Princeton making no excuses

There’s the NFL Draft.

And then there’s the “NEL” Draft at Princeton High School.

Tiger coach Ryan Pearson holds what he calls an “NEL” Draft each summer, establishing a team commitment to a “No Excuses League.”

No excuses as in bad grades, not showing up on time, getting in trouble in school and much more.

“There are points for attendance, grades, character positives, character negatives. I have a whole list, but that’s just a few,” Pearson said of his grading system.

While it’s fun for team bonding, it’s all taken seriously by the players and coaches.

Six captains are chosen, who first must apply for the role. From there, the captains are treated just as if they are applying for a real job.

“They have to go through an application process. Have to submit a letter of recommendation, all that stuff that you would normally do for a job,” Pearson said. “Then they have go through interviews with a panel, including some teachers. So we try to make it a school event. Not just for the football program.”

Once the captains are chosen, their task is just beginning.

“They have to write essays on our four pillars which are hard work, perseverance, humility and discipline and what they mean to us and our program. Our coaching staff grades those and we determine the draft order,” Pearson said.

“We had to write an essay what the pillars of our team mean to us and how we’re going to show it out to the team,” said senior Noah LaPorte, one of the six NEL captains.

NEL Draft Day is treated just like the NFL Draft right down to an “NEL” shield mimicking the NFL logo.

“They had two minutes on the clock and then the pick is in. We treat it just like the NFL Draft, they hold up jerseys and hats,” Pearson said. “We try to make it fun, but at the same time there’s meaning behind it, because these kids have to learn what is important to us and our program, which is our four pillars.

“It doesn’t matter what you do out here, if you don’t work hard, aren’t disciplined, don’t put the team first, those kind of things. You’re not going to be successful.”

Along with LaPorte, “NEL” captains are classmates Cade Odell, Arthur Burden, Ian Morris and Ace Christiansen and junior Casey Etheridge.

LaPorte, whose team goes by “Noah’s Ark,” had the sixth pick overall and then the first pick of the second round (seventh overall), selecting Jordan Reinhardt and Ryan Jaggers. He’s in it to win it, looking for “kids who show up every day, getting grades, getting your school work done, because in season those are definitely the biggest punishments when it comes for points for your team.”

“It’s basically a game within a game,” LaPorte added. “We all have a good time doing it. Now that I’m captain, I get to run my own team and hopefully win it all.”

Odell’s “Back to Back” team, the defending NEL champions, had the second pick and took fellow lineman Anthony Vujanov “to keep the left side together.”

The captains pick their own team names with Christiansen going with “CBB” (Can’t Be Beat), Morris calling his team the “Brass Monkeys,” and Burden goes by “Dudes,” while Etheridge’s team is WWIM (We want it more.)

Etheridge had the first pick of the draft and took junior Common Green.

Other first-round draft picks were Eli Berlin (Brass Monkeys), Jace Stuckey (Dudes) and Alex Winn (CBB).

Odell enjoys the game and what it brings to the team.

“It’s all fun. Kind of keeps us competitive and engaged,” he said.

One of the “NEL” events came Wednesday when the call went out to help the Bureau County Historical Society relocate 100 boxes of its military exhibit boxes from the third floor of the Sash Stalter Matson Building to the basement.

Team “Noah’s Ark” scored the win for the day with the most players in attendance.

There’s also some fun games incorporated like dodge ball and tug of war along the way, with points awarded to the winning teams.

The recent bowling challenge was won by Etheridge’s WWIM team.

The winning team at the end of the year gets t-shirts, but that’s not the best prize.

“There’s a huge perk for a teenage boy, if they’re team is winning the competition, they get to eat first in our Thursday meals,” Pearson said. “So when you’re talking food with a 15-, 16-, 17-year old boy, that’s life.”

The captains take it seriously.

“If a kid’s not showing up, you’ve got the captain on the phone. It just promotes accountability,” Pearson said. “If we can preach accountability now that they know showing up on time is being 15 minutes early. That’s a skill that’s going to be very vital as they go into adulthood and leave Princeton High School.

This is the seventh year Pearson has held the “NEL,” starting in his second year at PHS.

“It’s really worked out well for us and our kids really looked forward to it. And it preaches all those things,” he said. “Because it’s a competition, it pushes all the guys to make sure they’re here. We’ve been averaging right around 60 kids a day in the summer.”