LFO starts spring football practice
The Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Warriors had their first week of spring practice as a team in preparation for the first scrimmage of 2017.
The Warriors, who are coming off a one-win season last year for the program, started practice on late Monday afternoon and were able to get in an exceptional amount of work, including hitting, blocking, catching and in-game situation drills every day last week. LFO head coach Bo Campbell said he expects these drills to prepare his team for the first spring scrimmage, which will be Friday against East Ridge.
“Before the first scrimmage—last year we didn’t do a good job on defense—we feel like we are going to do a better job on defense,” Campbell said. “Offensively, I feel like we would drive the ball on people, but inside the 20 I feel like we would stall. The biggest thing out of spring practice is seeing what kind of guys are going to step up as leaders. We are looking to see if we have some new guys or guys that didn’t really show much last year that are going to show something this year.
“We want to tightened things up a little bit to the point where we get better. And one of the things we talked about is our map to success. We want to be more mentally conscious in what we are expecting from them. We want to be more aggressive and we want to be more physical. Those are things that we’ve been really hounding the kids on and talking to the players about.”
These imperative concepts and lessons, though, will not be anything new for the 20 or so seniors who are returning for their final year. It is the biggest senior class LFO has had on its roster in a several years, and Campbell said he expects the team to stand in more solidarity than in years past.
With only a week of spring practice under the Warriors’ belt, he said he has already seen great examples of the team acting in unison, which, in turn, is facilitated by some crucial positions. To this point, senior quarterback Zach Vaughn has grabbed the bull by its horns and has led the offense, while senior middle linebacker Drew Woodward, who was injured in just the third game last season, has anchored the defense.
“I talked about those two, but honestly, I feel like I’ve seen some other seniors step up and take a leadership role like Ruddy Ware and our free safety and some other guys that have really stepped up to help out,” he said.
Senior leadership, Campbell said, is critical for the direction the program needs to go into, and that is to win football games. Under the Campbell regime the team won one game last year. Two years ago, however, the program couldn’t get off the schneid.
Campbell said he expects his team to turn the corner this year, even though each game will be coached on a game-by-game basis as opposed to putting a particular amount of wins as a concrete goal for the upcoming 2017 season.
“I like to take it game-by-game; we coach the kids game by-game,” he said. “But to be honest we need to turn a big time corner and get on a winning streak. I’ve got those high expectations to turn the corner.”
One of the biggest themes throughout spring practice is to continue to teach every player not only the importance of paying attention to detail on the football field, but do the same thing in
all aspects of life, as Campbell has noted that it is extremely important for these high school athletes to develop into solid contributors of society.
“Football is the game of life in my opinion,” Campbell continued. “As coaches we are not just teaching X’s and O’s, we are teaching these kids how to be great young men and citizens one day. We have a couple mottos here like being a Warrior in academics and athletics in life and talk about hold the hill, which means honor, outwork opponents and lead and defend our tribe.”
The Red-and-White will be tested early in a non-region scrimmage 7:30 p.m. Friday at East Ridge, who went 8-6 overall, including a trip to the Elite Eight of the Tennessee Division I Class 3A state playoffs last season.