Focusing on the present key to Warhawks 2010 success

Every season is a season upon itself, but a quick look at the 2010 D3football.com Preseason Top 25 Poll reads like an old novel.

Having UW-Whitewater ranked No. 1 over arch-rival Mount Union may surprise some D3 football fans around the country, but not to me.

Coming off the program's second Division III National Championship in three years I strongly believe that the Warhawks have earned the No. 1 spot on the poll for the first time in school history.

Rounding out the Top-10 is Wesley (Del), Linfield (Ore), St, Thomas (Minn), Mary Hardin-Baylor (Tex), Central (Iowa), Wittenberg (Ohio), and St. Johns (Minn).


UW-Stevens Point is the lone WIAC team to join UW-Whitewater in D3football.com’s 2010 Preseason Top 25 Poll. UW-Stout is among the teams in the “others receiving votes” category.

With that said let me cut to the chase. Preseason polls and Preseason All-American selections are great for the ego but season ending accomplishments and records are much more important.

To be at the top of the D3 food chain a team must put past year's accomplishments to the side and focus and rededicate it's focus and goals to the new season.

It is pretty obvious that the Warhawks have been able to do that during it's current five-year run of WIAC titles and playoff runs ending in Salem, Virginia.

I sat down with UW-W head coach Lance Leipold earlier this week. We talked about the work and focus it takes to "reload" and put together a championship season.

While the media and fans often take it for granted that Whitewater and Mount Union will meet "every year" in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl - but it ain't that easy!

For Leipold, to reach the success the program has had, it is imperative to focus in "the present" - not "the past or the future."

"I have been impressed each year the approach our players have been able to take," Leipold said. "I credit our assistant coaches with the week to week focus on the present. It is starting over and proving yourself all over again. I think we have been able to find those motivating factors to keep the season in perspective."

Leipold and his coaching staff will welcome players back to campus on Saturday, August 14th, with the first day of practice set for Sunday, August 15th.

I asked Coach Leipold what his message for the team will be when they meet that first day.

"We will talk about team goals," Liepold told Voiceseyeonbaseball.blogspot.com. "Nothing changes in the fact that our first three games are to get us ready for what our ultimate goal is. And that is to compete and win a conference championship. Anything after that will take care of itself.

The Warhawks will open it's 2010 preseason practice on Sunday, August 15th.