‘Be the Standard’: The Watkins era

TOPEKA (KSNT) – 27 News sat down with Washburn Football Head Coach Zach Watkins ahead of the Ichabods’ first game of the season.

Watkins talked about how he is implementing the “Be the Standard” motto into the program, what it means for the team and the unique way leaders were chosen to wear numbers 0-9 on the field.

“Guys that wear 0-9, were voted on by our team and the top ten vote getters, 0-9 are the ones I get to wear those single-digit numbers,” Watkins said. “That way, when you guys come to a game, cover a game, fans, they can look on the field and see 0-9. Those guys exemplify our motto, ‘be the standard’. Those guys are the quote on quote standard of the program.

27 News asked Watkins how the team is responding to the motto, ‘Be the Standard’.

“It’s been it’s been tremendous,” Watkins said. “The guys have really taken it to heart. We don’t have team rules, we have team standards and be the standard being the motto and I think when you can keep things very concise and clear, there’s a standard for how we do everything the on the field stuff, the off the field stuff being on time, classroom, community service, all the things that we do is the highest standard that you can that you can have. And our guys have a lot of titles in their lives. You know, some guys are students and sons and brothers and some are fathers. And whatever title you have, we’re trying to make sure that they’re the absolute standard for that title.”

To hear more about what coach Watkins had to say, you can watch the interview above.

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