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Pregame Words Speak Volumes

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By KATHERINE SMITH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

Updated: 10/26/2007 12:34 am

Video: Weiner's pregame speech from the 4A title game

TAMPA - The post office has its mantra - neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night - and Billy Turner has his.

No heart ailment was going to keep the Chamberlain High football coach from speaking to his players before a game.

Turner lay in a hospital bed Sept. 21 with water in his lungs, not hurting physically, but more mentally at the thought of missing his first high school football game in 28 years at Chamberlain. His son, Brian, an assistant coach for the Chiefs, came up with an idea to connect Turner with his players before the game.

Over a speaker phone, Turner would deliver his pregame speech. Only one problem - Turner could barely get the words out.

'I couldn't talk,' Turner said. 'I just told them I was with them in spirit, and that's all I could say.'

Turner's eyes well up when he recalls the moment, but it's nothing like the tears that flowed from everyone in the room at Chamberlain.

'He didn't get many words out,' Brian Turner said. 'He told them to play hard and then he started crying. When the team heard his voice on the phone, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. When Coach talks, they listen anyway.

'That day, he wasn't here, but every eye was looking at that phone just like he was standing there.'

The Chiefs ran onto the field after the speech and defeated Blake 28-0.

Sometimes a few pregame words are what a player needs to get ready for a big game.

'Plant coach Robert Weiner will come in, and out of nowhere just starts yelling and screaming, his voice cracking,' Plant wide receiver/defensive back Derek Winter said. 'Nobody really knows what he's saying. I don't even think he knows what he's saying. It catches you off guard. It's pretty intense.'

Weiner said sometimes he doesn't know what he's saying. He doesn't rehearse his locker room speech before a game, but he does make sure to mention a theme that has been discussed throughout the week in practice.

'You hear things like, if you've got to get your kids ready with a rah-rah pregame speech, then you're not prepared,' Weiner said. 'But I look at last year, where we scored a touchdown in our first drive in 11 of 15 games. And I've heard that pregame speeches, if they do have any effect, they wear off after the first five minutes, but those five minutes are pretty darn important to me.'

The Panthers scored 17 consecutive points to begin the Class 4A championship game on their way to a 25-21 victory over Nease in December. In the locker room before the game, Weiner's voice rose and crackled, thanks to an ill-timed cold, as his message became more intense and important.

'I never asked you to be good. I never asked you to be great,' Weiner said. 'I asked you to be somebody special. I asked you to be something extraordinary.'

Weiner learned his speaking skills from one of the best. As an assistant at Jesuit High, Weiner witnessed many speeches by former Tigers coach 'Wild' Bill Minahan, the first coach in Hillsborough County to win 100 games.

'Bill Minahan was out of this world,' Weiner said. 'I just remember him yelling at our middle linebacker way back in the day. He said 'If you're not on the tackle, then the tackles not made.'' There were some expletives mixed in there, and some slaps on the chest, which was allowed in those days, and I just remember the intensity and veracity of his pregame speeches.

'If you couldn't get fired up by that man, then you didn't have a pulse.'

Gaither coach Mark Kantor believes it is the message more than the manner in which the speech is delivered that makes the greatest impact before a game.

'It's more like a point you want to get across,' Kantor said. 'It's so different from college and professional football. Here, you've got to get the kids motivated some way. Sometimes you bring in motivational speakers, or sometimes it just comes to mind.

'I just use things that motivated me as a player.'

Mostly, pregame speeches are about pumping up players in preparation for four quarters of intense action. Each coach has his own ways of motivating players in hopes that the message gets across and gets them fired up.

'We try to get excited before we walk out the door,' Weiner said. 'I don't think about what I'm going to say. I speak from my heart, and that's the only way to really do it.'

Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860 or ksmith@tamaptrib.com.

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