What's the Secret?: Centrals Football Triumphs

Central's football team has had a pretty big transformation over this past year. So What's the secret? Was it the practice, the coaches, new students? Well I interviewed some of this year's coaches to find out exactly what is going on, because whatever it is it's paying off!

Starting with Mr. Imamura, when asked "What do you think the reason is for central's new coming success?” 

He answered “I think last year we were able to get a lot of our young football players up to the varsity level, give them some playing time and some experience which is very beneficial for this year. We’re able to see the growth in a lot of those athletes who are sophomores and juniors now. One other thing is we're not playing as many guys on both sides of the ball, which gives them time to kinda recover. Also gives us coaches the time we need to make in-game adjustments.”

What different methods have you changed up this year?

Imamura responded “I don't think we really changed any methods but it's getting our players on the same mindset, getting them to understand the values that we want as a coaching staff for our program. Having them committed to excellence every single day is a big part of it.”

How do you motivate your team?

He answered “Again I think it's just getting them to understand our expectations is a big motivating factor, having a clear, concise game plan every single week. And then having practice that kind of emulates what we expect of them in the game helps motivate them."

Does a student section make a difference?

He answered “ I think they absolutely make a difference, being able to get that crowd noise and ramp up the team, their chants in defense. You know it's that home-fit advantage. You know we only had two games at home so far but I think them, along with the other people in the crowd makes a huge difference. We're trying to gain that momentum, make some big plays and some drives.”

What does practice look like?

He said “It kinda depends on the day in the beginning of the week we like to ramp things up, get guys kinda live. we sort of tamper it down as the week goes on. Make sure our athletes are at their best in game time. Make sure they don't have injuries so we kinda ramp it down but  Every day is an intense day and it goes back to kinda expecting at practice what we want from them in the game.”

What advice would you give to anyone struggling with their sport?

He responded “I'd tell them to stick with it, you know it's not always gonna be sunshine and rainbows there's gonna be adversity, there's gonna be times when you wanna quit. But I think being able to work through those moments in your sports season day to day or even in a game. It only helps you to get better mentally and physically. And then it's just about life building skills. And so a lot of these adversities translate once you leave high school into the real world. You can look back at those times, the adversities that you've faced and then they'll help you deal with what you're going through in life.” 

Picture taken by Truman Swartzfager.

The next football coach interviewed was Mr. Hindman. Here's what he had to say.

What do you think the reason is for central's new coming success?

He said "I could say a lot of reasons. I think that the biggest thing is our student athletes, we have a lot of kids that are dedicated. This past summer we had some of the best summer workout numbers that we've had since I've been here(2016), and so kids understand that if they want to have success they have to put in the work, the energy, and the time. That's what we're seeing right now, it's just the payoff of that investment they're making.”

What different methods have you changed up?

He responded “I think one thing that I bring to our program– and I recently just moved up from our JV level to varsity. I think the big thing that I bring is just like this accountability and discipline piece of just doing the little things correctly. I'm a big believer in if you do all the small things correctly then it'll add up to the big things and so I know some of our player it's been a little bit of an adjustment for them. I call out things as simple as not having your helmet on when you should have it on, not being in the proper spot when you should be there. Another thing that we've been doing this year that's kinda new and different that i've lead is having the boys clean up the locker room after every single night after practice, kinda teaching them some life skills, gives them a chance to bond with their position group, but also kinda brings the idea of ownership into their locker room and indoor facilities.”

How do you motivate your team?

He said “You know I don't think that necessarily I have to motivate them. I think that if you can't show up wanting to be great you're probably in the wrong spot. And so every now and then you just kinda have to remind them why they're there. And remind them that they do want to have success and that the effort they're giving isnt gonna lead to that.”

Does a student section make a difference? 

“Absolutely a student section makes a difference. I can even think to this previous Friday night (September 27th) close game , late in the ball game too. I could hear our fans, I could hear the student section cheering, making a lot of noise. I think that really hypes up our players and it creates a little bit of a distraction for the opposing team. So I've been really pleased with and proud of our students involved so far.” 

What does practice look like? 

He responded “Practice is pretty similar each day, we start off with a simple warmup to get kids, you know, ready for what they're gonna be doing. We have an offensive section where we focus on individual type stuff- so position type stuff. And we break up into groups and then we do team. And each day it's kinda focused on a different aspect of whether it be the offensive or defensive of what we're trying to accomplish and install via our gameplan.”

What advice would you give to someone who's struggling with their sport?

Hindman said “Just know youre why. Know your why, why it's something that matters to you. Sports and really anything in life, things are gonna have their challenges and if you don't have a really strong why, your gonna question "is it really worth it?” and so I just think start there. If your “why” is something outside of yourself like “oh i'm playing because my mom wants me to play”, I think you're really gonna struggle. Because that motivation only takes you so far. I think you have to have a love and a passion for what it is you're doing and a drive to be really good at it.”

 All in all it seems as though there is no single cause for their success. Success is something that is earned through commitment, discipline, and hard work. The football team has definitely put in the work, but it took a village to pick them back up.