Posts Tagged ‘football’

As promised, from my last post, here you go – a brand-stinking new zhtv! Aren’t you excited?!?!?! As this current episode of zhtv will inform you, we, sadly, lost the Czech Bowl – 24-14. We, the Lions, fought hard, but just came up short at the end. Congrats to the Panthers and best of luck to you as you head to the EFAF Final! Thanks for stopping by the odd little web-world of zACHhARROD.com world, know you’re appreciated!

Today is indeed GAME DAY! We will be taking the field, at the swank new “fotbal” stadium, at 6:30 tonight to take on our arch rivals, the Prague Panthers. It’s the XVI Czech League Bowl and it will be tough game. I’ve been trying to see if it will be streamed live on the internet, but I haven’t been able to find any details. Although, I’m probably going to have my camera along and shoot a bunch of stuff and try to throw a zhtv together for you this week! So stayed tuned and GO LIONS!

For most of my life I have known one “Head Coach Harrod.” His name is Doug, not Zach. Zach is the son of Doug. Doug has been the “Head Coach” most of my life and now tonight I will be the one Head Coach in the Harrod family, at least at the moment! Tonight is the first practice for the Junior team of the off-season. Tonight I’m no longer the “other guy” when it comes to coaches but “the guy.” To be honest, I’m a bit nervous and a bit reluctant. “Why?” I’m not sure, there are a lot of things swirling in my head. It could be because I’m nervous about my language ability. Or it could be because I really respect the man that was the coach over the last few years and I liked being an assistant to him. Those are two of the reasons. There are probably more, but I would ask for your prayers. Prayers that I would coach in a way that honors God and my guys. Coach in a way where my guys really wonder why I’m so different and they would realize that it’s more than just being an American. Please pray that I don’t sound too much like an idiot as I long to speak, and coach, only in Czech and not in English. Please pray that my guys would be receptive and respond well to the changes we are experiencing. More than anything, please pray that Jesus would be depended on greatly and lifted up in all of this! Thanks for being you! Grace….

That is a good question! Two easy answers:
here,

or here,

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I guess, maybe here too,

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1) In front of my computer planning and prepping for 4 guys from Rutgers here this week doing ministry with us, 2) running around Prague setting up stuff for the week (thanks Erin for your help too!), and 3) at practice. It was a good week, a full week for sure! Pray for me because I was also trying to get caught up on sleep from the lack of sleep at camp last week and also I was trying to shake a cold.

Good News! The Rutgers guys got here this morning! We had a full day, after getting them settled in at Hotel Denisa, then hit lunch, then went into the city for a walking tour. We hit 3 St. Bucks on the way from Wenceslas Square up to the Castle. For the record, I only encouraged stop number one, because I hadn’t had a cup of coffee yet. The rest were totally initiated by the guys! They are a great group and I’m so stoked to have them here! So stoked! Pray that God shows up in some cool ways this week, and His Kingdom is advanced in their hearts and all the football guys will connect with! Thanks! Hey, you being a revolution today? Just wondered…

…I will be out of Prague! “Where,” you wonder. Well, we, the Lions, have our preseason camp outside the city for the next 5 days! Four years ago, at this time I was getting on a bus with my teammates to travel several hours to Croatia.

Sadly, we aren’t going to Croatia, but that isn’t too bad, because I don’t want to sit on a bus that long! We are heading north to a sport hotel up in the mountains from Saturday to Wednesday. This camp will be much different from the camp I went to 4 years ago. I’d ask that you be praying for me and my guys over the next 5 days! Please pray that it would be a great time for our team, which is really young and ‘green’, to connect and gel for this season. Please pray for great conversations as well! Also please pray for my hammy, it’s not quite a 100%, which does make me a bit nervous. Thanks for being you! Have a great weekend and I hope to take my camera to get some footage from this! Be a Revolution!

So I just read Billy’s (my director) newest ESPN the Mag, he received, and there was an article, entitled Shock to the System, that intrigued me. The article was about the Wildcat offense, that the Miami Dolphins ran at times this season, and also the growing change in the football world. I was intrigued by this offense called A-11, that two high school coaches in Northern California designed. From what I read about it and from googling it would seem to be catching on. I’m not even sure how it works yet, or even if it works within the rules of NCAA, but it’s intriguing, check it out.

Here are some other articles I found online about the A-11:
Checking in with the A-11 offense and checking my list
The A-11 offense: Ridiculous, or genius?
Who’s on Line? Even the Referees Don’t Know

Before flipping on the TV to watch, what should be, a great NCAA National Championship game, click over to AIA’s Beyond the Ultimate and discover what lies under the surface of what the TV cameras show us. Our great communications and tech staff back at AIA headquarters always do a great job of wrapping Beyond the Ultimate with the current national or worldwide supporting event. Check it out. Be encouraged by the stories of young men, who are great athletes, but look to someone other than themselves for true strength! Here is a little preview about Tim Tebow, enjoy! Oh yeah, and enjoy the game! I, unfortunately, won’t stay up for the game, but I’m sure I will enjoy the highlights the morning after!

Ahoj! (Hello!) Well, we had our Lions Party last night and the two highlight videos I did quick for the team were shown, so now I can put them on the world wide web! Here you go! The first two are the senior highlight video, with the English version first and then the Czech version. The third video is the junior team video. It is also official and was announced to the team, and people at the party, that I will be the head coach of the junior team next year! Big… Keep the prayers coming for this! Thanks for stopping by today!

lions 2008 highlight anglický from Zach Harrod on Vimeo.

lions 2008 highlight ?eský from Zach Harrod on Vimeo.

junior highlight video 2008 from Zach Harrod on Vimeo.

I love coaching. I certainly have a bit of my father in me (my dad has been a coach nearly twice as long as I’ve been alive!) and it comes out in many ways on the football field. Sometimes his fiery side that used to yell, “What in the world!” comes out and I have to walk to the opposite end of the coach’s box to keep my cool, but then there are the times that come out that I just teach, teach the game as I’ve watched for so many years, and watching it click in their minds. My dad is not just a coach but a teacher on the field and I’m thankful that it has been passed down to me. I also love that coaching is an avenue to share something deeper than the game of football with my guys over here. I’m always amazed to watch the faces of my guys when “it” clicks and it was done in a way where they weren’t belittled but encouraged. I love the pic, you see above, of Adam and myself! I think it sums up why I coach! Thank you to each of my guys and the Lions for giving me the opportunity to coach and love on you guys through the great sport of American football.


Click here and here to see some pics from our recent 62-8 victory.

Junior season is in full tilt here and I’m loving coaching! It is actually cool, the more and more Czech I learn the to see how much more I love coaching these guys. Please pray that these young men wouldn’t just see an American that knows the game of football but that they would see a completely different way of coaching and living because of the the Person who has changed my life. I also have a great set up going now at home to watch football games (thanks to NFL gamepass) and this will mean being able to hang out at my place with a lot of these guys watching games and loving on them. Anyway, we won last weekend 48-0 and have a game against our rivals the Panthers tomorrow evening. For those of you who want to at least follow the scores, because lets face it, you won’t understand much of the text you could head over to the team website – lions.cz. In last weeks article I was even quoted – K tomu dodal asistent trenéra Zach Harrod: “Jsme spokojeni predevším hrou nováck?, kterí nás mile prekvapili” – to bad I said it to Honza in English! But I could have said it in Czech! The quote is about us being satisfied because we had lots of new guys and they also surprised us. Well, I’m off to enjoy a slower Saturday today…