COLUMN: Eyeing the future doesn't make coaches blind to present

Part of the fun of following sports is looking at the teams, surveying the field and trying to guess the future. It's fun to predict that the Colts will win go 6-2 down the stretch, clinch a first-round bye and play the Browns-Jets winner in the divisional playoffs or that the Pacers will beat the Heat in five games during the second round of the playoffs.

Sports make you think about hypotheticals and sometimes that mentality carries over to everything else. I've had an innumerable series of conversations about which you would prefer to fight in a death match, a tiger or a highly-trained, knife-throwing monkey (the answer is a tiger).

Coaches, at their core sports fans, and like any sports fan, they like to look at hypotheticals, too.

But they never admit it, at least not on the record.

Talking to DePauw football coach Bill Lynch on Wednesday, he said he has yet to consider considering the game against Wabash, now just 15 days away.

It's one of the biggest rivalries in the country. Of course he's thought about it, checked the Little Giants' stats and admired their 7-0 start.

The players are thinking about it. The parents are asking about getting tickets. He's thinking about the Monon Bell game.

When the preseason rankings came out on Tuesday, the DePauw women's team was revealed as the coaches' pick for No. 1., unanimously. Head coach Kris Huffman saw it and the players saw it. They saw their scheduled opponents in the rankings, too.

But are they feeling pressure to repeat? Looking forward to the game against No. 8 Wash-U on Dec. 1?

"We let each practice stand alone and each game stand alone," Huffman said. "It's that stuff coaches always tell the media, but it's true."

Sort of.

But being aware of future games doesn't mean they're looking past the next game. It would be counterproductive to only really prepare for one game at a time.

Having a big rivalry game ahead, or a championship tournament down the road, is what makes a team stay motivated and focused.

The DePauw football team wants to beat Wooster this week so it can be better when it plays Wabash in the final week.

The women's basketball team wants to play well against Butler on Sunday, and against Washington in December, so it can be better when the postseason comes around and earn a high seed. They aren't winning for the sake of winning, they're winning so they can be champions.

They know the tournament is ahead, which is why they are forced to focus on each practice and game.

South Putnam is on the road this week, and should they win, they'll be on the road again next week. The coaches know the road ahead, but it doesn't mean they've lost focus on beating West Washington.

Part of preparing the team is getting them ready to compete in their final week. This could be the final week for the Eagles, but they could also have four more games.

There's only so much preparation that can be done, so much information to be learned from film study and so many strategies that can be relayed to the players.

Once that work is done, it doesn't hurt to look ahead.

Until the last, one game isn't an end result, it's a step. Coaches who know where those steps lead aren't looking past their opponents, they're guiding their team ahead.