THE ECHO

By Jordan Anderson // Reporter

As the new school year starts, that means the start of jerseys, either putting your season pass to use or making sure you have a spare eight dollars every Friday. For us this means we get to sit in the stands with our friends and hope the football team wins but for the team and coaches this means a lot of hard work, motivation, and training

“I love the start of a new season, yes it can be stressful and it’s definitely a lot of work but it’s the best feeling knowing I’m going to be back on the field in a couple weeks,” said Miles Wright, the varsity starting center. “I mean as you’re improving and getting closer with the team and building that chemistry the only thing that’s doing is bring you closer to wins.”

While the team bonds come with the season, so does a lot of preparation and work. From summer workouts and practices, and paperwork. There is a lot of off the off the field planning that goes into the games.

“Summer is very physical; the boys practiced all summer, but week one of the seasons is technical,” said Offensive Line Coach, Hunter Hankins. “Mondays we watch game films for an hour and do 15-20 pages of game plan packets.”

After putting in the work, players and coaches agree that it can be hard to keep the spirits up. It’s all just about just preparing for the next play.

“It’s easy to lose confidence when you’re down but you have to almost have a goldfish brain. We can’t focus of the mistakes we made; we have to think about our next play and make that mistake unimportant,” said Wright, “It is also really important the goal and purpose of the games in our head too because if were down and don’t think about the goal, we won’t play as well and that can be a very hard mindset to set up.”

The season allows opportunity for growth, friendship, and for some, this is the biggest year in high school football. Recruiters become an even bigger deal; the possibility of scholarships could be offered. In the end, it’s all about improvement.

“It’s not about the wins and losses; we hold the boys to a high standard, not just on the field but as people,” said Hankins, “It’s amazing to watch the players on the field improve but it’s even better to watch them improve as people and build bonds. We are very confident in this season and very excited to watch the team grow.”