Belman: A leader’s walkthrough
Belman throws a pass at the Homecoming game against Fullerton College. (Michael Grennell)
On walkthrough day, Fridays, the Saddleback College football team realistically fills the “Snake Pit” between 2:00 pm and a couple minutes before the first whistle of the 2:30 pm start of practice. Football walkthrough practices are the last official practice of the week coaches have to make one-on-one critiques with their players before game day.
Saddleback College quarterback Tim Belman said,”(walkthroughs)…It’s a main thing that we always do the day before a game, rejog your memory, refresh it, what plays you’ve been running all throughout the week, what you’re trying to get accomplished in the game…”
Belman, starts out with the offense at 2:30 p.m. running through his gunslinger style quarterback plays. The attitude on the sideline for offensive focus differs from the defensive sideline focus as though Belman and Head Coach Mark McElroy are threading their final needle for the final patchwork of the week.
After “touch ups”, Belman said, coach McElroy shows inspirational clips that he feels are based on the week’s emphasized word. Belman said, “He picks certain movies to base upon what our weekly word is… the words he picks are what a leader should have, one of actually was respect as a leader you want your teammates to respect you in a certain way, you don’t want to be disrespected or disrespect them.”
Belman grey shirted his first year playing Saddleback football so being with coach McElroy for three years has shown Belman you will experience your ups and downs, “any team can lose,” said Belman, referring to big game upsets he has experienced first hand.
Belmans relationship with the team and coach has grown in the past two and a half years, from “dipping my toes into the water,” Belman said, to leading the Gauchos as National Division Southern Conference champions in the 2012-13 season. “Last year I wouldn’t consider myself a leader throughout the team, as like the number one leader just because I was the incoming freshman, …it’s grown a lot since last year…my team has grown a lot of trust in me.”
During the current season Belman recently broke a national 2-year pass attempt record set by Pasadena City College quarterback David Pittman in the 2006-07 season. Bypassing the old record of 833 pass attempts by 35 throws adding to a total of 868 attempts in his career. On the season, the Gauchos are .500 in both regular and conference schedules while Tim is averaging three to four passing thouchdowns a game and tossing just over 400 yards a game.
Tim Belman is a classic “cheesehead”, Brett Farve fan, who has been a unofficial offensive general since middle school. In other words, Tim is a Green Bay Packers fan, who grew up idolizing Brett Farve the Packers quarterback, morphing him into a young leader himself. Belman grew up with a strong family atmosphere where sports were encouraged, not only a football player Belman started playing soccer when he was five years old and is continued to be pushed to be successful by his parents today. Belman stood out at Laguna Hills High School where he led the team to conference championships and only lost a total of three games in his two years there. Tim feels when he arrived at Saddleback as a freshman his teachers really impacted his academic progress which helped him really step up his focus on the field.
This being Belman’s last season at Saddleback, he has been talking to 4 year universities like University Nevada, Las Vegas and has interest in Florida, yet he hasn’t decided on his next move. “Hopefully I have the best opportunity to make it on the next level, the D-1 level, then ultimately I would love to play in the NFL.”