March 20, 2026
PAX (10): Kingsford, Dirty Bird, Barbwire, Pitchfork, Tom Tom, Penny Marshall, Hip Check, TC, Canadian Bacon, Hard Hat
Q: Hard Hat
Weather: Basically 50 with light wind.
Welcome: At 5:30 the group was greeted and given the typical intro. In addition, a brief history of the Golden Spike at this time of year was provided. In the first year of the spike, on the friday morning following the kick off of March Madness, Ponzi was the Q. He had to bail mid workout to take a dump in the hills. A year later, he memorialized that day by leading the “Hunt for Ponzi’s gold” workout. There was a new guy that day that told a story of soiling himself earlier in the week. We named him Wet Wipe, and he was never seen again. On this Friday following the start of March Madness, we will stay away from the hill that Ponzi did his business, and will speak no more of poo.
Warm-a-Rama: We lined up on the near goal line and did a dynamic warm up to the 10 yard line and back. We did hip openers and closers, lunges and Frankenstein walk. We then numbered off by 1s and 2s, and the guys were told to know their partner as we would do a 2 man grinder, but then also remember your number for later.
The Thang: Spring Spike Stairs. One partner will do any variation of hops up the stairs at the West side of the field. Jog down, and continue to AMRAP hops up the stairs until relieved by your partner. The partner snakes the stairs to the East side of the field, then pushes his partner. We did two rounds of this.
After the stair work, we regrouped on the field and gathered into our teams of 1s vs 2s. Glow stick necklaces were cracked and 1s became the orange team, and 2s became the green team. A light up soccer ball was illuminated, and the Lax goals were moved to each of the 20 yard lines. Our field of play was the standard width of the football field, and goals were at the 20s. No goalkeepers were allowed, meaning no hands to stop the ball. We also played without offsides, and no slide tackling. This was a very competitive match, with several open goal shots missed, but ultimately the green team prevailed with a 1-0 result.
When Omaha was called, we gathered the cones, ball, etc. and made our way back to the flags. There wasn’t much for announcements, and we had a few prayer requests. The COT is about the fresh start of the spring. Today is the first day of spring, the weather is beautiful, and yesterday high school soccer kicked off. My oldest is a freshman at Millard West and loves soccer. I’ve been waiting a long time for his first high school game, and it finally came yesterday. He had a great JV game, and I’m proud of him for how he played. The varsity game did not go as well as most in the program expected. We lost in double OT. I had to remind my son that although the game didn’t go the way everyone expected, they needed to move on and how you finish the season is more important than how you started it. This is tough for a lot, and a lot of teams are battling some early adversity. I saw several scorelines that showed teams that had high expectations going into the season dealing with upsets to kick off their season. It’s spring, and we may be feeling like we’ve already suffered some failures in goals that were set at the beginning of the year. Winter is a time for reflection, spring is a time for growth. Regardless of what has happened, let’s move on from it. Think about your shortcomings or recent failures, determine your course of action to move on from it, and act on it.
Aye!
Hard Hat