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w4+2W;"PRzOjBcE`Ei|h1JC8)`99ǯz)E4nQ@,׭*@ۚqSVc=1qR$)Y+zi婅yh'E RJbAOn}UղIHH%4\et{c(Pj^`}ᶂinU8@C<W#BշtEj  e2A4Jg !P5r;Hx䍽 Mefܴ2c]UUB2w(1;MH!$` p@I>)P`bHHQN6ez+߻esji8,ߝ ICƙ}9Qgchy<۞\4#`g2 yX:v) dS,QAwq%HߜAdqNaiqr֗).Ǟ0zd&&\YuI=r _"˶A+"tbPEFGk$^*Ca=qX8]qwG#ё)T!|h?year for the first time in my 15 years as a head coach the players elected only one captain.&nbsp; As is the case&nbsp; most of the time, the players knew exactly what they were doing.&nbsp; Daryn Plummer, a 6'2, 200 pound L.B. and O.T., had been a 3 year varsity starter and now he was the one and only Franklin Football Captain.&nbsp; As an eighth grader, he sat in the stands and saw Rick Anderson put on our first BFS clinic and here he was 4 years later the captain of the Franklin Football Team.&nbsp; As was his style, he did not have much to say in his acceptance speech, but little did we know then that Daryn would lead us back to Giants Stadium and the 1996 finals.</P> <P>We were picked pre-season as the #1 team in the area, we won our first game 35-8 and then we lost our second game 20-6 at home.&nbsp; We were winning 6-0 at the half and then we were outplayed 20-0 in the second half.&nbsp; I could tell that the players were a little shook up coming off the&nbsp;field and I spoke to Coach Martin about how we were going to address the team.&nbsp; As it turned out, when we got to the locker room a former player and captain of our 1994 championship team Rob Edmond was addressing the team.&nbsp; He payed particular attention to the seniors when he spoke about leadership, dedication, family and having the heart of a champion.&nbsp; Well, the message hit home so much that there was very little for the coaches to say.&nbsp; The 1996 team had been challenged by a former player and the only question was how would they respond.&nbsp; The first good sign came on Monday morning when a senior, Donnie Sargent, came in with a message he had printed entitled "Heart Check".&nbsp; He asked me if he could put the message&nbsp;on the players lockers and&nbsp;I said yes immediately.&nbsp; We talked about it all week individaully and as a team.&nbsp; We always talk about dealing with adversity to the team and now they knew it was time to stand up and be counted.&nbsp; It certainly seemed to work as we went on to win our last 6 conference games and gained the fourth and last spot in the playoffs.&nbsp; We were 7-1 and the three other teams were 8-0; we would have to go on the road for the first time in three years.&nbsp; However, the players knew that would be the case from the second week on and they were excited about the opportunity of being back in the playoffs.</P> <P>We played the number one seeded team at their field.&nbsp; They were undefeated and to make matters worse they were coached by a close friend of mine who had come over from New York a couple of years after me.&nbsp; We were losing 7-6 at the half in what would be a classic playoff game.&nbsp; At half-time, our captain, Daryn Plummer came over to me to ask if he could speak to the team.&nbsp; I agreed and Daryn spoke to the team about our theme of "Team First" in 96 and about what it had taken for us to get this far.&nbsp; He reminded the players about the off-season and summer BFS program as well as our week in the Poconos.&nbsp; There was no real discussion of X's and O's.&nbsp; We went ahead 13-7 in the third quarter after Nick Solomon, a junior running back, ran from 20 yards following a forced poor punt.&nbsp; Nick is 5'8" 185 pounds and has a 400 Parallel Squat, a 225-pound Clean, 500-pound Dead Lift and runs a 4.5 forty.&nbsp; He along with Daryn Plummer, Jan Handeland, Chris Harris, Reggie Garrett and the rest of our seniors typify the Upper Limit Athlete.&nbsp; With three minutes left, Sayreville scored to tie the game.&nbsp; Reggie Garrett, a senior wide receiver, had just returned from a three game absence due to injury. He blocked the