Edgren football uses bilateral relations to prepare for season

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zachary Kee
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Fall is nearly upon us, and this means one thing, it is almost time for the Edgren High School football team to return to the gridiron for the 2013 football season.

With the season fast approaching, the Eagles staff came up with the idea of a bilateral football camp to prepare their players for the upcoming campaign.

For three days the Eagles squad practiced, scrimmaged and bonded with players from the Tohoku Gakuin University football team from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.

"The team from Sendai is the number two Division I college team in Japan that has players on scholarship," said Blaine Miller, Edgren High School head football coach.

With this in mind, Edgren capitalized on the opportunity to run drills and compete against the second best college team in Japan, giving them just what they needed to prepare for their season.

To kick off their season, the Eagles traveled to Yokota Air Base Aug. 23, where they faced the three-time defending Far East Division I champion, Yokota Panthers.

Edgren plays in Far East Division II, but still has to play a few of the top teams from D-I, such as Yokota.

Last year, the Eagles were the runner-up to the Camp Zama Trojans in the D-II title game, but Coach Miller says that given the opportunity to face bigger opponents has helped them prepare for the season.

"This unquestionably made us a better team both physically and mentally," said Miller. "During the lineman bench press competition, their starting tailback benched 155 pounds 35 times. On a play in the first half, one of our captains made a great tackle on him. He didn't really think it was that big a play until we reminded him that this was the guy who threw up 35 repetitions and was 22 years old."

The tackle came at the end of the camp when Edgren and TGU hashed it out during a final scrimmage. The outcome that came from the game surprised many who were in attendance.

The final score of the game was 14-14, and if it weren't for a failed two-point conversion, Edgren would have come out victorious.

Even though it was a scrimmage, Miller said the outcome of this game showed what his team is capable of this season.

"One thing about this team is I do not have a star player," said Miller. "I have 40 guys who just want to play football to the best of their ability. I think this year could be special."