On the morning of Aug. 30, 38 high school boys woke up and dressed themselves in a Freedom jersey. The first game of the season was that night, and some of the seniors had high expectations for the upcoming season. The team played Mohawk for the season opener, an opponent in which the team was successful in beating two years ago. Although the boys put up a good fight, this game ended in the opposite direction.
“We expected to beat [Mohawk], they just came out wanting it more. They didn’t have players to take plays off and they didn’t have mental mistakes,” Senior Jared Hogue said. “Taking plays off” is when a player goes out onto the field and doesn’t give their 100 % performance. According to some of the captains, the football team needs to work on this aspect.
Another important part of winning games and making playoffs is not only the physicality of playing football, but mentality as well. Mental blocks seem to be another obstacle the athletes need to overcome to improve their game. Even though the team has lost some because of problems, they are not disheartened.
“I had faith in the team and I still do. We have been working really hard, it’s just the mental errors that are killing us,” Junior Lucas Yeck said.
“[The season] isn’t going as I planned, but that’s life. You just have to go with it and make changes as you go,” Sophomore Jake Pinkerton said.
Some of the team is made up of first year members and also athletes who left for a year or two. Senior Andrew Ward and Junior Andrew Baker are two culprits of this.
“[I came back] because as soon as you leave something and see it happening without you, that’s when you realize you made a mistake. Seeing some of your best friends work as hard as they can without you kills you. I missed it more than anything,” Ward said.
Freshman Kody Komara, a newbie to the team, said he enjoys being on the football team because football is something he’s always loved since he was young, and he’s honored to be a part of it. “What makes me proud is how all the upperclassmen present themselves. It makes me proud to be on a team with such great friendship,” Komara said.
Like Komara, Coach Tim Dubovi is also new to the team this season, and he has high expectations for the team.
“We’ve had a lot of adversity. We’ve just had various injuries where we haven’t been able to practice with neither our offensive or defensive line. We haven’t been able to have the consistency of having our five linemen working together every day,” Dubovi said. According to Dubovi, the week of Sept. 9 was the best practice because everyone worked hard and listened. There were no mental mistakes and they worked on what they were taught.
Pinkerton also believes there are ways to improve and areas to work on. “Someone needs to step up and be an all around leader. We must communicate and do what we’re taught then we’ll be be back to playing Bulldog football,” Pinkerton said.
Dubovi hopes that the hard work will carry over to the field and that everyone will see a number of improvements on Friday nights.