Colby Hornets Football Season Preview

Conference outlook:  The Marawood Conference overall will have a lot of balance and I don’t necessarily see a front runner.  Edgar has great tradition and will have a good running back returning in the Butt kid who is a load to tackle.   Auburndale has their quarterback back along with a few other good players Abbotsford always puts together a competitive team year in and year out.  I believe our team (Colby) brings back a lot of speed and some really good skilled players.  Offensive and defensive lines will be the big question mark going into the season.

Keys to your success on offense:  In order for Colby to be successful, we will need to be able to control the line of scrimmage, be a run first team which will then set up the pass game.  We have running backs with good speed and vision and we just need to give them a little bit of running room.  We will also need to be able to give our quarterback time to throw the football as we have a quarterback in Tucker Meyer who can throw the ball well and we have good skilled players with speed who can make things happen after the catch.  Again, overall success will depend on our front line who is a little bit inexperienced but they are getting better each day at practice.

Keys to your success on defense: Much like our offense, a big determining factor on the success of our defense will rely on our defensive line.  We need to be able to control the line of scrimmage, not get pushed around and hold our ground and with more time, I believe they have the capability to be pretty good.  We have a good group of linebackers and defensive backs and they are going to be relied upon to make a lot of tackles and defend receivers in our man-to-man defense.

Behind the scenes: Who are some of the people that help your program succeed? Certainly in order for any program to be successful, you have to have some really good and knowledgeable assistant coaches which we certainly have at Colby.  Furthermore, you need individuals that film games, do the offensive and defensive stats, along with water boys on the sideline.  Without the help of a lot of people, it makes things a lot more difficult.  In addition, we at Colby have a lot of parent support and get very few complaints.

 What is your football program all about? How do you measure success?

This is a tough question because success can be so different from school to school.  At Colby, our program is about putting the team first, being unselfish and displaying good sportsmanship on the field, along with trying to win football games.  We try to instill in our players the importance of giving back to the community also by helping wherever we can in the community.  Success is measured by how we behave in and out of school and trying to compete every week during the season at a high level.  We expect most years to compete for a conference title along with a goal every season to make the play-offs, which we have 15 seasons in a row.

Coach’s comments: anything else you’d like to share? I would just like to add that it has been my privilege and honor to be a football coach at Colby for the past 32 years, whether as an assistant or head coach.  The community through the years has been so supportive of not only football but all of our sports and co-curricular activities.