41.9 F
Clarksville
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeSportsOpen Letter from APSU Football Coach Will Healy

Open Letter from APSU Football Coach Will Healy

Written by Will Healy
APSU Head Football Coach

APSU FootballClarksville, TN – Govs Fans,

Without question, Saturday was the most rewarding experience of my coaching career. I am ecstatic that I could share the moment with all of you in front of a record crowd at Fortera Stadium.

From the letterman’s brunch, where we celebrated the return of the 1977 Ohio Valley Conference champions, to the excitement of the Gov Walk, to the relentless effort of our football team for four quarters, to the long-awaited toppling of those goal posts, it was about as perfect of a day as I could have imagined for our first victory at Austin Peay.

Austin Peay Football fans at the Morehead State game.
Austin Peay Football fans at the Morehead State game.

I’ll tell you that what gave me the most joy, what brought me to tears at times, was knowing just how many people – the players, the coaching staff and wives, the administration and you, the fans – could finally feel something that was so very deserved. You deserved it. This was your win. The team rewarded me with a game ball last night, but now I’m passing it along to all of you.

There’s so much from Saturday night that I’ll carry with me forever. In particular, I’ll think about a resilient group of seniors, led by captain Malik Boynton, that has been through so much since arriving here. To see those young men smile, that means everything to me and the assistant coaches. We’d literally dreamed about it.

There’s a part of me that wishes we could have provided the first win much, much, much sooner – but I have often said that the wait would only make it that much sweeter. And, you know what, it was pretty sweet. I do not take for granted the energy and the time commitment from everyone involved in this program and university; to win, and win as big as we did, was something that was earned over the course of a year and a half.

But we aren’t done.

The first box – a victory – is checked. We enjoyed it. We had a blast. But we are on to the next phase: continuing to win football games.

Even if we had beaten an SEC team or the Green Bay Packers, no one here was ever going to be satisfied with one, single victory. We’re glad the streak is over – it lasted entirely too long – but it was only the beginning. We’re on a mission – Mission Possible – to build something that will last. We want to win many, many more games. Heck, one day we’d love to win as many games in a row as the program just lost.

To do that, we’re going back to work. This week, we’re traveling to play a very good Murray State team to open our OVC schedule. Our players and our coaches recognize the challenge in front of us. We’ll be working this week to correct our mistakes and improve, doing whatever we can to give us the best chance to stay undefeated against FCS competition and get our conference season off to a great start.

Your unwavering support and passion is incredible. It really is. It means so much to me personally, the way that this community continues to wrap its arms around us. It inspires us every step of the way.

Thank you so much for joining us on this journey. As great as Saturday was, and it was amazing, we still believe that the best is yet to come.

31024

Will Healy, Head Football Coach

RELATED ARTICLES

Latest Articles