PIKE TOWNSHIP, INDIANAPOLIS — As everyone around the M.I.C. is getting prepared for the 2019 season to kick off on August 22. Everybody and their Uncle LeRoy are knee deep into their pre-season camps. On Monday I had the pleasure of meeting the Pike Red Devils’ new head coach Pat Echeverria.
He’s no stranger to Pike because he’s a former Red Devil beaming with pride in being able to take over at his alma mater. He’s led Zionsville to three sectional titles in the past five years and hoping to bring some of that success to the north westside.
Two years ago Pike finished 6-5 making an appearance in the Sectional title game. However, they won only 1 game in 2018 prompting a coaching change. In walks Coach Ech as he’s so affectionally called to try to turn things around. New coach! New weight room! New vibe!
I spoke with him about what it took to get buy-in from his players during the offseason. His response was, “It all started in Coach Sutton’s APC class. You get a large population of kids in there. You’re really just trying to work and getting on the same page with Coach Sutton. That’s where it matters most in the offseason is what you’re doing in the weight room. It’s an opportunity to get to know the kids as you work with them personally.”
They’ve got about 180 kids in the program and that’s huge. Coach Ech says, “Really every kid’s gotta be on their toes, I mean you’ve got that competition across every position. Where, you know um, we got a lot of kids and if somebody messes up I think we have enough depth right now that we can put in somebody that can do the job.”
That’s a huge advantage for a first year coach walking in. There are so many programs that just don’t have the numbers to compete because the game of football is a game of attrition. Having depth is very important.
The Red Devils come into the season with 30 seniors!!! That’s NUTS! Having that many seniors really helps a coach with the transition.
Ech believes that his team is going to be strongest on defense in 2019. However, on offense his system branches from his experience working on Derrick Moyer’s staff as an assistant at Pike back in 2007 when the Red Devils made their lone state finals appearance. He learned a lot while working under Moyer for those few years.
He goes on to say in terms of his offense, “Coach Graves used the quarterback as a big time runner. That’s not a component, that, obviously if we had that we would do it but our best quarterback right now, his biggest strength is decision making and throwing the football. That’s going to be the biggest difference for us.”
He’s still trying to identify the team leaders. However, he’s got about 10 guys that are starting to become those squad leaders by position group.
It’s less than two weeks from kick off and it should be fun to watch as the Red Devils look to make a statement in 2019.