Taking it one game at time
Friday, August 14, 2009
Emporia High’s football team begins official practices with conditioning Monday morning at 6:15 a.m. The Spartans travel to Topeka High on Sept. 4 to kick off their season. EHS coach Bill Lowe talked with The Gazette on Thursday about the upcoming year.
Q How did everyone look at last month’s team camp?
A Good, really. I mean, there was a couple of kids that weren’t able to come because of engagements; that always happens. But everyone who was there, I thought it went real well.
More than anything, I think we’re trying to become a team and trying to find how to get each other closer together. This group seems like they’re serious about being a team, and not worrying about who gets all the credit. (They) just want to win games.
As tough as our schedule is, we just have to take one game (at a time). We can’t talk about anybody but Topeka High, because it’s just crazy, you know? We play Topeka High, and then we got two State champs back to back (Hayden and Junction City), and then Washburn Rural. It’s just a really tough schedule, but you can’t look at it like that.
We got our work cut out for us, but what we’ve realized, with the schedule the way it is, is that the only person we can worry about is ourselves, and we just have to try to improve ourselves, do the little things right, and be as good and as fundamentally sound as we can be.
Q You’re replacing a lot of key seniors, like Taylor Euler, Corey Bacon, Cord Stanley, T.J. Heins, (to) name a few. Are a lot of positions gonna be up for grabs when you start practice?
A Yeah, they really are. With camp, we’ve had some kids step up, but we’ve got a lot of big shoes to fill. We’re gonna be looking at a lot of new players, which is always interesting, because you never know how they’re going to perform once they get under the lights and get the pads on.
Q Who’s gonna replace Taylor at quarterback?
A Well, right now, Brandon Gentz is probably the leading prospect. Bryce Childs is also playing there and can do that. And then Tim Eichler is a sophomore that’s working there. But Brandon and Bryce, both I have a lot of confidence in, and feel good about either one of those guys.
But you can’t really replace Taylor; it’s a different team, and a different set of kids. Because like you said, we lost a lot of key seniors that were really leaders for us last year. So I think we’ll be looking for those guys to step up, take charge. I think these kids this year really want to prove, though, that they can do that. I think they feel a little overlooked by last year’s group. Maybe they feel like they’ve got something to prove about themselves and about their class — which, I hope they do feel that way.
Q Last year, expectations seemed awfully high. Does it feel like they’ll be scaled back a little bit this year?
A You know, as a coach, your expectations are always really high, and you always have big expectations. But like I said, I think last year, maybe the mistake we made is, some of us looked down the road instead of looking right in front of us, who we had to play each week. And we just really can’t do that this year. We just gotta take this Topeka High game and go from there. But I think our program’s at the point now where we do want the expectation level to be high, and we do expect good things.
Q What are the keys for you guys to get the most out of this season? What has to go right?
A I think the biggest thing is we’ve gotta become a team. I know that sounds kind of corny to some people. But really, it’s not always the best talent that wins championships, but the best teams. And we’ve really gotta make sure we’re all on the same page and that we’re all pulling together to win. That’s probably our biggest thing right now, is just finding out who’s gonna be the leaders, and if we are gonna be able to come together as a team. And play our guts out for each other, and not worrying about ourself, but just playing for our teammates.
Q What areas are you most concerned about at this point?
A Well defensively, we just have to improve. We couldn’t stop the run last year for anything, and if you can’t stop the run, you’re not gonna win a lot of games. We’ve just gotta get better on defense, and probably the key there is the defensive line — if we can find some people up front that can help stop the run, (and) a couple of linebackers.
And the offensive line’s always a concern for us, with our game, the way we run the ball. No matter who you have coming back, you’re always concerned that we’re gonna have the kind of people up front to allow us to move the ball.
Q Are you and the staff planning on any new schemes or formations on either side of the ball?
A Defensively, we’re a little different, the fact that we’re more of an old 5-2 team, with what the pros all call a “34” now. But we’ll have three true defensive linemen. We’re just gonna be a little more simple on defense and try to be more fundamentally sound, try to do what we do best and not worry so much about what the other team does, but just take care of the fundamentals and things we can take care of, as far as tackling and creating turnovers and running the football.
Q Last year, Mark Kolmer ran for 817 yards and he had a couple of really big games. Is it fair to say he needs to have a big year for you guys to be successful?
A Well, I think it’s fair to say we’re expecting (him) to have a big year after last year. But also, we don’t want to be the kind of team that just relies on one guy, where somebody can take one guy away from us and stop us. So Mark’s going to get his yards and his tackles (on defense) and things. The thing we have to make sure (of) is we don’t get too one-dimensional.
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Theodore Roosevelt who visited Emporia 34 times said, in life as in a football game, the principle to follow is hit the line hard. GOOD LUCK SPARTANS.
August 14, 2009 at 10:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
TOPCITY1 (anonymous) says...
how will all do this year in football and basketball
August 17, 2009 at 3:38 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )