We had a good day of practice today coming off of our scrimmage on Saturday with Penn Cambria and Bishop Carroll. They both are solid football teams and gave us a good idea of the kind of competition we will face in the season.
I feel that our offensive line pass blocked well and our quarterbacks and receivers worked well together in the passing game, but we still need to work to improve our run blocking. That comes with more and more repetitions.
This year, the junior class needs to lead as much as the seniors. Many of us have experience from playing last year. That experience will help us get better as juniors because we know the calls and blocking schemes and don’t have to think about it like last year.
Defensively, our ends Justin Clark and Max Soellner put good pressure on the quarterbacks and we attacked forward, but there is still plenty of work we need to do. Coaches (John) Meredith and (John) Gressler are working with the linemen with different moves and rushes that will get us into the backfield and bust up some plays before they get going.
Football is much different than wrestling and track. The other two sports I compete in are individual competition. If I get beat on the mat, there is nobody I can look at for help. In football, I have the support and help of 10 other guys. There could be plays that I miss a block, but someone is there to cover my back. There may be plays on defense that I take two players out to open up the linebacker to make the tackle. It is a much different game than anything else I have ever played and something that I enjoy very much.
Today at lunch is buddy day. We have to tell coach Franco who our buddies are, their parents, where they live, any brothers or sisters and one interesting tidbit. The buddy system helps us get closer as a team and buddy day at lunch is always a good time.
Today is the last day of three-a-day practices and I am looking forward to getting the season underway.
We put a lot of hard work in conditioning and three-a-days and I am looking forward to see how it pays off during the regular season.
Look for me on television, I am the office linebacker in Reebok commercials.
Compiled by John Harlow
