Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Junior Cardinals Embrace New Philosophies
FARMINGTON JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL PREVIEW
FARMINGTON — Austin Lewis begins his second year as junior high head football coach at Farmington with a comprehensive understanding of a new system installed by varsity head coach J. R. Eldridge.
“His culture bringing it in from the seventh through twelfth grade, we are learning what it means to [function within] the system that he has offensively, defensively and special teams and incorporating RCB (respect, belief, commitment), VVR (Vicious, Violent and Relentless) in everything that we do on and off the field and these kids have taken to it,” Lewis said.
“They are better teammates for it knowing that they need to be this way with each other as well to be better teammates. That way they can work together on the field and it’s already showing in the preseason now.”
OFFENSE
Quarterback
Luke Elsik starts at quarterback coming off an eighth grade year when he had a little bit of playing time at quarterback.
“He was kind of our runningback/quarterback hybrid last year so he’s got some legs as well as an arm,” Lewis said.
Runningback
Russell Hodge starts at runningback this year. Lewis describes him as a thick, well built runningback who can get to the edge and get outside.
“He’s got some quickness to him, but he can also take it to the middle and bang it in there,” Lewis said.
Receivers
Four athletes will play receiver, Brandon Waters, Kenyon Thomas, Morgan Schader and Zane Schmitt in the new offense. Lewis sees things coming together.
“This year on offense we have a quarterback, runningback and a receiving corps that played well as eighth graders. Moving up to ninth grade they work well together, they’re quick, speedy, super smart, our offense is very cohesive,” Lewis said.
Offensive Line
On the front line the junior Cardinals are blending in some eighth graders. Trevor Harvey starts at center with guards Layton Mitchell and Jamar Drumgoole along with tackles Clayton Clark and Colton Taylor.
“If we get those guys on the offensive line to work together, a few that are eighth graders playing up for this ninth grade group, if they get a little more vicious, violent and relentless at the offensive line. I think we’ll be pretty good on offense,” Lewis said. “We’ll be hard to stop as far as taking the space the defense gives us and spreading the field out sideways and deep with those receivers that we have.”
DEFENSE
Defensive Line
The junior Cardinals will play with four down linemen in their new defensive scheme introduced by Eldridge.
Dillion Keller plays one end while Lewis said the other spot is going to probably be combination of Callahan Ramer and Clayton Clark.
The interior linemen will be Dodge Usrey, Caleb Crotser and Kayleigh Burr.
Lewis is confident the defensive line, even though the junior Cardinals will have a couple of eighth graders coming up, will have a good rotation going. Those guys up front can improve quickly by adapting to one another.
“Both of our ends are pretty quick and in our footwork we want to keep the ball going sideways with those guys. At interior linemen we’re good at firing off the ball, getting hands on our key and being
stop the run.
able to be vicious and violent on that front line. We just got to work more at playing together as far as the ends and the interior linemen are concerned,” Lewis said.
Linebackers
The junior Cardinals enjoy good depth at linebacker with six plus athletes available to man three linebacking positions. Lewis projects all six can really get some time in the game helping stop the run and helping in pass coverage. The linebackers may be the best part of Farmington’s defense in terms of playing experience transitioning from last year to this season enhanced by big bodies who are also fast playing at the linebacker positions.
“The linebackers are positive, we have depth and experience with a lot of playing time last year. All linebackers can give exceptional effort and ability on the field. The linebacker positions will probably be the highlight of our defense,” Lewis said.
The starters are Joey Pierce at middle or “Mike” linebacker, the “Lock” or left linebacker Avery Lynch, and the “Rock” or rightside linebacker Dayson Caplena.
“We have some dudes on offense who will also get reps on defense that can play linebacker, Zane Schmitt, Morgan Schader, and Russell Hodge,” Lewis said.
Defensive backs
Farmington fields a trio of safeties Ryan Berger, Brycin Beaver and Lincoln Walker with four cornerbacks where Brandon Waters will switch over from offense and play a little defense as well.
Arden Cater, Evan Pitts and Isaac Dickson round out the rotation at cornerback.
“In the secondary our safeties and cornerbacks are a fast, quick defensive back group with lots of experience. They’ve taken to understanding our coverages and systems really well. All zones are going to be tightened up as they work well with our linebackers,” Lewis said, while predicting it’s going to be hard for opponents to find an open spot to throw to on the field.
Lewis sees the secondary feeding off the VVR (vicious, violent and relentless) philosophy by coming up on plays to help
SPECIAL TEAMS Kicking Game
On special teams the goal is to create advantages to help the junior Cardinals offensively and defensively. Going along with that philosophy Lewis said the special teams are nicknamed after violence and onslaught for a reason.
“We want to flip the field in the kicking game to give our offense and defense advantages. We want to excel in everything we do,” he said.
OUTLOOK
“Covid was a difficult year,” Lewis said while noting a byproduct of a tough 2020 season resulted in a lot of eighth graders who got a lot of playing time in ninth grade games last year due to the numbers.
“Last year we were so close to flipping our record from 1-9 to 7-3. We were in six games that were decided by six points or less,” Lewis said.
The 2020 junior Cardinals suffered losses of six points to Prairie Grove, four points, three points, twice by two points and a one point setback while competing over their heads in the 7A West Junior High Conference. Farmington ranks as a Class 5A high school at the varsity level, but playing a 5A West schedule for junior high has never been feasible due to travel distances and the time it would take students out of the classroom.
Lewis puts the blame on himself for the 1-9 showing in 2020, saying with just a little bit more on his part, maybe the junior Cardinals could have had a different ending.
“This year we are going to go over the edge going into the season competing every single moment on every single play,” Lewis said. “There’s a lot of optimism, a lot of positivity going into this year.”