By Billy Braunig
Photo by Mary Evans:
Last year, the Willow School football team went 3-6. Many coaches and players were not satisfied with the outcome of the season. So, now the question is, what is the football team doing this year to make sure that this season is better than the last?
And so far, the season is going much better than the last two seasons, to the point our team’s growth was the subject of a www.nola.com article.
“I was not satisfied with last season,“ Coach J.J.Smith said. “Not being able to practice on the field during the season, having to travel to a practice, and not having spring ball really hurt the team.”
The newly renovated Brees Family Field was finished in October of last season, limiting the Lions to only one week of practice on the new field before the season was over. However, come the new season, the Lions have used their whole offseason training on the new field, working to make sure they have a better season this year. So, that’s improvement #1.
Coach Smith has very high hopes for this season. He was very excited about winning game one against Fisher High School, which we won 42-14. “We were ready to be in front of the home crowd again,” Smith said.
Getting ready for the offseason was not the only way that the Willow football team prepared for this season. The Lions also have a couple new additions to the team, including Junior quarterback, Jake Guichet, and Freshman Running Back, Darryl Franklin.
One of the main things that Coach Smith pointed out was how excited he was to see the outcome of the position battle between 3rd Year Quarterback Ronan Theall and 1st Year Quarterback Jake Guichet.
“Everyone on the team needs to know that they have a special role. If everyone personally does what they need to do and also helps out others, then we will definitely look like a team and the results will show. For example, when one offensive lineman messes up, it hurts the whole team,” said Guichet.
This season is Guichet’s first year playing football, and he went straight to the top as Willow’s starting quarterback. Making this all the more impressive is the fact that Guichet still plays as one of Willow’s starting varsity baseball catchers.
“It took a lot of hands-on learning hours to learn the basics of football, in the sense that I was either sitting down one on one learning plays or on the field running them. When I first joined the team, I knew nothing about the plays or anything like that, so part of it was that, and the other part was learning my receivers and things like who is faster and who can run routes better.
Considering that Willow is back on its field and has a lot more depth because of the new members of the team, the team hopes for a very strong season. “A team is only as strong as its weakest member,” Guichet said. “If we can do these things, we will for sure have a better season than last year.”
