Even with the football season being put on pause, the boys’ and coaches are still preparing for this upcoming January. Returner Jaron L. Amos, senior, says, “I work out everyday and go to Sports Village for seven on seven practices at times”. Fellow returner Carse Bailey also mentions that he is preparing and the only struggle he has is not being able to lift weights as much. As for Coach Richard Cornford, he is reviewing the team’s strengths and weaknesses from last season, while trying to maximize what they did well and minimize the areas where they fell short. Although Cornford has not seen the boys’ in person for about six months his advice to them is, “. . . to work on their speed and agility. They don’t need a ball to do that. Being in shape is going to be critical for all of us.”

         This led to the topic of what it takes to play football. According to Cornford, “To be a good football player it takes a lot of self-discipline and sacrifice as well as natural ability and toughness. To have a great team, we need players to buy into the team first mentality, which is to put the teams goals ahead of their own interests.” 

           Bailey responded with, “I think it takes discipline, determination, love for the game.”

         “I feel that to play football it takes a real athlete” said Amos. So if you plan on or want to play football, be prepared to make sacrifices, discipline yourself, have loyalty, and work hard physically.

        Speaking of the team’s goals,  Cornford is focusing on defending their SYL title and winning another Valley Championship. He talks about how Covid-19 did not change their plans for this year. They are still planning to continue  pushing the pace offensively and look to shut down teams defensively. Meanwhile, he thinks they will improve on the gains they made last season because they have a good number of returners. To end it off, he mentions how he is looking forward to, “unleashing the great group of seniors they have on Central Valley High School.” 

         For Amos he says, “My goal for this season is to rewrite records and get my first championship”. To add on that he says that they’re, “going to be champions, just wait for it”.  As for Bailey, his main goal for this season is to get a scholarship. Both Amos and Bailey believe the team is ready for this upcoming season as they’ve all been working hard and are anxious to get back to playing. 

        Although, there is still the challenging part of this upcoming football season, besides Covid-19.  Cornford said, “The most challenging thing about coaching is dealing with people that are not loyal to the team, or don’t understand the team concept. People that want to put an individual above the team or have an unrealistic understanding of their own ability are hard to win with”. 

                        “I feel that to play football it takes a real athlete”- Jaron Amos

        “Judgement, everyone compares you to someone and if you’re not good they’ll make fun of you. Football taught me how fast you can be replaced in life.”, says Bailey on the struggles of playing football. On the other hand, Amos decided to look on the bright side of still quarantine.     

       He realized it made him more determined to play and with this extra time he knows once he’s on the field he’ll be prepared for it. Lastly,  Bailey wanted to say, “To anyone who sees this, go all out in anything you do. It’s your life and no one can live it but you. So go as hard as you can in whatever you do.”