HS football previews
PLYMOUTH — It will be a first-ever night at Plymouth as Mishawaka comes to town for the first time in history against a Rockies football team, as a new member of the Northern Lakes Conference.
A week ago the Rockies had a night they would like to forget, but one they need to remember to move forward in the new season.
“We didn’t play well overall as a team,” said Plymouth head coach John Barron. “It was probably our worst performance. We had some kids play very well though. I thought (Quentin) Crawford was outstanding on both sides of the ball. He has become a solid two-way player for us.
“Overall, I don’t think that we gave much fight, but at times we did. Maybe my expectations are higher for our kids. What we took from it is I learned the definition of insanity. Coach (Dinkledine), who is a very effective English teacher here at Plymouth, talked to our guys about if you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome, that’s insane. That’s a great segue to me saying that we’ve made some changes this week. I’m not insane.
“Jake (Reichard) is obviously a big part of what we do and what we can do. We just can’t put too much on one kid. He’s the best football player we’ve seen as far as our opponents. We have more kids going both ways than ever before, but we have 16 kids either out, going to have surgery, pending surgery or we are waiting to find out if they are going to be able to play the rest of the year.”
One big part on both sides of the ball lost for the year is senior Ivan Winkle.
“Ivan (Winkle) has been a big part of our program and losing him hurts,” said Barron. “We miss his toughness, his fight.”
Also taking some focus away from the other key parts of the Plymouth offense is a big loss as well.
“The focal point right now is Reichard and Garcia and (Michael) Sheely,” said Barron. “That’s asking so much of a sophomore (Sheely) to be able to play on both sides of the ball and do all the things that we ask him to do.
“If we can get some more guys in the mix that would help us.”
Getting ready for Mishawaka this week has been more about the Rockies than their opponent.
“There’s been a lot of mental preparation this week,” said Barron. “We’ve tried to make clear that nobody cares what your record is at the end of the year. We want to win every one of our games left, but there is a bigger picture here as we progress forward to the tournament.
“Let’s face it our offense has
been absolutely horrible. Honestly, I’m not worried about Mishawaka. I’m not worried about anybody. We are 0-4 and all our energy is focused on our guys. We are trying to right that ship. We are trying to get our guys to believe they have what it takes to win games on Friday nights.
“We are still trying to get to know each other. We are trying to win games and sometimes it just takes longer. Reichard is going to touch the ball a lot more than he has and we have a lot more faces we’ve moved around. We have this concept that if we are going to go down we are going to go down with the older guys and we are going to play them as much as we can and we are going to play our best guys as much as we can. If we can get some younger guys to show us they can play on Friday, they are going to play.”
Barron is still not disappointed with his team’s effort.
“We’ve played poorly, but we didn’t quit,” he said. “We just didn’t play very smart and gave away the ball at inopportune times and gave up the big play and everything that adds up to not playing well.”
The task against Mishawaka is a daunting one with a school that has a rich football history.
“It’s a great school, tough kids,” said Barron. “I think they have the biggest, meanest frontline that I’ve seen in 30 years. They are very good and Davonn Parker can score at any time.
“Their defense is stingy. That being said they are 0-3, but they opened up with Elkhart, who may be the best team in 6A. They lost to Marian who is one of the top-ranked teams in 3A and they lost to Warsaw on the road.
“Keith Kinder is a great coach. They play option football but it’s different than Warsaw - under center, mid-line, triple option, toss. They will run their quarterback more. Their quarterback is really good. Their offense rolls around him.”
The goal for the Rockies on Friday is simple.
“I just want to compete,” said Barron. “I want them to show that they love playing the game, no matter what the score is. I want them to take advantage of the moments that they can create. I want to be on the right side of that.