At last.
After a mind-numbing, soul-crushing off-season our game of high school football is back with four games on our first Football Friday of 2020. Great to have you, great to be here.
Time to put away the what-ifs that lie ahead of us this football season and get out and enjoy the games including the one at Homer where the Knights will host Laurel-Concord-Coleridge. Last season Homer qualified for the playoffs for first time in eight years while L-C-C made it two straight postseason berths after its own seven-year drought.
In other games...
Hastings at Lincoln North Star. Love this match-up. Hastings is one of the top dogs in Class B and North Star is a program that’s trying to get some footing. Third-year North Star head coach Tony Kobza is optimistic about his program’s progress and says it will be all hands on deck Friday night.
“We currently have no injuries heading into the game and are thrilled to get a chance to play,” says Coach Kobza. “We started out team camp July 20 and went two weeks and rolled right into practice. That has allowed us to get great continuity with our team on both sides of the ball. Every kid has done a great job buying in to the extra expectations knowing we could lose everything we have worked for very quickly. I’m very proud of these young men.”
With off-season training disjointed at best Coach Kobza says many of his players have made good gains in size and strength, pointing to senior Colton Reed and junior Matt Koplin as players who made big strides and will be especially effective on defense.
Coming into the first game of the season Coach Kobza has the usual first-game concerns and some others which are most definitely very 2020.
“We want to keep everyone safe, first and foremost. From there, I want to see a team that want to win for each other,” says Coach Kobza. “I would like to see us run our offense efficiently and take care of the ball. Defensively, we want to be sure tacklers. So much of the first game is about effort and avoiding those big mental mistakes.”
All of that is well and good but there is the matter of trying to slow down Hastings, which figures to have one of the most lethal offenses in Class B. Nothing worthwhile comes easily but Coach Kobza has an idea about what his team will need to do in order to walk out a winner tonight at Seacrest Field.
“Hastings is a very athletic team with lots of experience. They play to their strengths really well and will be a great challenge for us, especially right out of the gate,” says Coach Kobza. “They will be ready to play and will bring a lot of excitement on their side. We need to limit their big plays and take advantage of our depth to try to wear them down. Their key players play a lot so we need to take advantage of our depth and try to wear them down.”
Sandy Creek at Schuyler. Love this game, too, and that both programs made it happen. Schuyler is optioning down from Class B to Class C-1 and the Warriors will face a Sandy Creek team that is a minivan away from being eight-man eligible.
Schuyler football has struggled mightily in recent years, to be kind, going 3-78 over the past nine seasons with the three wins coming against teams which were a combined 1-26. Not good. Which makes it all the more admirable Schuyler was willing to schedule this game against a three-win Class C-2 team, all in the name of competition.
Good for you, Big Green, hope you kids have a blast playing your game tonight and you have my respect for sticking with the game when winning has been so elusive.
Now understand, while Sandy Creek is a small Class C-2 team which won only three games last season it is also a program on the rise and it could take a major step by winning this game. It sure will be fun to watch how it all plays out.
“It feels great to be back together with our team practicing the game that we love. It has brought a little normalcy back into our everyday lives and I honestly believe our team is as close to 100% as possible given the circumstances,” says Sandy Creek head coach Jack Shadley. “Our kids have done a great job of holding themselves accountable in the weight room all summer and social distancing themselves from people outside of our team. In terms of preparation our entire team has taken huge steps in the right direction both physically and mentally during this off-season through our workout programs and studying the game.”
Very encouraging, all of that, but there is a big difference between playing a Class B program as opposed to playing one of Class C-2. Challenging as that might be Coach Shadley is thrilled for his program to have this opportunity.
“We have preached to the guys to take it one play at a time, one possession at a time, one quarter at a time. If we focus on this I think we will be able to compete at a high level throughout the whole game,” says Coach Shadley. “These kids have worked their tails off since last November to put themselves in the best position to be successful and I am excited for them to finally have an opportunity to show everyone in the state what they can do.”
Cross County at Blue Hill. Holes in each team’s schedule allowed for us to cross the streams - this despite Dr. Egon Spengler telling us in the original movie Ghostbusters, “Don’t cross the streams. It would be bad” - and get this game on the schedule. Cross County was a 2019 Class D-1 state semifinalist, a program first, while Blue Hill was a Class D-2 playoff team.
Second-year Blue Hill head coach Riley Armes shares the same feeling as the rest of us - let’s play ball.
“It feels great to be back in football as close to normal as possible. For me this is the best time of the year so sharing this time with the boys and other coaches feels great,” says Coach Armes. “I think after the long break from school and activities the boys are definitely ready to get out there and compete.”
Blue Hill is also going to field a veteran team and the kind of leadership and discipline showed through a successful off-season.
“A lot of our young guys have shown growth through maturity and the weight room. We bring back a lot of starting experience so having those leaders in position was great for helping young guys learn the game in camp,” says Coach Armes, who credits sophomore running back Jake Bonifas for showing great gains in size and speed which will result in him seeing the ball more this season.
Blue Hill wants to win the game, for sure, but to Coach Armes there is more at stake in tonight’s contest.
“We want to give the community sports back. The game will be different with COVID guidelines but our community as well as the state in my opinion are hungry for sports,” he points out. “We want to ensure that we take precautions and stay safe so that our community can follow Bobcat football this season.”
Amen, brother, amen.
