Managing the Emotions of Football
11/16/2017 10:42:00 AM | Football, Student Athlete, Features
By Steve Lomangino, Lehigh Sports Communications
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Football is a game of emotion. Physical skills are certainly important but it's also healthy to show and play the game with emotion. Managing those emotions, not getting too high or too low, can go a long way towards dictating success on the field.
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Lehigh senior defensive lineman Tyler Cavenas plays football with plenty of emotion. His physical gifts and work ethic allowed him to contribute for the Mountain Hawks very early in his career, but the ability to manage the emotions of the game, helped mold Cavenas into an All-Patriot League performer and a leader on the Lehigh defense.
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Cavenas hails from Mahanoy City, a small coal region town just over an hour away from Lehigh's campus. In a town that takes up about half a square mile and has a population just over 4,000, Cavenas played three sports in high school (basketball and track and field in addition to football) and was active in theatre arts and the local choir.
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There were several connections that led Cavenas to Lehigh. His mother was originally from nearby Whitehall. A family friend was a college teammate of Lehigh defensive line coach Donnie Roberts. Most importantly though, Lehigh recruited Cavenas to play defensive line, allowing him to continue his football career on his preferred side of the ball.
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"We saw a lot in Tyler when we recruited him," Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said. "Even though he came from a smaller level of football. I can remember watching tape and watching him do unbelievable things. Throwing people around and jumping over the line and blocking field goals and extra points. I could tell he had a real passion for the game of football."
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"Lehigh was recruiting me for defense, which was cool because they were really the only school that recruited me as a defensive lineman and I wanted to play defense," Cavenas recalled. "I came to the Lafayette game in my senior year and just got this feeling of this is where I'm supposed to be. This is where I'm supposed to play.
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"Defense is emotion based," he continued. "If you're amped up you're going to fly around and plays are going to be made. I've always played with emotion and that's why I liked defense so much. I love to hit and I feel like there's less responsibility than on the offensive line if you miss a block. On the defensive line if you mess something up you can fix it with a little extra effort or hustle."
Â
With good size and athleticism, Cavenas was able to enter Lehigh's defensive line rotation as a freshman, making 12 tackles. He appeared in 10 games as a sophomore, upping his production to 31 tackles, but the emotions of the game seemed to prevent Cavenas from reaching his full potential.
Â
"I wasn't mature yet my sophomore year," Cavenas said. "I played with too much emotion and couldn't focus. For me, starting a game psychologically, if I didn't have a good first series I struggled to get back. I just put too much pressure on the first series.
Â
"I learned how to put things in the past," he continued. "My sophomore year if I made a bad play, I wanted to make the next play, I needed to make the next play. I needed to make up for what I did. It just became a matter of learning how to do my job. My coaches have always talked about one play, one assignment and doing your 1/11th and if everyone does that we'll be successful."
Â
"Sometime handling the emotion could be tough because he is a very high-motor kid," Roberts added. "That's what we liked about him from day one. When he came here as a freshman he didn't have a care in the world he just went out and attacked everybody. He's gotten back to being that guy and just attacking more. Last year he worked on being a better technician but we didn't want that to take away from his aggressiveness."
Â
Putting those initial challenges aside, Cavenas turned in an outstanding junior campaign, making 55 tackles and leading Lehigh with five sacks and adding eight tackles-for-loss. More importantly, Cavenas helped lead a team that was 3-8 in his freshman season into a Patriot League championship squad.
Â
"My freshman year was disappointing and my sophomore year when that class left without a ring, my class didn't want to see that happen again to the next class," Cavenas said. "We all said as a class that we needed to get our act together and get this thing done. Everybody was on the same page and that was the first time everybody was focused on one thing and one thing only and that was that we had to be a better football team and we had to win games."
Â
As a senior, Cavenas has emerged as a leader on the Lehigh defense, especially among the defensive line group. Lessons learned as a freshman have helped Cavenas try to help the Mountain Hawks rebound from an 0-5 start to work back into championship contention.
Â
"It was tough to start out 0-5 and I think we knew who we could be and what we could do, it just wasn't happening on the field," he said. "Now we have a few wins under our belt we're starting to play as a team, cohesively. Our defense is playing better and our offense is always going to be there. If we can just feed off each other like we did last year. If we do that and we complement each other well, we're going to be successful."
Â
"He is a defensive line leader and takes a lot of pride in what our guys do," Roberts added. "He coaches them up and he gets on them but our guys all know that they can get back to him because he's a great guy."
Â
When he's not managing his emotions on the football field, Cavenas looks forward to a future managing others. The third choice in Lehigh's College of Business and Economics proved to be the charm as Cavenas ended up as a management major. He hopes to translate his management degree into a career in law enforcement, either in local or state police, and potentially one day, the FBI.
Â
"I started thinking I was going to be an accounting major," Cavenas said. "I took some classes and even did an accounting internship and decided that it wasn't for me. So I switched to marketing and management double major, but then I had one professor, professor (Douglas) Mahony, who sparked my interest in management and I really liked it.
Â
"I felt like management was the best for me to do that because if I want to work up I'm going to have to manage people and manage resources," he continued. "I've learned that people are capital. They're knowledge or wealth and you want to build and grow them and you want to pick the right people for your business. With management you need to understand business strategy, where your business is going and what they want to do so you can fit the people and resources in to be successful and drive your company."
Â
Cavenas' interest in management will afford him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity over winter break when he will travel to Singapore and Vietnam with other Lehigh management students.
Â
"We'll be visiting companies, both global and local and asking questions about how they run their business," said Cavenas, who admitted it will be his first time leaving the country. "How are their strategies implemented? It will also a learning experience. Understanding different cultures and customs will help everyone in their different lines of work."
Â
As for life after football and Lehigh, Cavenas is applying for police jobs, primarily in the Midwest. Until then, he just wants to help the Mountain Hawks finish strong.
Â
"I've been in Pennsylvania my whole life and want to see something new," Cavenas said about his interest in a move to the Midwest. "For now, the goals are to just get out healthy and finish the season strong. We're a close-knit group and we'll go as far as we can take ourselves.
Â
Â
Football is a game of emotion. Physical skills are certainly important but it's also healthy to show and play the game with emotion. Managing those emotions, not getting too high or too low, can go a long way towards dictating success on the field.
Â
Lehigh senior defensive lineman Tyler Cavenas plays football with plenty of emotion. His physical gifts and work ethic allowed him to contribute for the Mountain Hawks very early in his career, but the ability to manage the emotions of the game, helped mold Cavenas into an All-Patriot League performer and a leader on the Lehigh defense.
Â
Cavenas hails from Mahanoy City, a small coal region town just over an hour away from Lehigh's campus. In a town that takes up about half a square mile and has a population just over 4,000, Cavenas played three sports in high school (basketball and track and field in addition to football) and was active in theatre arts and the local choir.
Â
There were several connections that led Cavenas to Lehigh. His mother was originally from nearby Whitehall. A family friend was a college teammate of Lehigh defensive line coach Donnie Roberts. Most importantly though, Lehigh recruited Cavenas to play defensive line, allowing him to continue his football career on his preferred side of the ball.
Â
"We saw a lot in Tyler when we recruited him," Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said. "Even though he came from a smaller level of football. I can remember watching tape and watching him do unbelievable things. Throwing people around and jumping over the line and blocking field goals and extra points. I could tell he had a real passion for the game of football."
Â
"Lehigh was recruiting me for defense, which was cool because they were really the only school that recruited me as a defensive lineman and I wanted to play defense," Cavenas recalled. "I came to the Lafayette game in my senior year and just got this feeling of this is where I'm supposed to be. This is where I'm supposed to play.
Â
"Defense is emotion based," he continued. "If you're amped up you're going to fly around and plays are going to be made. I've always played with emotion and that's why I liked defense so much. I love to hit and I feel like there's less responsibility than on the offensive line if you miss a block. On the defensive line if you mess something up you can fix it with a little extra effort or hustle."
Â
With good size and athleticism, Cavenas was able to enter Lehigh's defensive line rotation as a freshman, making 12 tackles. He appeared in 10 games as a sophomore, upping his production to 31 tackles, but the emotions of the game seemed to prevent Cavenas from reaching his full potential.
Â
"I wasn't mature yet my sophomore year," Cavenas said. "I played with too much emotion and couldn't focus. For me, starting a game psychologically, if I didn't have a good first series I struggled to get back. I just put too much pressure on the first series.
Â
"I learned how to put things in the past," he continued. "My sophomore year if I made a bad play, I wanted to make the next play, I needed to make the next play. I needed to make up for what I did. It just became a matter of learning how to do my job. My coaches have always talked about one play, one assignment and doing your 1/11th and if everyone does that we'll be successful."
Â
"Sometime handling the emotion could be tough because he is a very high-motor kid," Roberts added. "That's what we liked about him from day one. When he came here as a freshman he didn't have a care in the world he just went out and attacked everybody. He's gotten back to being that guy and just attacking more. Last year he worked on being a better technician but we didn't want that to take away from his aggressiveness."
Â
Putting those initial challenges aside, Cavenas turned in an outstanding junior campaign, making 55 tackles and leading Lehigh with five sacks and adding eight tackles-for-loss. More importantly, Cavenas helped lead a team that was 3-8 in his freshman season into a Patriot League championship squad.
Â
"My freshman year was disappointing and my sophomore year when that class left without a ring, my class didn't want to see that happen again to the next class," Cavenas said. "We all said as a class that we needed to get our act together and get this thing done. Everybody was on the same page and that was the first time everybody was focused on one thing and one thing only and that was that we had to be a better football team and we had to win games."
Â
As a senior, Cavenas has emerged as a leader on the Lehigh defense, especially among the defensive line group. Lessons learned as a freshman have helped Cavenas try to help the Mountain Hawks rebound from an 0-5 start to work back into championship contention.
Â
"It was tough to start out 0-5 and I think we knew who we could be and what we could do, it just wasn't happening on the field," he said. "Now we have a few wins under our belt we're starting to play as a team, cohesively. Our defense is playing better and our offense is always going to be there. If we can just feed off each other like we did last year. If we do that and we complement each other well, we're going to be successful."
Â
"He is a defensive line leader and takes a lot of pride in what our guys do," Roberts added. "He coaches them up and he gets on them but our guys all know that they can get back to him because he's a great guy."
Â
When he's not managing his emotions on the football field, Cavenas looks forward to a future managing others. The third choice in Lehigh's College of Business and Economics proved to be the charm as Cavenas ended up as a management major. He hopes to translate his management degree into a career in law enforcement, either in local or state police, and potentially one day, the FBI.
Â
"I started thinking I was going to be an accounting major," Cavenas said. "I took some classes and even did an accounting internship and decided that it wasn't for me. So I switched to marketing and management double major, but then I had one professor, professor (Douglas) Mahony, who sparked my interest in management and I really liked it.
Â
"I felt like management was the best for me to do that because if I want to work up I'm going to have to manage people and manage resources," he continued. "I've learned that people are capital. They're knowledge or wealth and you want to build and grow them and you want to pick the right people for your business. With management you need to understand business strategy, where your business is going and what they want to do so you can fit the people and resources in to be successful and drive your company."
Â
Cavenas' interest in management will afford him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity over winter break when he will travel to Singapore and Vietnam with other Lehigh management students.
Â
"We'll be visiting companies, both global and local and asking questions about how they run their business," said Cavenas, who admitted it will be his first time leaving the country. "How are their strategies implemented? It will also a learning experience. Understanding different cultures and customs will help everyone in their different lines of work."
Â
As for life after football and Lehigh, Cavenas is applying for police jobs, primarily in the Midwest. Until then, he just wants to help the Mountain Hawks finish strong.
Â
"I've been in Pennsylvania my whole life and want to see something new," Cavenas said about his interest in a move to the Midwest. "For now, the goals are to just get out healthy and finish the season strong. We're a close-knit group and we'll go as far as we can take ourselves.
Â
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