The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Elyria builds confidence in skirmish against Avon
Elyria may be coming off a winless season, but first-year coach Devlin Culliver isn’t going easy on his new team and presented his players with their toughest challenge yet when the Pioneers hosted Division II state semifinalist Avon in a scrimmage Aug. 17 at Ely Stadium.
It was a risk, and Culliver didn’t hold back when mentioning his apprehension about scheduling such a tough scrimmage. But after an 0-10 season in 2018 the Pioneers had nothing to lose and everything to gain from facing one of the area’s premier football programs.
“100 percent we got better today,” Culliver said.
“I was a little nervous coming into this game today because Avon’s who they are. I’ve known Coach (Mike) Elder for a while. He’s an exceptional coach, but I take pride in being a good coach, too. I just didn’t want our kids to back down and they didn’t.
“We made some good plays. We knuckled up with a playoff team and that’s all I wanted them to do was get tough and play hard.”
Since being hired in late January, Culliver hasn’t really questioned the talent level of the struggling Pioneers. He has looked to build on that talent and create a positive, winning culture.
He saw bad attitudes affect game play one too many times when watching last season’s film and knew it had to change.
“A lot of times when something bad would happen you could see they would start sulking, put their head down and start walking around,” Culliver said. “They didn’t do that today. I knew Avon was gonna make some plays because they’re a good team. I just wanted to see if we were gonna keep running, keep hitting and stay positive.
“I said I didn’t care about the clock, I don’t care if it’s fourth and one, move the ball. I threw all the coaching parts as far as following the rules out the window because I wanted them to play hard and play tough. I wasn’t worried about anything else.”
With little less than two weeks before Elyria opens the season Aug. 30 on the road against Midview, Culliver is seeing his players grow closer as teammates and the kind of positive impact
it’s having on the field.
The Pioneers put together some strong running plays and got good pressure on Avon’s offense, and with every big hit the confidence continued to grow.
“They’re starting to trust each other and they’re starting to push each other,” Culliver said. “Coaches try to create a competition every day at practice and (the players) are starting to do it now. They’re getting excited about practicing. When we first started I had a whole bunch of complainers…now
they’re starting to believe in what we’re telling them.”
Is it unrealistic to think his team can go from 0-10 to a season-opening win in a tough environment like Midview?
Maybe, but the Pioneers have put last season behind them, and Culliver sees no reason his team can’t start 1-0.
“I’ve seen Midview play,” he said. “They’re a good team, have some nice players, but we’re gonna go over there and give it our best. I think we can pull it off.”