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POUNDING AWAY

| By: WIU Athletic Communications

Three weeks from opener, Leathernecks grinding through camp

MACOMB – More than halfway through week two of fall camp and Western Illinois football coach Myers Hendrickson likes the progress his team has made since opening the 2022 season on August 1. The Leathernecks are three weeks away from opening the season at Tennessee-Martin and while the weather continues to heat up, so do the Leathernecks.
"We're really coming together, Leatherneck football is really coming together, there's no better place to be than out here on these grass practice fields," Hendrickson said on Wednesday. "We got the whole team under one roof, which has been a lot of fun. We're all in Corbin/Olson, we eat three meals a day together, the team is coming together, we're taking a ton of pride in everything we do, keeping the locker room clean, coming out here and having great practices."
Hendrickson and his staff are not only putting the squad through the paces on the field, but off it as well. Becoming a tighter, better football team is what the early stages of fall camp are all about, but for Hendrickson it is not only about teaching the players to be better football players, but better Leathernecks as well.
"Our players, all the way through our program from fifth-year, sixth-year seniors all the way to our freshmen, they're learning what it means to be a Leatherneck," the coach said. "We had Frisman Jackson on a Zoom last night, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver coach took the time to make a PowerPoint to share with our program, my mentor.
"We also had J.R. Niklos come down from Chicago, an all-time Leatherneck great, so the best receiver in school history in Frisman Jackson, an NFL coach and one of the best tight ends in our history in J.R. Niklos talking to our players about what it means to be a Leatherneck. It's been a great camp so far."
On the field, the Leathernecks are going through the usual paces of summer camp. But with a new coaching staff and new faces on the roster, competition has been fierce as players of all ages work to earn snaps, reps and trust.
"Competition is at an all-time high I feel like in our program because we've been building to this all through spring and all through summer," Hendrickson said. "Now it's fall and our positions are wide open, so we're pounding the rock every day trying to get better and competing."
'Pounding the Rock,' has been the mantra of the Leatherneck football program since Hendrickson took over control last winter. With that attitude of embracing the work, chipping away each and every day, the coach believes his squad is getting closer and closer to the larger breakthroughs.
"The physicality has been there, you get better every day, you don't always feel it but you're going to find a way to get better at something," he said. "It may not feel like that, you're going to feel like you're up and down and all over the place, but we're going to pound the rock, we have a purpose, we're out here getting better every single day and we're coming together as one team and one family, which has been great. You don't see the results instantly, that's what pound the rock is, you get better every single day, you never know what's going to happen."
That attitude is needed as warm, humid temperatures combined with long days and nights on the practice field and in meeting rooms test players, both young and old. But with veteran players and experienced coaches leading the way, Hendrickson has noticed his team locking in each and every day.
"We're a resilient group, we had some warm practices early in camp, it's been cool this week, but we're resilient," the coach said. "We come back to work every single day, that leadership group shows up, they pound the rock, young players pound the rock, newcomers pound the rock, everybody's pounding the rock right now and coming together. We don't know when the results are going to come, but we're working toward it every single day."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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