On October 4th, 2023 a very well known Overtime social media platform will be traveling to Andale High School to film the remainder of the 2023 season. This is going to be history for the Andale Indians Football team, as they’re getting the recognition they deserve and rightfully so.
Coming from a football perspective it’s an awesome moment, not just for me but for our entire team, school and coaches. Overtime, a well known sports platform, has 25.5 million followers on TikTok, 8.8 million followers on Instagram, and 3.16 million subscribers on YouTube. While Overtime is new to the Andale Football arena, it’s not new to covering teams and programs that are overlooked or may not get the recognition they deserve. Arkansas’ Pulaski Academy also appeared on Overtime. A very well known and skilled football team that has broken many records just like Andale High School. While we all know the Andale Football program is well known across the state of Kansas, it’s finally getting the recognition on a national platform that they deserve.
In my opinion, as a sophomore football player, it’s one of the best things to happen to Andale Football because people will get a glimpse of the time and investment we make into our program day in and day out to be who we are. Overtime’s headquarters are found in Brooklyn, NY. Aside from their social media platforms and their notoriety they cover this type of content quite often, with multiple high school football teams. These high school football teams have only benefited from this Overtime series.
Overtime also does not just cover football they cover other sports as well. Overall their series is popular and is watched by many people and colleges. When it comes to the teams opinion about this series potentially happening everyone wanted it to happen. The only thing Andale High School head football coach, Dylan Schmidt, said is that he is OK with the Overtime coverage as long as it does not to become a distraction for the team.
From a football players perspective our schedule is interesting. We practice everyday, we sometimes have film on Tuesdays and Wednesdays before we go out to practice. Every Sunday we come in and watch film for approximately an hour. Some of the things we typically watch in film include: defensive & offensive from practice, recap Friday match up film. More often then not Coach Schmidt & Coach Fairchild lead our film.
Every summer we are given gold cards, which is how we fundraiser to have meals on Friday’s before games and snacks in the weight room to have throughout the day to keep our bodies fueled as athletes. Our summers are unique we only have practices and weights Monday through Thursday. Typically these practices involve basic skills such as running plays and introducing the new incoming freshman the play book. We earn our commitments throughout our summer weight room workouts as well. From lifting at 6 A.M. to focus on increasing our weight maxes, we’re ALL in, in the summer. Andale Football never has activities or workouts on Friday or Saturday unless it’s a scrimmage with another school throughout the summer.
A big reason why Andale has excelled beyond their opponents when it comes to sports is the weight room. Head Coach, Dylan Schmidt, emphasizes the importance of the weight room and how it improves our performance in ANY sport we play. A lot of the workouts are to make us better athletes and not bodybuilders. For example, when we complete a workout there are certain percentages that go along with the weight we lift based upon your specific lift maxes. It forces us to have the right amount of weight on the bar and to teach us how to be held accountable if we don’t have the percentages written down. At the beginning of each weight’s class we are required to write down our percentages on a whiteboard located to each weight rack. These percentages are based upon the week’s percentages and your lift max. Our weight room workouts involve push/pull exercises, auxiliary lifts and are timed exercises based upon 40 second increments.
Another secret to our success is our coaches and their commitment to the program and athletes. All of the coaches are important to how we succeed each week, this involves a staff of even coaches. They hold us accountable, they push our limits, and overall they just want us to be the best we can be everyday. While some may view coaches as intense, at the end of the day they hold us to the expectations that they would hold anyone else to. What’s incredible about our coaching staff is the time they invest each and every day into our program. From hudl film, to the weight room, practice plans, prepping for games, Freshman and JV games, and all the behind the scenes work equals Friday night success each week.
While some want to be successful like Andale Football, the question is are they really willing to invest the amount of time and effort that you see from Andale Football day in and day out, year after year. While some “wish” for success in Andale Football we make it a reality.
