“Embrace the day” is what Tayler Erbach, new PE teacher and football coach, preaches to his team. After teaching for six years and playing football through high school and college, Erbach believes he has come to LZ to share his knowledge and teach kids to take hold of the opportunities in front of them.

“I like coaching because it really gives another additive to build relationships with kids,” Erbach said. “You get a 44 minute class period, but as a coach, now I get a group of 120 kids for another three hours a day to build relationships and really affect their lives.”

Erbach greatly values building relationships with the students as a coach and a teacher, he said. This helps students, like Ian Fitzgerald, senior football player, feel safe in his teachings.

“When [Erbach arrived at summer camp] I felt confident that he knew what he was talking about,” Fitzgerald said. “He has a lot of confidence and really believes what he is teaching so I have faith in his plan for [the football team].”

After having experience in both playing and coaching football, Erbach says they are more similar than people may think.

“Coaching is not necessarily that different from playing,” Erbach said. “When you play it’s more focused on what you have to do individually to help your team, and as a coach it’s more about getting your entire team on the same page to work as a team. I think the biggest challenge is getting everybody on the same page and have them understand there is a bigger picture out there besides the game or besides themselves.”

While getting the team on the same page is a challenge Erbach faces, he says by setting goals and creating plays that involve teamwork, it helps his team come together.

“My goal for our team is to grow as a family and continue to build relationships with one another and put forth 100 percent effort,” Erbach said. “With me it’s never a win or lost type of goal it’s ‘did we get better and improve?’”

In order to reach the goal of growing closer together as a team, Erbach organizes plays to help the team learn how to work together.

“We have a lot of plays where we have to work together to block people so definitely [I have learned] comradery,” Fitzgerald said. “We do a lot of team workouts and try to push each other so when we go out on the field, we make the most of everything and try to push each other to be the best.”

Although still early in the season, Fitzgerald says he has learned a lot from Erbach, including an often-used phrase.

“One of the phrases I always use is ‘embrace the day,’ so what I mean by that is embrace the opportunities you have in front of you and enjoy the people you have around,” Erbach said. “You only get to play football for so long, so you might as well love it and embrace it while you can.”