Dog Soldiers

Dog Soldiers

     

   As you all may know, I run the Ohio Northern Football social media. And with that comes the same schedule as the players sometimes. In this case, the football team has Dog Soldiers. This is a mental and physical gauntlet that the players go through in the spring. It is a three-day span of physically and mentally demanding tasks. I attended last year and learned how demanding these days are. Today was the first day, and with that comes a five-thirty wake-up to be at the field at six. No one knows the plan, so it plays mind games on all the players. But for me, it means I have to be prepared for anything. So today, I went with my handheld option and brought rain bags to help protect from the rain if we are outside. Thankfully we were in the weight room for most of today's session. 

        

        It is essential to capture the guys lifting and getting after it and the emotions of Dog Soldiers. What I mean by this is, trying to film players bent over in exhaustion or their teammate's faces when cheering on one another. Because people who are actually present at the time would not know how demanding it is without these shots. 

    

        Once they were done lifting, they headed back outside and had tire wars. I don't know what it's called, but it's when a guy is on each side of the tire, pulling in opposite directions, trying to pull the other person across the line. It is basically a tug of war but with a tire. I filmed that outside in the rain with my bags on my gear, and that was the end of day one. I then proceeded to Mac, smacked some breakfast, came back, and fell asleep. Shows why I'm posting it after the deadline. My apologies. I enjoy my job, and I want it when players get hyped about seeing me because they know they can get on camera. Let me know in the comments below the earliest you guys had ever woken up before because five-thirty was rough.