The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lorain football team working to improve
“In terms of where we’re at now, our kids have been busting their tails in the heat.” Lorain football coach Damion Creel
Heading into his second year as the head football coach at Lorain, Damion Creel’s Titans have been hard at work for months now, dating back to mid-January.
Inheriting a roster with a lot of youth last year that won one game before bowing out to St. Edward in the playoffs, Creel returns several young starters and other key players who have been grinding away since Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Last season proved to be a challenge, especially following the fall of 2020 when COVID-19 wiped out the entire football season for the Titans. That lost season set the football program back big-time.
Lorain was 1-9 in 2021 with that lone win being enough to earn a spot in the Division I, Region 1 playoffs. Now the test is building on last season.
“We got to work around MLK day and since then, we haven’t stopped,” Creel said.
“We’ve been working out three days a week in the weight room, working on everything from the weight lifting to the conditioning, agility. We just took all of that into the summertime.”
Regarding the progress the team has made since the beginning of the offseason, Creel says they’re on track.
“In terms of where we’re at now, our kids have been busting their tails in the heat,” he said. “We’ve been doing some sevenon-seven, and kids have been going to those exposure camps during the month of June. We’re right where we need in terms of what a football program should be doing. We have a core group of kids that have been working their tails off and they’re excited about the possibilities of the season coming up.”
“We’re excited, the coaching staff is excited, the kids are excited. We’re in those months where it’s kind of hard, but the kids are working through it. Then in another week, we’ll be in a minicamp to get our acclimation day out of the way so we can start on August 1.”
Creel also mentioned getting together with Glenville’s Ted Ginn Sr. for a spring game, with the legendary high school coach praising the Lorain players to Creel for how well the kids looked.