A Christmas Message from Coach Smith

Coach Smith has led the 'Cats to a 71-15 record since taking over the program in 2006.

On behalf of our entire staff and all of our players we want to wish all of YOU a very Merry Christmas!    I cannot express to all of you how much your support means to our players and to our staff.  It means so much to us and is a giant factor in this program’s success.   Please accept my thank you and sincere appreciation!

This season was quite a ride for all of us involved.   We knew we had a dominating defense returning and adding Tyler Steele back to that group made it downright lethal.    With that group on the field we knew opposing teams would have a hard time sustaining drives and putting points on the board.   Our defense lived up to its potential and became of one the finest defenses we have had here at Linfield.  We knew our offense had potential, but when Josh Yoder exploded on the scene as our starter, our offense began to fly at a rate we have not seen since Coach Elliott was at the helm.    Our special teams got better and better throughout the season, and late in the regular season they caught up to the offense and defense and we finally were able to attack in all three phases at once.   The ease and rapidity with which we dispatched most of our opponents this year was startling.

This team had a tremendous amount of fight in it.   It was cool and resolved, not getting too high and not getting too low, rather keeping a steady fire going throughout the entire game.   The sheer amount of injuries this team sustained before camp, during camp, and at the end of the season, would have crippled and hamstrung most teams.   I could not be more proud of this team for the way that we absorbed those and moved on with “the next guy up” filling the void.

We made no bones about “daring greatly” this year.   This team wanted it badly and more importantly they gladly paid the price to have the right to “dare greatly”.    This group worked and sacrificed as few Linfield Teams ever have.   From having played the elite level teams in D3 over the past 5 years such as Whitewater, UHMB, St. Thomas, Wesley, Oshkosh, and North Central, we knew what awaited us in Wisconsin.   We limped into that game a battered and bruised team, facing without question the best team we have seen in several seasons.    However, there was nothing wrong with our belief and spirit.    I will always remember with great pride the way this team “ran to the battle” and left everything we had out on that field.      As emotionally painful as that game was for all of us, that will go down in my memory of one of my proudest moments ever of Linfield Football.

We have begun recruiting in earnest, looking for young men of action and character that will continue our culture of excellence, young men that will carry on the Linfield Way of doing things and continue to make our program that shining city on the hill. 

Merry Christmas!
Coach Smith