Northwestern University Athletics
The Preseason with Brian Peters: A Written Entry, The Finale
8/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 24, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Hello again Wildcat Nation, it has been a few days since my last entry, so since I have lacked in quantity I will make up with quality. There is a lot to cover so try to keep up!
First and foremost, if you haven't bought your season tickets to see us play this year, do it NOW! Ed. Note: Visit our ticket office website or call 847-491-CATS (2287).
This Kenosha went by faster than many in the past, maybe they shortened the distance between the meeting rooms and the practice field, I don't know, but it has come to an end. We closed our Kenosha experience with a new tradition, a practice at Naval Station Great Lakes. We packed up our stuff in the morning, got taped, and bused down to the base, which is about halfway between Kenosha and Evanston.
It was really an awesome experience. As we are busing in we are passing uniformed officers and soldiers in their fatigues. Scattered in front of the buildings are old anti-aircraft and artillery guns. We pulled up next to a great turf football field, unloaded and suited up. As we were suiting up and getting ready for practice you could see companies of sailors marching in formation and singing/chanting or whatever you want to call it, not the "Left, Left, Left, Right, Left," chants but something along those lines, and it was pretty cool.
As practice began and we moved from individual drills to the 7-on-7 and team periods of practice, more and more sailors started showing up, by the end of practice we had a pretty good crowd. They were video taping some plays with their phones, making oohs and ahs with the good plays and big hits, it really was something else. To be able to give something back to the troops who sacrifice so much for us was truly a tremendous opportunity. Then post practice they hooked us up with a tasty meal, it was actually really classy, fancy glasses, cloth napkins, and a uniformed band playing some upper class music, much better than the places I take my dates. But we got to eat with some of the soldiers and talk with them, then Fitz and the commanding officer of the base addressed the room, Fitz was a class act as always, then we exchanged t-Shirts, we gave them some NU football T-shirts and they hooked us up with some pretty cool U.S. Navy shirts and hoodies. Overall it couldn't have gone better.
For those of you that made it to the scrimmage Saturday at Indian Trail, it was great seeing the fans and parents back in tailgate mode again. Some of the highlights for those of you that didn't make the trip: Venric Mark is fast, he got some applause on a kick return and a TD catch. Our D-Line, the Big Man Mafia, played well. Vince (the muscle) Browne and Jack (the Godfather) DiNardo I believe had a sack apiece, Niko (the inside man) Mafuli was moving bodies, Will Hampton had a nice TFL, Kevin Watt (the funny man) held it down, and Corbin (the muscle 2.0) Bryant did not participate because he is just too darn muscular! Not really, Fitz held a few of the starters out for precautionary reasons, but the young guns and vets that stood in did great. Hunter Bates, Tyler Scott, Ibraheim Campbell (only INT of the day), and Collin Ellis come to mind right away. I did not really evaluate the offense fully, but Danny Persa and his crew were holding it down on the other side of the ball, too.
Post scrimmage most players went out with their families, friends, or families of other teammates for a crazy Kenosha night of dinner and a drive right back to camp. It was nice to see my parents, even though we went to dinner with about 15 guys, I did not get a lot of talk time with the parental units so here is my official apology. Sorry Mom and Dad we didn't get a lot of one-on-one time but thank you for dinner. (I know my mom reads this so that was for her). Dinner was fun with Ebert, Drake, Vince, Doogie, Bolden, Mabes, D.A., and Persa.
Who didn't think it was fun was our defensive mastermind assistant Alan Wolking. He was trying to have a nice, romantic candlelight dinner with his fiancé to talk about baby names and mortgage rates (things I am guessing engaged couples talk about, idk) and he comes to find 10 of the knuckleheads he puts up with everyday are three feet away from the minimal alone time he gets with his better half anyways. So we shot a few comments his way then kept our conversations to a dull roar.
We are finishing camp back here in Evanston, it is great to be back in my own bed because the beds at Kenosha were not up to par on my scale. Anyways, the Cats are looking vicious. We have the tools to be a force to be reckoned with this year and I am absolutely pumped for the season. We continue to tighten up technique across the board and are looking to explode into game week with levels of intensity that are off the charts. So as we buckle it up to bang with Vandy, y'all get ready for a fun season.
Hope you enjoyed the blog, it was real, it was fun, it was real fun to be a part of your NUsports.com experience. If you guys could petition [name redacted] to put up the deleted scenes from my video blogs, that would be awesome, because that is where some of my greatest investigatory work into the life of a Wildcat was done. (Deleted scenes include a topless Nasty Nate Williams interview, the removal of Jeremy Ebert's ingrown toe nail, the actual removal and reaction views (with close-ups!), Scott Concannon hot tubbing, and an insightful interview into the black hole that is Drake Dunsmore's mind). Ed. Note: See why they were deleted? Exactly.
Thanks for reading along. Go Cats!
Brian Peters #10
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