One Team, One Heartbeat: The Wolfpack And The Program

The NC State men's basketball team was coming to the end of a physically and mentally taxing two days. After several hours at the Close-King Indoor Practice Facility and a 4 a.m. start at the aquatic center in Carmichael Gymnasium, all the Wolfpack had to do was execute, in unison, one final perfect jumping back.

That's when Cat Barber spoke up.

The junior point guard gathered his teammates and instructed them on how he and backcourt mate Terry Henderson would lead. After all, The Program instructors Jake MacDonald and Jamie Slife had likened this final jumping jack to being at the foul line at the end of a close game.

With Barber and Henderson leading the way, the Wolfpack executed the jumping jack, concluding a two-day session that taught the team leadership, communication and toughness while bringing them closer together than ever before.

Instructors Jake MacDonald and Jamie Slife had the Pack's attention from the moment they arrived in Raleigh. The two long-time military officers are among a group of instructors for The Program, which works with more than 200 athletics and corporate teams each year. The Program worked with seven teams that made the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

MacDonald, a former college football player, was commissioned in the United State Marine Corps for three combat tours, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He is a recipient of multiple awards for valor in combat and a purple heart and is a martial arts instructor in the Marines. Slife, a 22-year veteran of the USMC, has seen five combat deployments and his credentials include being a skydiving Jumpmaster, martial arts instructor, ranger and USMC Scout Sniper.

Clearly, the Pack would need to be at its best to make it through the physically and mentally taxing team-building exercises.

"We work hard. Our definition of working hard is 'we do one more.' Everything we do, we're going to do one more," MacDonald said to the coaching staff. "We're going to do 6, 11, 16, 21. Let everyone else do 5, 10, 15, 20."

First Period

The first period combined all of The Program's ethos and core principles into a grueling workout that brought the Wolfpack together. The players followed a series of commands, led by Abdul-Malik Abu, dictating a series of exercises with perfect, military-like precision. The players needed to be in perfect rows and columns and in unison during the exercises. The Pack had to be perfect for 16 minutes. Without perfection, time would stand still. Let other teams reach 15 minutes. NC State did one more.

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Second Period

Still at Close-King, the second session saw the Wolfpack carrying 50-pound sandbags and seven-foot long log rolls for long stretches along NC State's new football practice facility. The mission in the second quarter was for each player to push himself to move the sandbags and log rolls as fast as possible.

Third Period

No basketball player on any level is a stranger to running suicides. However, in The Program, NC State's basketball players ran fireman carry suicides. The Pack players carried their teammates for 21-, 41- and 61-yard fireman carry suicides, with the mission being to finish as efficient as possible. Every step was only done when the team was instructed by its leader, which in this drill was Henderson, to execute. If anyone even moved slightly without Henderson's instruction, the drill started over completely.

In The Pool

The Pack assembled on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 4 a.m. at Carmichael's pool for two halves. The first half was titled "One Team, One Heartbeat" and lasted for 16 perfect minutes. A swimming stroke coupled with an exercise, repeatedly, in perfect rows and perfect columns.

The second half in the pool saw the Wolfpack, as a team, removing their sweatshirts while treading water and then putting the sweatshirts back on. All done together on BeeJay Anya's command.

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At the end of The Program, Caleb Martin was awarded the coveted Spartan Warrior t-shirt for his displays of teamwork and leadership. The t-shirt, a gray shirt with The Program logo inside a Spartan shield, is a prized possession among Marines affiliated with The Program.

The Wolfpack coaches and players think The Program will pay dividends this season, as they try and turn that perfect jumping jack into "One More."

One Team, One Heartbeat: The Wolfpack And The Program

Players Mentioned

Abdul-Malik Abu

BeeJay Anya

Terry Henderson

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