FOOTBALL TAB: Oates to Warriors: 'Your dreams are what you make of them'

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on August 19, 2016 1:48 PM

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By JUSTIN HAYES

jhayes@newsargus.com

Leander Oates doesn't sell dreams.

The first-year Eastern Wayne varsity football coach scripts reality, in plain language, and presents it daily to his players through a multitude of non-negotiable, blue-and-old gold truisms.

A bit brand new and a touch old soul, Oates is a tireless sort who wants to see if effortless is tough enough to survive the hard way.

The guiding principles are simple enough.

Show up with the intention of being counted. This is your future; have a good look around.

The sun is rising on a working man somewhere -- what are you doing?

"The spirit is... staying hungry, " Oates says. "You think we're the Warriors, but we've got a dog style about us."

Welcome to Eastern Wayne football, 2016.

The season began to take shape in the lingering fold of June, before the dead period and when a flood of prospects began filtering through the southeast side of campus, hanging around the football office.

They were eighth-graders, full of summer sugar and dreams wide open.

They were junior varsity, talking about Friday nights.

They were last year's ones, back for a final spin at New Hope, for whom the show is old hat.

"I'm glad the kids decided to show up," the coach noted. "Previous years, they'd been averaging about 60... now we've got between 80 and 85. That's a blessing."

And then some.

Some were ready on an add-water basis.

They are Oates' alpha dogs, signal callers, ballers, and safeties who double-down as possession receivers. Lineman who know gap assignments per the weighty countenance of assistant coach Mike Davis, and once-wee Warriors who can now dash through the route tree blindfolded.

At midnight.

Others weren't ready at all.

They're still adjusting to life in pads, that bunch, and to the jarring interruption of an upperclassmen's tackle. Many of them are warming to the concept of being part of something bigger than themselves for the first time.

They are the new Eastern Wayne.

"We're going to compete, each and every day," Oates says. "(And) I think if you challenge one another... that competition, it will bring the best out of them."

Complacency isn't allowed.

Nor is a lax walk-through, or passing on an opportunity to grow in the classroom. You can punt elsewhere, on any down, but never at New Hope.

Your work is your worth.

One afternoon recently, the new coach showed his new kids a trailer for the new football complex at Clemson University -- a palatial city dressed in title-game orange and oozing all things big-time.

Needless to say, many were impressed.

"I showed them, and they were like... coach, I want to go there," he recalled. "And (I told them) that's stuff that's out there, past Wayne County, that y'all need to see.

"This could be you."

Leander Oates doesn't sell dreams. He wants you to have your own.