Edgren High is ready for some football

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zachary Kee
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  After a gut-wrenching season in 2011, the Edgren High School football team looks to rebound from a season where they didn't win a single game. The 33 players on the Eagles roster, including 10 players from last year's team, have been working hard since June in the weight room and on the field to make sure they fly higher than last season.

The Eagles are in their first week wearing full pads at practice and are preparing for their first game against the defending champion, the Yokota Panthers, on Aug. 24.

"For some of us this is our last year playing and we want this to be the year we beat Yokota," said Spencer Robison, Eagles Senior offensive and defensive lineman. "The past three years, Yokota has always taken us down. This year we are going to make that different. We have been working really hard out there."

Preparing for a game like this, potentially being the biggest game of Edgren's season, is crucial.

According to Blaine Miller, the new Edgren High School football coach, they're more focused on themselves than who they're playing. With an entirely new coaching staff on board, Miller says their opponents won't have much of an idea what they'll be facing.

"What has been more important to us as a staff is creating habits of excellence, so in each play the team runs, no matter who lines up across from them, we know we can play with them," said Miller.

Although winning can be important at the high school level and beyond, Coach Miller said that winning is based on how you look at it.

"Sometimes winning isn't determined by what team has the most points at the end of the game," said Miller. "It's about doing what we ask of them, and if they do that they will have won in more ways than the scoreboard will show."

Miller said his team has the basics down and they are now putting on the final touches. They have done a great job of learning a completely new system and will be ready for next week's game, he added.

"If they play the way they practice, we will be fine," Miller said.