When he took on the role of head coach at Lexington Middle School, his message was simple and direct: "execute, dominate, and always talk with your pads and not your mouth." His practices were not for the faint of heart. I can still vividly recall the drills that defined our first week of organized football: the Oklahoma, the belt-line drill, and the county fair drill. But my personal favorite was the "bull in the ring," a drill that was as much a life lesson as it was a football exercise. It taught us to keep our heads on a swivel at all times, a metaphor for the constant awareness and readiness required in life.