around the stations they went. Estes even challenged the kids as they traversed from station to station.

“Who is an out front kind of guy? Who wants to go first?” said Estes, as the boys jogged from coach Denny Thompson’s station to his station. The challenge jolted the tired young men from a jog into a sprint.

The group then ran several sprints around the practice field. After the work out, during a stretch, he called out a group the kids he felt weren’t up to snuff.

“You need to get your butts in gear. You don’t get better by pacing yourself. You have to get better. You have to make yourself get better,” he said.

He then praised the work of some of the kids, including Mitch Winkelman and Taylor Kuhn.

“I have no problem with those guys. Leadership comes in all forms and I will call on those guys just as much as the guys you elected,” said Estes.

When the workout was finished, the team headed for the shower. It was just after 7 a.m.

It was a difficult way to start a day that is filled with practices, workouts and meetings. And it’s difficult by design.

“We get a lot done. I can’t believe that (another team) could have accomplished as much in that hour and 15 minutes than we did. And you remember those things as the season goes on. There’s going to be a game, a situation where the kids will call that back, and they will use it,” Estes said. “So that’s a great advantage to being up here.”

Co-captain Schmidt agreed.

“This gives us an extra push. If we can get through this struggle and accomplish this, than we can do anything in the regular season,” he said.

Schmidt was asked if he ever wants to say “uncle” during the camp.

“There are times when you feel that. But coach Estes tells us you have to embrace the feeling and not be afraid of it and think of it as a good thing,” he said.

Blake Haupricht made his first trip to Sauk Valley.

“When we got up here, it was tough. I was freaking out; I am not going to lie. But we have great teammates, great leaders and great coaches,” Haupricht said. “They really push us so it makes us get through it.”

Co-captain Goetz looks at the difficult challenges as opportunities. He was asked about working out during the hot and sticky weather.

“Man, it was hot. But we looked at it as a positive and we worked on pushing through it,” he said. “We knew other teams had gone through it, and we wanted to go through it the best out of everyone. We were pumped for it.”

Estes said the annual camp is great exercise, not only in working conditioning, but in team building.

“It’s a great situation. We’re all by ourselves up here. We have a nice lake and practice facilities. The kids can’t get home and there are no cell phones. So for three days they are all ours,” he said. “We get a lot of football done, and a lot of mental stuff and team bonding. It’s a great situation for us.”