Bradley Changes Scorps' Culture

I'm not one to heap praise on a coach or an athlete to get on their good side.

Some journalists have a sort of desire to be liked, to be friends with those they're covering, but that's not me. It's good to have a cordial, respectful relationship, but I pride myself on being objective and on saying things how they are.

Sometimes that means that people are not going to like me, and I can understand that, but I'm not in the business to make friends. I'm in the business to tell the truth and avoid sugarcoating things.

I am, after all, in the newspaper business, not public relations.

It is not hyperbole, then, when I say that Gary Bradley has done a commendable job with the Farmington football program.

Brad Hirsch has managed to keep his team at the top of 4A despite a crop of injuries, but I'd pick Bradley if I had to name a Coach of the Year today.

His players reinforce the notion that their turnaround is cultural as much as it shows up on the field.

"We've had a history of losing, and that has really given us a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. We're not very happy with our past and we are really trying to turn everything around as best we can," senior Colton Curry said. "Our attitude has just changed from being complacent with a two-win, three-win season. We're going to tear it up. Become the Green Machine, that's the big thing. Become part of the machine."

Said Talon Spearman: "The key is to buy into it. Coach Bradley brought all this stuff at the beginning when you get here, everybody's like, 'Oh, that's horse crap,' but as you go on, it just grows on you, man. You just get into it. He's like, 'Find a way to win.' You're like, 'Hell yeah, coach!"

Quarterback Tyler Hough stressed the comfort level he feels going into a game and his respect for Bradley's game planning and scheming, but the biggest makeover he's noticed has been the different mental approach.

"One of the biggest things he's brought with him is just an attitude," he said. "We changed everything up from decorating our lockers, taking pride in painting each locker, keeping our locker room clean, how we act toward each other, everything."

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how well have the players bought into Bradley's program?

"They're pretty close up there to 10," Bradley said. "If I said 10, that means we'd be undefeated and we've already won a state championship. I'd say we're about an 8 right now. It's Week 8, so I'll stick with 8."

One thing's for sure. This FHS team isn't intimidated by the district favorite Aztec Tigers, this week's opponent.

"Aztec has everything to lose for this game and we have pretty much everything to gain," Curry said. "We're ready to go. We're ready to beat Aztec and we're not afraid. People can say, 'Oh, big Aztec.' They're just another team."

*****

Normally long blocks of text are boring and ill advised, even on the internet, but I thought Coach Bradley had some pertinent and interesting thoughts about his team and the game with Aztec. Here are a few.

On whether beating Aztec would boost their playoff seed considerably:
Beating Aztec would be a great step for this program. I mean, what would that mean? Right now, that would mean we beat one of the best teams in the state, we beat the perennial powerhouse in this district and we would be 2-0 in district. We haven't talked about playoffs. We're not in the playoffs. We don't have an automatic berth in the playoffs right now. All we can do is worry about Aztec, and that's a big worry right there, because they are good. We still believe they're top four in the state with their talent. They've had a lot of injuries. We understand that. You have key injuries like they have, it hurts you, and they've played a tough schedule. I still believe they're top four in the state if not better than that. If we played a great game and came out on top, it would be a big boost for this program.

On the team's lack of passing:
We're definitely a running team. We'd like to be able to pass the ball better and we definitely practice. We look good at times. You look at teams, what are you going to be good at, and that's what you practice most. We do practice the passing game, but not as much as the running game, and the option game takes a lot of time and work. We want to be good at that. We're just going to stick with what we're good at, and that's what good teams do, I believe.

On his confidence before the season:
We knew that we could have a great year. Those three losses that we had, we could've won every one of them. We were just a play or two away from actually winning all three of them, but at the same time we're a play or two away from losing a lot of them, too. That's just the game.

On the perception that his team shouldn't be this good:
Playing the underdog role is definitely the better way to go. And we're definitely not on top of anything. We've won some games and we won our first district game, which is the most important part. Playing that underdog role is fine, but to be honest with you, we don't really care what everybody thinks. What's in that locker room is really what counts, and what we talk about and how we plan, we're going to stick with that definitely.

*****

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher Smith