Coach’s comments: ‘I’m a huge believer that football is a game of experience. It is the ultimate team sport. You gain that football IQ by being in that mix of 11-on-11 live football. These seniors have played in three consecutive semi state games.
Experience is the denominator that definitely will not hold us back. This season is going to come down to maturity and leadership. For us, it is to take one more step. Lack of effort focus or drive can certainly jeopardize that. To achieve and win, you must improve each week as the season goes on. In high school football to win a state championship, that’s 15 games and that’s a long season. You must have a little bit of luck, stay healthy and improve every week. We must stay focused on us, utilize our talents the best way we can and improve upon the things we do poorly. It is critical to build depth. This is the first time in 11 years here that we have four solid classes in a row, and that is rare for a small school. For us, we will have some players go two ways because you always want your best players on the field . Our depth gives us the ability to cycle guys off the field for some rest. We have a large upside.
Our foundation is built on fundamentals and basic schemes. We want our players to anticipate what the adjustments are during the game – that’s what the great high school teams do. We’ve added 14 freshmen to this group, and they are a really nice group of players. Our numbers continue to grow. We have 18 players in the last four years who have advanced to collegiate football and that speaks highly of the type of athletes we turn out. We talk openly that this is a path that we take together – it all comes down to loyalty and sacrifice.”