Since Coach Catanzaro took over the reigns as the head football coach at Lake Forest, he has instituted a Winner's Manual for his players. Coach Cat described The Manual as a "resource for life. It is a playbook for the 21 hours a day that aren't focused on football."
The Manual addresses a number of topics from the "Pursuit of Excellence," "Handling Adversity," "Developing an Attitude of Gratitude," etc. Coach Cat received the idea for this when visiting Ohio State a decade ago.
"They were using this, and the players were really interested in their meetings. We have changed our format, and included some different aspects to our Winner's Manual. Conceptually we are very similar, but we go about achieving some of the goals differently. We invite speakers to come and talk to the players about different topics. At OSU, they predominately used coaches and former and current players." said Coach Catanzaro.
The players had their first Winner's Manual Meeting Tuesday morning where the manual was introduced to the first year players. The Foresters then followed up the day with their first speaker of the 2012 season.
DOCTOR VISIT
Dr. Michael Orr (LFC Faculty Bio ), the Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty. Dr. Orr, in addition to his academic pursuits, has competed internationally in crew, as well as being a successful Ironman Triathlete, as well as competitive cyclist.
Dr. Orr, a first time Winner's Manual speaker, spoke to the players about "Six Commonalities of Success" that apply to both academic and athletic endeavors.
The points Dr. Orr spoke to were:
1. You must be in the pursuit of excellence.
2. You must be wholly dedicated and committed.
3. You must be passionate.
4. You must set internal personal performance goals, and then reach them.
5. You must be accountable to your preparation.
6. You must learn to deal with the pressure of high stakes performance.
Dr. Orr was able to relate some of his academic and athletic experiences to provide a recognizable correlation for the Foresters.
"It was fantastic to have someone who appreciates both the academic and athletic efforts that our players are putting in. I am extremely appreciative of Dr. Orr's willingness to come and spend time with your guys. For our first-year players, I hope that this sends a strong message from our coaching staff on how important our academic endeavors are. We are hoping to be undefeated in the classroom and on the field," commented Coach Catanzaro.
