Spring season ‘transitional’ for St. Bernard’s
The upcoming football season will be a transitional one at St. Bernard’s Academy.
Head coach Matt Tomlin said the Crusaders’ will be rebuilding for the future, as many younger players are coming to fill the vacancies left by graduating senioryear players, among them quarterback Will Omey and linebacker Justin Hagler, both of whom were key in the team’s 2019 state championship run.
St. Bernard’s 25-man roster for the upcoming five-game season includes 13 freshman and sophomore year players. Quarterback Bode Joyner will be the only senior starter.
Coaching the younger group of players has been fun, Tomlin said, and he hopes to prepare them to win in the future.
“It’s been a lot of fun to get new blood and having a chance of building a new class of players which will be accomplishing something special themselves,” he shared.
Having to prepare a season that looked improbable for most in a few weeks is a challenge in itself. To instill his game philosophy on a young cohort of new players, Tomlin would have ideally liked to have some more time to prepare.
“Last year’s state championship team could have handled the situation no problem since we had so many seniors who were in the program for four years,” Tomlin said. “So you’re going to see growing pains on gameday, lots of mistakes as the kids learn. As a coaching staff, we have to show patience and treat the five-game COVID season almost as a training camp for next year.”
The team is characterized by an aggressive playstyle on offense and defense. Tomlin’s eightyear tenure at St. Bernard’s has
seen teams play with five wide receivers, constantly going long through the air, and running constant fakes and screens to open up defensive lines. On defense, his players go for blitz when possible.
This short season, aggressive defense coupled with senior quarterback Joyner’s experience appear to be the team’s keys to success.
“(Joyner) is a kid who is a college-caliber quarterback. He is a strength for us,” Tomlin said.
“And we really like our D-line and our linebackers and I feel that our front eight is the strength of this team.”
Despite the rush to prepare for the season, the atmosphere at the Crusader’s training camp has been full of excitement.
“They’re all just so excited to be back together with their friends on their field and excited to have a chance to play football again. It’s just such a positive for the kids, they’ve had so many negative
things happen in their lives in the past year that you just see their excitement to finally have a chance to go compete,” Tomlin said.
And while winning is always a priority for any competitor, Tomlin shared there is no pressure this season.
“We’re going to play to win every game, but we know this is not a season where there are championships or playoffs, so I’m not going to put any pressure on the
kids. I’m just trying to give them a chance to develop. We’re going to stick to our philosophy and show a lot of patience. We’re going to put on our teacher caps and teach the new guys how we play,” Tomlin said.
St. Bernard’s Academy will be opening the spring 2021 football season at home against Eureka High on March 20.