Plenty of fans and media members have taken up head football coach Bob Davie’s open fall camp practices over the first two weeks of August. What those fans and media members have seen is a crisp workout, with plenty of focus, and not a whole lot of wasted reps … actually not a whole lot of wasted anything. Wasting time, his or anyone else’s, just isn’t in the make-up of head coach Bob Davie.
Yet, there is no denying that practices have flowed better. Faster. Crisper. Not so much because there is more purpose, but because when you have 54 returning letterwinners and a host of redshirt and squad members back as well, you don’t have to waste a lot of time teaching how to do things. The players know, and they go and do it.
That familiarity within the program is something Bob Davie has been looking forward to, and he is finally seeing it to fruition. That familiarity goes back into the summer, when nearly all the players stayed for summer classes to help get ahead.
The summer is a fairly steady diet of strength and conditioning workouts and class work, but this summer, with the team pretty familiar with the territory of Lobo football, Coach Davie had his players get a little more familiar with the community. Every position group went out in the community and volunteered some time for some very worthwhile causes.
Five position groups; defensive line, receivers, quarterbacks, linebackers and safeties; spent the day at the UNM Children’s Hospital. Whether it was a very off-key sing-along of Old McDonald, or just spending some time playing games and coloring, the young patients at UNM Children’s Hospital had big smiles. Some of those even rivaled the Lobo players.
“You learn that every day is a gift,” said Danie Henry, who is looking to return to the lineup after earning a medical redshirt last season. “You learn to not take anything for granted, and even more to give back to those that are struggling. I think that’s part of our duty in being older and a role model for our community, not because it makes you look good, but because you want to.”
Other position groups went to varied places in the community. The offensive line volunteered at Joy Junction. The tight ends with the Duke City BMX Volunteers. The running backs spent time with Stem H and the corners volunteered at Project Share Homeless Shelter.
“Project Share was very appreciative of our guys volunteer work,” said corners coach Al Simmons, who is in his first year with the program. “The folks we fed enjoyed meeting the players, and some were huge Lobo fans. I think our players got as much out of it as the people at Project Share.”
As for the tight ends, a trip to help out at the Duke City BMX Track was in order, and they did at least have a little shade. They also had a whole lot of work. The guys worked at moving dirt, cleaning up the area and getting it ready for competitions.
“It was hard work but a lot of fun,” said Rio Rancho native Cole Gautsche. “Being so close to the stadium we see the facility all the time, so it was good to see it from the inside and help out a different segment of our community.”
While that was hard and satisfying work, the offensive linemen, who made a trip to Joy Junction Homeless Shelter, had a different type of work. That was bringing a little joy to kids who have had it rough, and they did that in the form of a mini-clinic. That the clinic was indoors, on a make-shift mini field with just offensive lineman mattered not to the kids at Joy Junction, because quite honestly, once the camp started … well, the Lobos put the Joy in Joy Junction for a few hours.
“We brought a little camp there,” said Garrett Adcock, UNM’s nominee for the AFCA Good Works team, and a law student at UNM. “We ran the kids through some drills and some of the things we do on a daily basis. We interacted with them and gave them a short little pep talk at the end to keep them on the right path.”
Even the newcomers got in on the action this summer. The Lobo rookies and newcomers as a part of their University 101 class went to the Albuquerque Youth Services Center and spoke with troubled and incarcerated youths. While one might think that student-athletes on a scholarship and traveling the country might not resonate with troubled Albuquerque youths, nothing could be further from the truth.
A pin drop could be heard as Delane Hart-Johnson told of his upbringing and how at a critical moment in his life, he made a decision to change his path. His step-father put a football in his hand, and a new ending was written for his story.
“It was hard being in a situation like I was with the wrong crowd in Philadelphia,” said Hart-Johnson, who would eventually go on to become a batboy for the Philadelphia Phillies before joining the Lobos. “You can always make a decision to change your path, you just need good mentors and role models, and that’s what we want to be.”
Bob Davie’s student-athletes have been a lot of things in his first three years, from All-Americans like Dakota Cox to NFL players like Dillon Farrell, to Academic All-Stars like Garrett Adcock, Reece White and Cox. They’ve also been great role models, and his institution of the Summer Community Service Initiative helped hammer that point home.
“Our student-athletes have a lot of advantages here, and I know they are proud to represent this great city and this great state,” said Davie. “Putting them in the position where maybe they can be the type of role model that can change a life, can give someone hope, that’s such an important part of the education process. Our guys enjoyed going out and helping in our community, and I think it was rewarding for them as well as for the people they met with.”