The NHS varsity football team has made its way to the playoffs once again. Since the beginning of the season, the team has been looking to rebuild its momentum and get further than previous years. The coaches have stated that it is key to put more steps into the algorithm and establish a strategy and bond between the fellow teammates that would allow them to unify when playing. 

“Good coaches constantly review the plays and pay an extreme amount of attention to every detail that may have gone wrong or not as planned,” football coach Brian Camey said. “[The] majority of practice involves working on individuals, as well as creating a team that can rely on each other, but not to the point where they can’t rely on themselves.” 

As they went further into the season, hard practices started to become continuous and substantial determination was put into every game, seeing as most games were won. Several of the games won showed an abundant amount of distinctiveness between the score points and penalties. 

“There were tactics but more hard work,” football player Korben Parish said. “All season, this team balled out and never gave up.” 

However, as they got to the second playoff game, they were cruelly defeated by Dunbar High School.

“Like I said in the beginning, there wasn’t much we could’ve gone off from, it’s kind of like whatever happens at practice the week before or of a game determines how well we play and our mindset throughout the game,” Parish said. 

The beginning of the first and second quarter was on the rougher end with several penalties, and Naples had zero points gained so far.

“Offense went downhill very fast, and I wish I could’ve changed the way the offense ran with it and made the course of where the ball was thrown,” Parish said.

It wasn’t until the third quarter that they scored a touchdown, lagging seven points behind. The game was a difficult task for the football team, as the score was 7-14 at the end of the game. Although it was a home game, much of the school spirit was not shown throughout the stands and was less ecstatic than other games. The tired out team was not given the extra energy it needed to finish out the game strong.

“The sideline and crowd wasn’t really loud, giving me and the team not much to go off of,” Parish said. “When we started to lose our motivation, there wasn’t any energy to bring us back up.” 

The coaches easily caught on to the mistakes made during the playoff game and want to learn and ensure that there will be a slim possibility of that happening again. They also can conclude that they will be trying out new strategies for the team and/or old ones that may work again to see how the team can improve.

“This game, like many others we lost, is just another reason for them to work harder and push themselves to their limit,” Camey said.