Atlanta in April

As my brother-in-law and I flew down to Georgia for this years Masters, we were painfully longing for the warmth of the sun. Winters in Illinois, and the rest of the North for that matter, are torturous. See, even we Illinoisans normally think of winter as a December through February deal. Those are winter months right? And those months I can push through. But by the time April rolls around, and the temperatures are still struggling to break 50 degrees, I start getting salty. I begin dreaming for 65 and sunny.
So as Todd (thats the brother-in-law) and I walk out of the Atlanta airport, I am overcome with joy. Warmth! I could hardly breathe deep enough. It must have been 68 degrees outside! We had to get our rental car and head to Norcross, where we had set up a video shoot at Wesleyan High School. Wesleyan had just won the State Championship in 2008 and were the first video shoot we had scheduled for our new website, Chiefpigskin.
As the shuttle dropped us off at our car, Todd and I were frozen in disbelief. Is this heaven? Never before had I been so excited to be given the ultimate retirement car. A white Chrysler Sebring Convertable. The heavens were open and singing for our entire 1 hour, partly cloudly cruise to Wesleyan. All this sound dramatic? It truly was.
So enough of that travel stuff, let's talk football. Nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to see at Wesleyan. It is without a doubt the most beautiful high school I've ever seen. With a large, wideopen campus spreadout upon acres of finely groomed landscape. Wesleyan's facilities were college quality. It's no wonder that tuition for a single high school student runs over $15,000 per year.
Head Coach Franklin Pridgeon met us with a smile, then kindly and humbly showed us around his campus. Over and over as Todd and I gawked over all we were seeing, Coach Pridgeon would talk about how blessed they have been. You could hear the gratitude in his voice. This was a man who loved God, loved his school, and was thankful for his job. Listening to him came easily and I felt myself filming and following as a coach being mentored, rather than a camerman shooting footage.
If you haven't done so, watch the Wesleyan HS tour. The place is awesome. Additionally, you've got to watch how Coach Pridgeon runs his 50 defense. This is some dynamic stuff. I've already incorporated the use of a tilted strong side tackle. I'm excited that this might help our ability to slow down the trap.
Next stop for me, Joliet Township High School. Where my good friend Jason Aubry has been pouring himself into turning a program around.

By the way, the Masters was incredible.