Back At It! A Celebration of Grunt Work

Me and my long time colleague Jim Deuble -- getting the work in!

For my 23rd school year, at North Shore Monday I got started.

That is not exactly correct because even though I have been off campus since July 10th, it is impossible to unplug from school anymore. But I still look at my first task of the school year every year as preparing and lining the football field.

I returned from vacation Friday July 29th and I got two texts as I drove back from the west from Coach Jim Deuble. The first one came in at 6:12 PM Friday and read "I have the metal detector." The second one read at 11 AM Saturday,  "Found all corners taking the detector back."

Then Monday morning we agreed to finish the job and get the lines in. It took us about 3 hours.

When I arrived in 1994, Mac McCarty had lined the field for years mostly by himself. He was now in his 80's and that summer he was also on an extended vacation. So Jim Deuble and I teamed up to line the field in early August. Mac must've had an interesting way of lining the field because it took us a while to get it done that year. We could not find the corners of the field.

The corners of the football field are marked with small metal posts. They submerge over the year and are about 6 inches to a foot below the surface of the earth when we start this project in late July or early August. That first time in 1994, it took us well over a day to find the corners of the field. We just had a tape measure and a shovel. I can only imagine Mac today laughing at us as only a guy with 40 plus years of experience lining a field could as we struggled for hours. "You dummies" with a laugh is a classic Mac-ism. Jim and I have since refined our technique and now rent a metal detector for a day -- thus the texts I received.

Although Jim and I have lined the field -- mostly together but sometimes with others -- every year for 23 years now, we both remembered the summer shortly before Mac died, -- and I am sure when he was struggling with the effects of Alzheimers -- that Mac one day in July got up from his desk, walked outside and lined the football field one last time by himself. That was the one year since 1994 that neither Jim nor I put the lines in for the football field.

In 1994 after finding the corners, I remember it taking quite a while to actually get the lines in too. Now 23 years later as I mentioned earlier, it took us about 3 hours -- not an insignificant amount of time but a lot less than before. As I have said, experience has refined our technique.

But the significance of this first task of the year grows as time goes by and changes for me. I believe more than ever before that 90% of great coaching -- and teaching for that matter -- is grunt work and putting the football field, then field hockey and then the soccer field is grunt work.

The great teachers and coaches in history talk about the importance of this type of work and every great teacher and coach I know also embraces the value of grunt work. But there is nothing fascinating, intriguing or glamourous about it like the latest tech tool, piece of equipment, or shiny new uniform. It will only be recognized when the grunt work is not done well.

The amazing thing is no one ever teaches you how to do grunt work. I worry at times it's a lost art. You only learn the value of grunt work by doing it.

But of all the aspects of grunt work that go on during the school year, this one task is my favorite. It marks the beginning of a new year with all the anticipation that goes into that. I do it with Jim Deuble who I have shared the growth of our overall program with now in our 3rd decade. The task illustrates to me Jim's love for the school and his continued deep understanding of our mission.

So we get started with putting white lines down on a green grass field every year. Everything else follows from that.