By Jackson Teal
Be fundamentally sound!
Play with your hair on fire!
And hit them hard!
These are three rules new head coach Billy Lynch spent all summer instilling hard into his Eagle football players.
Having a new head coach and at least 16 new starters comes with some growing pains.
These were highlighted Friday, Aug. 22 when the Eagles lost to cross-town rivals the Muncie Central Bearcats and then again on Friday, Aug. 29 when they lost at Heritage.
In the past 30 years, the Eagle football team has not lost the first two games of their season until this year.
So when you do start the season with losses, the next question is… How do you bounce back?
“One loss does not define our team,” senior defensive end and running back Grey Backus said. “I have faith we will bounce back.”
The Eagles tasted victory for the first time with a 24-7 victory over conference opponent Shelbyville. But week four was a rough 45-7 home-field loss to Yorktown.
Backus, a two-sided threat for the Eagles, is helping to ensure this bounce back.
Another figure helping his team get back on track is Billy Lynch.
Lynch has been a long time assistant coach in football and basketball.
His past experience in coaching football includes 16 years of NCAA Division 1 coaching followed up by four years as an assistant at Delta.
With all this experience he is still tackling a big job. The Eagles have lost the most starters of any team in the Hoosier Heritage Conference which means his team will be lacking what he personally has a lot of — experience.
“There is no substitute for actual Friday night experience because the speed of the game is so much different,” Lynch said. “We knew we would be replacing a lot of guys and the only way to get experience is to play games.”
This is why although a 1-3 record sounds rough, ultimately the Eagles have over half a season to recover by sectionals.
The Eagles have lost two of their games in an extremely close fashion with simple mistakes that can be easily fixed.
One of the lessons they have learned in these games is the toll it takes on you to play both sides of the ball.
There is only one senior that does not play offense and defense.
So once it came time for the first game of the year their bodies were not acclimated to the difficulty of playing for nearly 45 minutes.
They suffered numerous cramps and minor injuries throughout the game.
Senior defensive end and linebacker Cole Mynett is trying to keep team morale up. Last season, Mynett finished second on the team in total tackles, racking up 66, including five tackles for loss.
“I worked my tail off and hope it pays off and I have a good individual season as well as a good season with my team,” Mynett said.
Coach Lynch’s main way to develop his players is through film study paired with more intense practices.
Mynett believes that his key to making it to the collegiate level is to do the small things correctly.
He further stated that Lynch making them watch as much film as they do has helped him hone in on the fundamentals.
Focusing on fundamentals along with the other two rules is the plan for the Eagles to improve their record to 2-3 versus the Mount Vernon Marauders tonight (Friday, Sept. 19).
