Faith Academy sees rise in numbers for football
MARBLE FALLS — Some football coaches might think 17 players aren’t enough to field a team.
But that’s not the case at Faith Academy.
Head coach Russ Roberts said there’s a chance that number might go up to 20. At any rate, the Flames will be able to scrimmage each other during practices because of the number of players on the six-man team.
“We thought we’d be down in numbers this year,” he said. “I had planned for a team of about 14 or 15 players, which for a lot of people that’s good. From my way of playing, that’s not really adaquate, but we had planned for it.”
The Flames have been working on schemes, particularly their base offense, with coaches evaluating three players vying for starting quarterback. They are Hanner Shipley, Zachary Haydon and Jake Diamond.
While it’s too early to name a starter, Roberts said he is pleased with the overall team’s work ethic and willingness. In addition, the players’ retention has been good, he said.
“It takes a while to catch on to all of it, and we have first readings of plays, we go over the first time, we show them the concepts, and we come back and renew,” he said. “We go over each and every day. It requires that. Now never forget they’re high school boys, and so by Monday, the slate will be wiped almost clear. And we’ll have to do it again, but as we continue to do this over and over, and as we pick up basically the intensity of what we’re doing, we quit walking through it and jogging through it and start sprinting to it, we’ll know the plays and we’ll be much sharper this year.”
Another telling sign of being ready for the season is conditioning. Roberts said he has been pleased in this area, too.
“We had some kids come in here in almost mid-season condition,” he said. “We have some that did not. It’s a little surprising. Some that I thought would be in poor shape are in pretty good shape. Some of the ones I thought would be ready to go are maybe not quite there yet.”