There’s No “I” in Team
Teamwork is a characteristic desired by every team in every sport, but coach Conor Naughton and the Cedar Shoals soccer team make that desire a reality through Breakfast Club: a tradition founded nine years ago by Matteo Castile, a former Cedar Shoals soccer player.
“He (Castile) deserves the credit for coming up with the idea. He’s like, “Hey, Coach, let’s do morning workouts,” and it started off as workouts during the season, not in the offseason. We only did them once or twice a week, but we would have them.” Naughton said. “We only had a few guys showing up, but within a few weeks, it kind of built up more and more each week. By the end of the season, the entire team was there every time, and it became something that we all looked forward to and really had fun with.
At Breakfast Club meetings, players participate in strength conditioning to prepare for the soccer season, and then they go to Chick-fil-A to eat breakfast together, providing teammates an opportunity to bond.
The soccer team also bonds through volunteering. This autumn, the team helped run a fall festival at JJ Harris Elementary School.
“As well as just the team building and that chemistry, so much of soccer requires you to be on the same page with your teammate about where they want the ball and when they want the ball. Much of it is based on timing and chemistry and that kind of mental connection you have with your teammates and knowing your tendencies as players. The better that you know them as people, the better you’re going to know them as players,” Naughton said.
“The biggest thing that we want our players to take away is just the importance of teamwork. Beyond just getting better as soccer players, when you commit to something like early morning workouts, it goes beyond just the workout itself,”
Senior captain Hank Ruder has been playing for the Jaguars for five years and has seen the Breakfast Club’s effect on relationships between players.
“You know everyone, you love everyone, you can keep a conversation,” Ruder said. “It’s just, it’s more than soccer.”
Similarly, Joshua Malave, junior captain, recognizes the impact that team bonding has on the results and effort put into matches.
“It wouldn’t be successful because you only work as hard as you can for the people you love, and when you have team bonding, you work better, and you don’t work just for yourself. (You work) for your family, your teammates, the coaches. Everybody puts the work in so you play harder,” Malave said.
Coach Naughton hopes the team takes these skills with them on the field and in the future.
“The biggest thing that we want our players to take away is just the importance of teamwork. Beyond just getting better as soccer players, when you commit to something like early morning workouts, it goes beyond just the workout itself,” Naughton said. “A lot of the life skills that come with things like this are also very important that we’re not just trying to build soccer players. We want our players to become better young men, too.”
