Rubber Chickens and Real Connections: How Liberty Football is Building More Than Just a Team
A bomb cyclone. No team camp, and a whole lot of teamwork – how the Patriots are turning challenges into chemistry.
BELLEVUE, Wash. – The game was simple. One team would launch a rubber chicken across the field while the other scrambled to retrieve it. Once retrieved, the team formed a line and passed the chicken from player to player – first overhead, then between the legs – until it reached the end. Meanwhile, the throwing team circled up, and one player sprinted laps around them. When the chicken was fully passed, it was thrown again and the roles reversed.
When the game ended, the victorious Cheese squad chanted joyfully: “Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!”
But what does any of this have to do with football?
Because of the bomb cyclone that knocked out power across King County’s Eastside earlier this year, Liberty’s school year has stretched longer than usual. That meant no traditional team camp this summer.
Rather than skip a crucial bonding experience, longtime head coach Steve Valach turned to Bellevue Adventures for a creative solution.
“This has nothing to do with X's and O's,” said Valach, now in his 27th year at the helm. “It has everything to do with relationships, problem solving, and getting to know each other.”
After the chicken relay, players rotated through three more team-building stations. At one, they each grabbed a rope attached to a central cylinder. On top of that cylinder balanced a small ball. Working together – and very carefully – they had to move the ball across an area without letting it fall.
Each station required patience, clear communication, and trust.
“We have to adapt to everyone else,” said senior wide receiver and safety Marek Wright. “During games, it's easy to point fingers – like, you have to do this and this – but realistically, it's a team effort … it’s collective, not individual.”
For Valach, this is the kind of learning that keeps him coaching.
During the pandemic, so many of these moments disappeared. Team building was reduced to a single question: “How do we play games?” The deeper benefits of the sport – the messy, meaningful parts – were lost.
“COVID stole a lot,” Valach said. “One of the things it stole was kids learning how to communicate – and just sometimes be awkward together and be OK with that. That's part of what we try to do. Life is awkward. Lean into it. You don't get to perfectly curate the picture of your life before you put it out there. It’s just, ‘Here I am. All my messiness.’”
Liberty’s trip to Bellevue Adventures was just one piece of their off-season focus. They’ve built team competitions into practices, divided into squads for summer conditioning, and even selected a “word of the year” to guide them – then were challenged by coaches to explain what their word really meant.
A team dinner, organized by parents, helped players connect beyond the field.
Senior leaders like Wright and Moises Mendoza are making sure that connection grows.
“As a senior, you want to establish how you want the season to go,” Mendoza said. “It's not necessarily your team, but you play a big part. However you act, that's kind of how the season’s going to go.”
If the energy, creativity, and commitment shown at Bellevue Adventures are any indication, the Patriots are on the right path.
Because while wins and losses will come and go, the bonds they’re building now could last a lifetime.
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