By Kazi Nassif

The football team lost its season opener to Naaman Forest HS Friday night with a score of 26-0. The team was unable to get much offense going resulting in only 48 total yards for the game. Senior Dyland Jackson led the team with 35 yards rushing.

The new Head Football Coach Greg Pels said that the players shouldn’t dwell on the result but instead, they should focus on continuing to improve in preparation for the upcoming district games.

“It was the first varsity game for most of our players,” Pels said. “At this point we’re looking for improvement right now, and for us we got better than our scrimmage against McKinney. Preseason for us is all about getting prepared for the games that really matter, which is district.”

Pels said that he has developed a new offensive scheme to help maximize his players’ talents.

“We feel that the heavy run offense fits our kids best,” Pels said. “That’s where we have success.”

Senior kicker and punter Case Ritter, who averaged 43.5 yards per punt, thought the team worked hard in preparation for the game, and that turning their fortunes will require patience.

“This team has always given great effort and will continue to do so,” Ritter said. “A lot of people don’t know that football players get up at 5 a.m. every morning to prepare for Friday nights.”

Ritter believes that the Eagles will improve significantly with a combination of Pels’ teaching and the team’s joint effort.

“Against Naaman we gave it our all, and the guys gave great effort every play which is something we can build on,” Ritter said. “Coach Pels is teaching us the importance of discipline, commitment, effort and pride. Once we start to grasp that process more, you’ll see a brand new Eagles football team.”

Senior quarterback Jacob Hanberry took the team’s defense as one of the positives from the otherwise disappointing result.

“Our defense did well last night,” Hanberry said. “Naaman scored 26 points only because our defense was on the field the entire game, which was the result of our inability to score let alone get a first down.”

Hanberry cited practice as the main way for the team to rebound from the loss.

“Overall we’re a very young team and we lack experience in a lot of areas,” Hanberry said. “Getting better as a team is going to come down to having better practices as a team.”