Champions: Rain or Shine

Mountaineer Fans and House United family, welcome back to ‘Inside the Rock’, a
behind-the-scenes blog on App State Football. For those of you that are new, my name is Trey Schaneville and I am a graduate transfer kicker for your Mountaineers, and I am excited to share my experiences within the App State football program with you. Be sure to subscribe to the House United newsletter to never miss a blog, and to be notified of upcoming promotions and events.

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Champions: Rain or Shine

If there is one thing that the App State Football program expects, it’s championships. With 3 FCS National Championships and 19 Conference Championships (North State Conference, Southern Conference, and Sun Belt Conference), the Mountaineers are never satisfied with anything less.
The last conference championship that App State won was in 2019, where they won their 4th straight Sun Belt Conference Championship. Last year, in 2020, Louisiana and Coastal Carolina took the throne as Sun Belt Co-Champions. This year, we are eager to get that title back.

After a 3-1 start to the season, in-conference play is finally upon us, and we started it off with a huge win down in Atlanta against a very good Georgia State team. As always, though, we move on and set our sights to the next opponent and that next opponent happens to be Louisiana, the reigning conference champions. Even though it is still very early in the season, the winner of this match-up will take a giant step toward being at the top of the conference.

Following the Georgia State game, we've had nearly 10 days to prepare for Louisiana, and it is clear how much this game means to the coaches and players within the locker room based on how we have prepared during this 10-day stretch. Every little thing in the weight room, on the field, or in the meeting rooms have been done with intent and focus. The intention to be 1-0 all over again and the focus to not let our championship goals slip past us.

It’s hard to believe that, on Tuesday, we will be halfway through the regular season. This point in the season is dangerous. For every team across the country, every day and every week starts to feel repetitive, and we begin to feel mentally and physically drained. These feelings might cause some players and teams to check out and just slack off because that is the ‘easy’ thing to do. However, here at Appalachian State, our coaches constantly challenge us to stay consistent, stay the course, find ways to improve, and keep our sights set on the goals that we set for ourselves in the very beginning of the season.

There was no better example of ‘not taking the easy way out’ than this specific practice that we had in preparation for Louisiana. On Saturday afternoon, instead of kicking back and watching college football gameday, we all showed up to the facility for another highly focused and intentional day of practice. Right as we took the field, it started raining. And I’m not just talking about any regular type of rain, I’m talking about pouring... like flooding the parking lot type of pouring. Any other team would use that as an excuse to cut practice short or go to the indoor facility and have a ‘walk-through’ type of practice. But not us. We want that championship title back, so we cranked the music up loud and had probably one of our best practices yet. After practice, with everybody freezing cold and soaking wet, Coach Clark says, “The reason we stayed out here in the rain is because I checked the forecast for Tuesday in Louisiana and there is a 2% chance of rain, so you gotta be ready for anything.”

Throughout the history of App State football, there has been a championship culture instilled within the program. Each season, the players and coaches have always started out with the end in mind, and never let distractions or the repetitive nature of a football season allow them to stray
off of that path. This season is no different. One game at a time, and as mentioned previously, this is a big one if we want to be back on top.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave a comment below and let me know if there are any topics you would like to read about in future blogs... Also, be sure to check out the new products that House United is offering and use the discount code BeatULL through October 18 for 10% off your purchase.