ODA football's culture coordinator instills uplifting spirit

The most vocal person at The Out-of-Door Academy’s football practice Aug. 4 wasn’t a player.

It was Tim Brewer, who spent the majority of the sun-drenched session blanketing Thunder players with positivity.

“‘Who’s a beast? Who’s a beast?’” Brewer said to no one in particular during conditioning drills. “The correct answer is, ‘I am, coach!’”

Brewer, 49, is the school’s director of student activities and the program’s defensive backs coach, but he’s taken on the role of “culture coordinator,” as head coach Ken Sommers calls it.

The goal of the position is, as Brewer states, to create team unity. Any football program will physically prepare kids to play at the high school level, he said. Where ODA hopes to stand out is in mental conditioning.

“Our school core values are respect, integrity, service, excellence and responsibility,” Brewer said. “As a team, we have a pyramid, and the three bottom supporting blocks of that are unity, discipline and spirit. We combined those eight elements together, and what we’re trying to do is build a culture where everybody understands what unity means.”

Those behaviors include supporting a teammate who makes a mistake instead of getting frustrated with him, and giving positive reinforcement when someone makes a great play.

At the end of each practice, Sommers will call on someone to name a teammate who deserves a shout-out, and explain why. On Aug. 4, junior linebacker Ethan Marino was honored by senior running back Dakota Dickerson for his effort during the practice.

ODA began implementing bits of culture coordination last season, when Brewer started pursuing a master’s degree in positive psychology online through the University of Missouri. This season, things have escalated.

The team has 30-minute “spirit sessions” each day, when Brewer and Sommers sit with the players and talk solely about team culture. They have had the team read passages from Ohio State University coach Urban Meyer’s book, “Above the Line,” which focuses on many of the same ideas ODA is trying to instill.

Brewer said, through these values, he hopes to elude a breakdown when the team starts “storming.”

Storming is when the team faces adversity of some sort, such as a key injury, a painful loss, or a player ruled ineligible for poor grades. During the season, something bad will happen, he said. It’s unavoidable. With the right mindset, though, unfortunate circumstances can be turned into learning tools and transformed into useful experiences.

ODA’s football team has faced adversity. Its record the past three seasons is a combined 8-21 and the Thunder is coming off a 3-7 season.

So far in 2017, the players appear to have bought into chasing more team unity. Marino said there’s more camaraderie already with this team than there has been in previous years. It’s not a big school, he said, and thus not a big team, so it’s important everyone has the same attitude.

Senior quarterback Gus Mahler said it’s difficult for him to buy into things that aren’t tangible. He’s making an exception for the sake of his football brethren.

“I believe enough and I love the guys enough to buy in,” Mahler said. “I think they are great principles to try to build a program around. I’m excited to see how it goes. We couldn’t have a better coaching staff or a better ‘director of fun’ in Tim Brewer to lead us.”

After practice, the Thunder retreated to the locker room, and after a bit of film breakdown came together to create a team code of conduct. Players came up with key words and phrases. “Effort” was an overwhelming suggestion.

“Ultimately, it’s up to the players to be disciplined and do it,” Brewer said. “It’s their team. If they are going to live this every day and they are going to walk the walk, part of integrity, accountability and responsibility is holding each other accountable.”

ODA’s final building block of culture is spirit, or hollering real loud from the sidelines for your team. The higher the energy level, the more joy is had. While it only mildly affects on-field play, it’s just as important as unity and discipline, according to Brewer. The reason for that is simple: Win or lose, players should always go home happy they played.

“It’s a game,” Brewer said. “We all started playing this because it’s fun. We want to be spirited out here. We’re going to work these guys hard, and we’re going to hold them to expectations, but it’s play. We say ‘play’ football. It’s got to be fun.”