As the football season continues to go strong, the players and coaches continue to maintain a hard working mentality and focusing on one game at a time; The teams’ records are varsity 7-1, JV 6-2 and freshman 4-4.
“As far as all levels, they have been progressing well,” football coach Chance Cottle said. “The freshman, JV and varsity all have losses here and there, but I think from fall camp to now we have seen a lot of growth and a lot of setting a high standard that we talked about over the summer. We’re meeting and getting really close to that standard we set. We are seeing a lot of good things like wins and points on the board.”
Individual goals help influence the overall goal for each team.
“I want to have a good night rushing with the balls,” junior Kj Reed said. “I think as a team we want to go out there and beat the rival and go out and just have a really good game.”
Senior Trenton Hobbs said passion and willingness to work hard are important because a player must be willing to put in the time and effort. Cottle teaches the players have a ‘motor.’
“What I mean by motor is just their drive to be excellent,” Cottle said. “It’s always easier to tell a person to calm down than let’s get going so I think as a coach we can teach technique, we can teach the right way to do something, but it is very hard to get someone to be explosive and fire off and have a drive to be great, so having that drive is probably the most important quality.”
Cottle said a team has to be willing to work together and keep a positive mindset.
“A strong team player is selfless, someone who is willing to do what’s asked and not what he thinks is best, and someone who is willing to go above and beyond what’s asked,” he said. “Someone who is willing to help bring other people up to a standard that is being asked.”
Losing a game can often lower a player’s mentality. However, the coaches work with them to overcome that loss.
“We’re focused on the next opponent,” Cottle said. “We don’t linger on it once we come up on Saturdays and we watch film and talk about what we could have done better. Immediately when they walk out that building, it’s gone and over with, let’s prepare for the next win.”
As the senior players prepare to finish off the season strong, the freshman watch their upperclassmen to prepare a goal for next season.
“I think our freshmen watch our varsity and see what they are able to do,” Cottle said. “We see as we progress through the year that those freshmen are saying ‘Oh I want to do it like Trenton Hobbs does this, how he does that,’ and then they’ll ask us how they do that and we help facilitate that path. Or like ‘Oh my gosh Levi Guthrie can fill this gap really well, like, how does he read his ques.’ And we just facilitate that.”
Football can be considered a tough sport, and Cottle said it can show work ethic which reflects who a person is.
“It correlates so well with life, the struggles and the challenges you face,” football coach Tyler Cleavinger said. “The discipline, leadership, teamwork and the perseverance learned from this game is unmatchable.”
As the season comes closer to the playoffs, the players feel huge amounts of pride and gratitude to those who come out and support them.
“I don’t want to let these people down,” Reed said. “They come, they drive, sometimes very far, to watch us play, and it’s like I would hate to let these people come out here for nothing, so we always want to give them a good show to watch.”
