With Activities Planned, Rush Coach Maintains Focus
Jeff Sims
Friday April 29, 2011
It has been and continues to be an eventful week for Chicago Rush head coach Bob McMillen.
On Monday, McMillen was a guest of the Chicago Cubs at historic Wrigley Field. He was invited to throw out the first pitch of the game between the Cubs and the Colorado Rockies and had the storied honor of singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch.
Joking that he would “have to see a vocal coach” a few days before the event, McMillen was grateful for the honor and was still maintaining his focus on his top priority; his football team.
“It is a great honor to go out and sing for the Chicago Cubs,” said McMillen. “It is also great for the organization of the Chicago Rush. But the focus right now is 100% on New Orleans. It is going to be a fun time (singing), but my main focus is to get this team ready to play (our next game).That is the most important thing.”
The Rush will be looking to rebound after coming off of a loss to the Kansas City Command in which they committed five turnovers and gave up a season high 58 points. While everyone on the team takes the defeat as a team loss, they are fully aware that the offense needs to step up and play up to its potential.
Vowing to make some personnel changes after last week’s loss, McMillen has activated wide receiver Marco Thomas out of Western Illinois, who played with the Rush in one game last season before blowing out his knee. Thomas’ activation now gives the Rush three players from WIU (QB Russ Michna, WR Reggie Gray, and Thomas).
For the first time in his three seasons with the Rush, Michna, who is typically level-headed, has shown some frustrations with the offense. With mistakes being made in multiple areas, the offense knows that it has to be more consistent in its performance. While the team is confident in its offense and offensive coordinator Sherdrick Bonner, McMillen spoke on 750AM WNDZ’s Sportsline radio program about being more involved in the offense to get things straightened out.
The game this weekend against the New Orleans Voodoo will also be a special one for McMillen and the Chicago Rush organization. The team will be giving away bobblehead dolls of McMillen and retiring his number 44 into the rafters of the Allstate Arena. He retired after the 2007 season as the second leading rusher in AFL history with 1,508 yards and fifth all-time in rushing touchdowns with 85. It will be the first number retired by the Rush in its ten year history.
Similar to his experience with the Cubs, McMillen considers his jersey retirement a special moment in his life, but vows that his focus remains on his team.
“It will be a tremendous honor,” he said. “With ten years of football players having played in Chicago, to be the first one up in the rafters is unbelievable. I am going to be focused on New Orleans. (The ceremony) is going to come and go so fast. It is more for my family and for my wife and kids.”
Being humble about the situation, the Rush head coach remains team focused; not only about his current team, but also his teammates during his thirteen year career playing Arena Football. The last five years of his playing career were spent with the Rush as a fullback / linebacker.
“I was never an ‘I’ guy or a ‘me’ guy,” McMillen said. “It was never about me, it was never about records. My number might be going up there, but there are a lot of guys that should be included in that because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be going up there.”
On Saturday night, it will be time to see if the Chicago Rush has maintained its focus through a week of distractions to overcome the Voodoo, and themselves.
