Sarah Hess/The Lion’s Roar
The Lions football team sharpened their claws and tested their skills for the upcoming 2017 football season with a scrimmage match at Strawberry Stadium.
The game was held on Apr. 1 as one of the many events for Super Lion Saturday. Many spectators and participants joined in for events such as the Green and Gold 5K and Fun Run, Lady Lions softball game and Lions baseball game.
The football game kicked off at 2 p.m. where the team was pitted against one another to test the players’ skills and showcase their improvements from their training regimen. The team was strategically divided with offense and specialists in Southeastern Gold and defense in Southeastern Green. Assistant head coach Brandon Lacy discussed the main goal of the scrimmage.
“The big thing today was to get better than you were last week,” said Lacy. “Become a better team. Become a better unit. If one team comes out strong, then we’ll see the other team respond. You saw right there, we came out defense going a little bit, then what happened the offense came back with a couple scores. That’s what you want the back and forth battle. Coach Roberts says all the time, ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ So, that’s the only way you get better. If I bring my best and you bring your best and we bring our best, collectively together, then we’re going to get better as a team and that’s what we want to do in these games.”
The final score of the game resulted in the gold team beating the green team 44-11. This game was an evaluation on potential starting linemen and an opportunity to assess the things the team needs to work on for the upcoming season. Head Coach Ron Roberts believes that the team has improved and states the areas of improvement.
“Well, now it’s time for us to get back in the weight room and we’ve got to get stronger,” said Roberts. “Hopefully, we’ll tackle the spring and summer with a little different mentality. I really love our attitude right now and how our guys are tackling things. They’ve really grown up in the last three weeks.”
Roberts believes the team is ahead of schedule.
“Right now, schematically, we’re ahead,” said Roberts. “We’re a lot farther ahead than we were last year”.
One key element that the team stated is consistency. Lacy also explained this problem and how they’re addressing it.
“The biggest thing is trying to be consistent,” said Lacy. “The big thing that we’ve tried to harp on this season is being consistent and giving max effort. If you’re consistent and giving max effort, then you’re putting your best product out there. So just trying to coach that up every day, correct little mistakes. But as long as you’re being consistent in your play and giving max effort whether it’s running to the ball, blocking down field, trying to do your best every play, completing every play, we’re pretty satisfied with that.”
Junior quarterback Donovan Isom talked about working on consistency to prepare for the upcoming season and how he has done personally in training.
“Staying consistent just getting better in all areas of the offence and just keep moving forward,” said Isom. “It’s preparing me well and I just got to stay consistent. Consistency is the biggest thing in our offense as long as they keep doing that offense is going to be okay, and we’ll keep looking forward.”
Assistant coach Matt Barrett felt the team responded well during the scrimmage.
“We were putting guys in situations to evaluate them, and we learned a lot about what we got today,” said Barrett. “Some guys performed really well in situations they were put in. They did really well and responded, and then we made some mistakes in those situations as well. So, a lot to learn from and a good way to finish it off with the physicality that was played with here today. It was a physical game and it was a good way to wrap up the spring ball.”
There are three potential players that have been discussed for the position: Isom and sophomores Chandler Eiland and Lorenzo Nunez.
Barrett feels the three contenders have improved since the start of spring training.
“They all did some things well,” said Barrett. “They all did some things that we certainly have to work on to become more sound and more crisp, but they’re all approaching things with the right mindset and all working hard and we’re a lot better than we were three weeks ago and we’ll continue to improve.”
Barrett sees the new recruits of the football team progressing and believes they will only get better.
“Once they learned how we practice and the tempo we practice at, they really started to improve quickly and that’s the encouraging thing,” said Barrett. “A lot of times with new players it takes a few days before you really learn the tempo at which we practice with and they’ve responded well, and we’ve got some new guys that will help us we’re excited about that.”
In regards to the new recruits, some of the seasoned players are excited at the team’s current mentality and what all the new players have to offer the team.
“They’re just bringing the hunger ‘cause they just want a spot like we all want the spot,” said freshman linebacker Ja’Hmal Macklin. “So, they’re trying to come in and make their name felt and make their name known. They came in did some good things had a nice receiver come in, a nice D-linemen. They all came in and did some good improvements, linebackers we always came in and worked, everybody wants to work and get better.”
Senior defensive back Max Lyons feels new players are bringing some heat to the team.
“Really, they’re bringing in competition,” said Lyons. “No spot is safe, so everybody coming in they got to compete. You can’t come to practice one day and have a bad day and expect to have that same spot, even me even guys that been here, so bring in a lot of competition so that’s better for us as a whole team.”
With new players and a new training regimen, the Lions are gearing up for the football season. Senior defensive back Max Lyons says this year’s training and the Super Lion Saturday scrimmage is helpful.
“Putting everything into perspective seeing what we’re good at, what we need to work on, which is everything really,” said Lyons. “That’s how it’s helping us and the coaches get to see and evaluate us. It’s really an evaluation in spring to see how everybody can do when there’s people around and people watching. So this was a big evaluation day for our coaches.”
Junior wide receiver Jake Ingraffia falls back to catch a 39-yard pass from quarterback Donovan Isom during the spring football game.
Sarah Hess/The Lion’s Roar