Lucy Karimi ‘27
EE Staff Writer
This year’s Freshman Football team of forty-six has been starting strong. Their coach finds new ways to strengthen their team. This year, more baseball players have started football, looking for more strength when it is not baseball season. Although they now find themselves mid-season, this team began training in the summer to get to where they are now.
This team differs from others because they focus on having every player “mentally (be) there in practice”, freshman Ryder Swenson says. “Sometimes, it’s more mental than physical, which I think makes us different than most of the other freshman teams”.
This team focuses on having fun but locking in when they have to. A great example of this is Lucas Leon: “He stands out to me so much, not just as a friend, but as a leader” said Swenson. “He knows when we can mess around and practice and when not to; he’s also there to help other linemen, and he knows every single thing each lineman needs to do even though that’s not his position.”
Swenson also called out the whole offensive line. “They are what keeps the whole team together, and without them, we are nothing,” he says.
The teammates are focused and improving daily. The three coaches help the team by building a bond between the teammate and the coach.
“Some things the coaches do that help not just me but the whole team are keeping us disciplined. I feel like our coaches build a strong connection with us because of how they operate things,” Swenson says. The coaches create an environment so this team “can laugh, have a little fun, but when it’s time to work, it’s time to work”.
Many baseball players have started football. Both sports help each other by having speed from baseball and strength from football. “Infield footwork really contributes to my footwork on defense,” Luke McDermott said.
“You need a lot of hand-eye coordination, and this really helps in a football game”, adds team member Brayden Jagoe.
Both sports benefit each other in multiple ways, and your position in baseball might dictate how football helps you as it did for McDermott and Jagoe.
McDermott chose to play to “get stronger and to play a fall sport”. And Jagoe decided to play “because (he) knew a lot of friends on the team, and knew this would help a lot with baseball”.
To Ryder Swenson, football is life, and if he “could convince everybody to play football, (he) would”. He recommends football as the perfect sport for freshmen because “no matter how different you are to others, the whole football team is family. Everybody accepts everybody whether you like it or not because that same person can be the person that is going to block for you, or win that game for you”.