Shane Beamer explores decision to have coaches join players in completing military obstacle course

When Shane Beamer took the South Carolina team to run a military obstacle course, he didn’t anticipate that he’d also run through it. However, by the end of the day at Fort Jackson Army Base, he and seven assistant coaches were running through the mud as the players cheered them on.

Beamer and the Gamecocks arrived for a team-building activity that was supposed to be just for the players. As he watched them go through it before, he found himself questioning whether it might be fun to try out himself.

“Our players went through a 16-station obstacle course where they’re in the mud, they’re dirty,” Beamer told On3‘s J.D. PicKell. “It’s taxing. I try and stay active. I still work out. I think I’m still young. I was watching it going back and forth and thinking the whole time, ‘do I wanna do this myself? It looks fun, but then again, they’re getting completely soaked in mud and dirt and what not.’ The answer ended up being yes.”

Beamer explained that the initial plan was for South Carolina to split up into 10 teams. The teams with the top four times would then go through the obstacle course a second time to determine the champion.

However, after realizing how exhausting the course was, many of the players were reluctant to go through it a second time as a “reward.” That’s when Beamer came up with the idea to have the coaches go.

“I was just kind of sitting there looking at them like, ‘I don’t wanna make these guys have to do this again,'” he recalled. “It might be a cool thing if me and some of the staff members said, ‘hey, we’re in this thing together and we’re gonna do this with you guys.’ I said it and it seemed like a better idea when I said it as opposed to when I was actually doing it.

“Recruited some other staff members, got super muddy, super dirty. Time-wise, we weren’t last but we weren’t first either. So we didn’t win it, but I thought we had a respectable showing.”

Although it might not have been as fun as Shane Beamer imagined, the South Carolina players got a kick out of seeing their coaches tough it out through course. It ended up bringing them closer together as an entire unit, and the coach hopes he sent a message that will ring true on the football field as well.

“We had the entire team basically running with us cheering us on through this obstacle course,” he said. “So in all seriousness, it was a really cool moment for the team and team-bonding. They got to see that the coaches are gonna get right in the middle of this thing with you guys. Not just at Fort Jackson, but all year long.”