LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, INDIANAPOLIS — As we approach the 2019 season everybody’s excited to kick things off and nobody is more pumped about getting it in than the Lawrence North Wildcats led by head coach Pat Mallory. I recently sat down with him to discuss the upcoming season and to see what his Wildcats bring to the party in 2019.
Every coaching staff has little things that they implement during the off-season or during training camp that helps to motivate their team. So I asked coach Mallory what things has he done with his team to bring some meaning to what his players do every day? His response was very unique. He said that “We came up with the idea of one word indicators. We asked the players to come up with a word that would describe whatever you’re playing for this year. It could be like “family” etc. We then wrote them on a helmet and that would be the last thing that they all saw before stepping on the field.”
Players have to be reminded as to why they are playing this game and what it means to them. That was a very cool idea. Speaking of thinking outside of the box Lawrence North has come up with something different in terms of choosing captains. Instead of having just an offensive and defensive captain they’ve come up with something more compartmentalized for their team.
They’ve got five different captains with five different areas of focus. On offense quarterback Donovan McCulley is the head coach on the field. There’s senior outside linebacker Nick Taylor on defense which runs the show and is the coach’s voice on the field. Then they dip into something I’ve never heard of before. They’ve got running back Keyshawn Smith who is the captain of HYPE. He’s the voice of the locker room because he brings it every day.
Senior defensive lineman Excell Brooks is the captain of accountability. He makes sure everybody is doing what their supposed to be doing. His job is to correct whatever is supposed to by corrected according to coach Mallory. Lastly’ there’s Caesar Price, the senior defensive lineman who is the captain of focus. Mallory says, “He’s the guy that always puts his arm around you when something is good or when something is bad.”
The head coach goes on to say that by having his captains compartmentalized it “Not only keeps everybody focused but just the flow of the program…the flow of practice, the flow of film sessions, getting out to practice on time, getting into the meetings, making sure we’re focused in the meetings, making sure we’re focused in film sessions. Everybody’s got their jobs and now everybody really understands that we’re not just listening to one captain or three captains but there’s five and they all have their own niche here and now…even the young guys the freshman that truly don’t understand how the flow on the program goes or even just high school football it’s real helped transform them.”
The Wildcats will be relying heavily on quarterback Donovan McCully to turn thing around from a year ago. The Wildcats finished 3-7 last season with only 1 conference win in 2018. However, they are looking forward to changing the end result in 2019.
The Wildcats according to Mallory “It all starts with we expect to win! Here are all of the indicators below the expectation of winning that we have to make sure get fulfilled in order to help us win.”
With all that being said, it should be fun to watch. In my Terrell Owens voice “Get Ya Popcorn Ready!!” Stop me when I start lyin’!
