How South Carolina Got Closer As A Football Team
When fans look at a team full of athletes, it's easy to see them as robots, people who don't experience actual human emotions like the rest of us and are judged purely based on their athletic feats. The truth, however, is that many intangibles encompass what a sports team truly is. One of those essential intangibles is team chemistry, which every team who strives for greatness has to have to a certain extent.
Head coach Shane Beamer alluded to the team needing to get closer when he spoke about what he had learned about his team over the past two weeks.
"We've talked the last couple of weeks... that we need to forget the football stuff. We needed to get closer as a football team and more connected and feel like we have."
Running back MarShawn Lloyd recalled a meeting with him and a subsequent team bonding event that he believes has had a tremendous impact on the team.
"Me and Christian Beal-Smith went up to coach Beamer just to talk to him last week. We talked to him just about everything, really, about the team. We felt like a lot of guys just [feel] like we were as close as we should be, so we did a little team bonding thing where he brought us down from [a] meeting, and we went inside the locker room, and [there] was trash everywhere, and coach Beamer told everyone to pick up a piece of trash and throw away whatever is bothering you, or whatever is stopping you from being the best version of yourself," Lloyd said. "Some people were saying [it was] their selfishness, not being confident, stuff like that. So I feel like that was just a big team moment for us because a lot of us really felt the connection in there, and since then, we've really just been on one. We've been connected on all cylinders, and it's just been great so far."
Lloyd isn't the only player who shared those sentiments, as cornerback Marcellas Dial attributed it to the culture Beamer has implemented.
"Yeah, we've definitely grown closer as a team. It's every week that we get closer and closer, [there's] nothing magical that we do, that's just the culture around here that Coach Beamer has built. [We're] just a family. We're going to get closer each and every week, no matter the outcome on Saturday."
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