---
title: "Expect to Win: A Senior’s Call Before the Regular Season Finale"
description: Coach hands the team meal speech to senior, Evan Courtney before the regular-season finale who urges the Vikings to expect to win and earn a 6-3 record.
---

[Coach's Corner and QBC Blog](https://valpovikingsqbc.org/coachs-corner-and-qbc-blog)

# [Expect to Win: A Senior’s Call Before the Regular Season Finale](https://valpovikingsqbc.org/coachs-corner-and-qbc-blog/expect-to-win-a-seniors-call-before-the-regular-season-finale)

 Written by [Coach Bill Marshall](https://valpovikingsqbc.org/coachs-corner-and-qbc-blog/author/coach-marshall) | Oct 16, 2026, 3:36:37 PM

So as I told Brody and I told Evan Courtney, my goal was, and it still is, we're still working through that. As I spoke to her last night on the phone, was talking or having a sports psychologist come in and talk to you. All right. So if you've ever watched any documentaries or docu-series, specifically like the Saban one, there's a sports psychologist in there who really Nick Saban has credited for changing his outlook mindset on coaching. And athletes across the globe use sports psychologists to refine their tools, their game, battle through adversity, and everything else. So that is hopefully coming, but that is maybe now two weeks off.

## The Last Regular Season Game for Our Seniors

All right, prior to our Penn game, and so I turned it over to our seniors and asked them if they wanted to have one person or multiple seniors stand up. This is the last regular season game that our seniors will play. All right, again, in the state of Indiana, playoff football is guaranteed for everybody.

All right, that which is I think a blessing. You know, other states around us, Illinois, especially, if you don't have a good enough record, you don't make the playoffs. So, we have to put the onus on the regular season. It's the last time in the regular season where it's not lose and go home that our seniors will go ahead and take the field together. Some of them starting as young as five years old.

So, at that, I'd like to turn it over, Evan Courtney. I don't know if he volunteered or was nominated by his peers. But Evan Courtney is the only one I know that has prepared anything for tonight. So give Evan a round of applause.

## The Difference Between Six and Three and Five and Four

Okay, so this started yesterday when Coach Marshall asked the seniors if we could prepare something to talk to you guys about. Nobody did, but I decided to prepare a little thing. It's pretty short, but. It's a little something.

So, tomorrow's our last game of the regular season, and I think we all know what's at stake. Uh, we're 5-3 right now, and we have a chance to be 6-3. All week, the coach has been talking about the difference between 6-3 and 5-4, and it's gotten really repetitive. But it is a big difference. Uh, it's not just the record, but it's the mindset and momentum swing we're gonna have and the standard we set for ourselves.

Leading into the postseason, we've put in a lot of work this season, and it's too much to let one game slip away like the one we have right now. That is very winnable for this team.

## Every Rep, Every Tackle, Every Block

Tomorrow, especially for the seniors, every rep, every tackle, every block, every play matters. It's not about making one big play or being that guy. It's about doing the your one eleventh in. Every guy on the field doing their 1/11's at the same time.

## Years Put Into This Program

For us seniors, this one means a little more for us. It's our last regular season game together. We've put years into this program at the high school and the middle school level, some in Pop Warner. But Friday night after tomorrow will be the last regular season game for us seniors. We've been through a lot together. Had some great highs and some great lows.

## Don't Come Out Hoping to Win, Come Out Expecting to Win

But we owe it to each other tomorrow to finish this regular season off very strong, and to add momentum going into the regular season. So tomorrow, don't come out hoping to win, but come out expecting to win because of the work that we've put in this week, this year, and throughout our careers. So play fast, play physical, play for the guy next to you, because some of these seniors are not going to be able to see another snap again. Like it's just the way the game goes.

So let's let's go earn the 6-3. And take care of business, and carry the momentum into the playoffs. One more regular season. Let's make it count.

*Photos courtesy of [Palmer Photography](https://palmerphotography.smugmug.com/Sports/VHS-Football).*

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