Through rigorous summer workouts and confidence in their roster, the HHS varsity football team is gearing up for a promising season with a home opener against John Carroll on Aug. 22.
Head coach Ben Berguson, now in his 15th year, shared his thoughts on the challenges of the first game.
“What’s hard with this first game is you kind of go into the game blind, because you don’t have any game film from the previous game,” Berguson said.
Nevertheless, Berguson believes they can overcome this challenge through hard work.
“The best thing for us to do this time of year is just to be in really good shape so we can play four quarters of football,” Berguson said. “That all started in the spring, and the team really had a great summer of workouts.”
Berguson expresses excitement offensively starting with senior quarterback Kaleb Carson, coming back after a 440 yard playoff game in the previous year. Alongside Carson, Bergeson has high expectations for the receiving corps, highlighting senior Tomon Felton, who also won the state title in long jump and ran an 100 meter dash in 11 seconds. Additionally, senior receiver, David Walden is recognized as an assertive playmaker and great leader on and off the field.
The defense features a host of veteran players in key positions to set the team up for success. Starting seniors with experience since freshman year are leading the charge. Key tacklers are also coming back. Some returning top defensive backs include John Griffin, George French and John Martin.
Walden expects a strong result out of the first game, attributing the dedication the team has put in preseason. The team has been doing hard conditioning, leadership meetings, and watching practice films.
“We have chemistry,” Walden said. “This year during practice, it’s been a lot faster, been a lot more put together, and so we’re expecting to be really crisp offensively and really physical defensively”.
The Patriots have set high overall expectations for the season, as they are hoping to host the first playoff game and have a successful post season. The team believes they can achieve this through continued hard work and relying on each other.
“You have to really rely on your teammates to be able to encourage each other and lift each other up and tell each other to keep going and keep pushing,” Walden said. “We have a goal set out for our season, and we’re willing to do anything to make that happen”.
