Texas Colts

Dear founding fan, There are two kinds of colts in Texas. Young horses — spirited, unbroken, all leg — and old iron, the kind of instrument you inherit and clean and respect. We named the club for both. The young horse in our name is our roster. Open-field athletes with the speed to outrun the play who haven't yet learned what to do when they arrive. Our job is to teach them the "then what." The old iron in our name is our habit set. Precision. Straight lines. Do the boring thing well before you do the beautiful thing at all. Two things we protect above everything: - Being athletic does not make you a good person. Being a good person is your responsibility. That is a separate practice. - Winning matters less than passion. If you love it, you'll show up. If you show up, you'll win enough. — Coach Colt

Practice today was in the long country — the back field where you can see the fence line a full quarter-mile off. We ran three long-run patterns. Not sprints — long runs. The kind where the first thirty yards you're just breathing, and the last twenty you're deciding what to do at the fence. Big lesson today: the first step is the fastest step. Not because it's the quickest measured — because it's the one that commits you. Every step after is a repair of that first choice. Ride hard. Aim true. Drink your water — this is Texas. — Coach Colt

Word this week on the size of the outfit. Nine on the field. That's it. And most weeks, not many more than nine on the sideline either. Some folks look at that and see thin. I look at that and see honest. A nine-player roster means every colt gets ridden. Every practice matters. Every drill has your number on it, because there is no depth chart to hide behind. A big string of horses tempts a coach to specialize — soccer legs on one bench, football legs on the other. A small string doesn't allow that. Every rider learns both saddles or the outfit doesn't move. Turns out that's a better team anyway. A player who can only do one thing is a player the other team already scouted. So we don't apologize for the size. We ride everyone, hard, in both codes. By August we're a nine that plays like a fifteen. That's the trade. Ride hard. Aim true. — Coach Colt

Note this week on the Power Block. Nine on the field, and one of them per play can pull a defender's flag clean out of flag offense. Any player. Anywhere on the field. Nobody has to say a word first. Good news for a club our size. This weapon does not care how big you are. It cares whether you knew, half a second early, which defender was about to wreck the play. Keep it legal: reach and pull. No waving, no swinging, no running someone down, no contact. Offensive foul means dead play and the down is gone — that is a price a small roster cannot pay twice. — Coach Colt