With a great end to the season, the freshmen football team went 7-1. Head freshman coach Frederick Schmidt has been coaching for nine years and has helped pave the way for his players to achieve their wins.
“I would say there are two parts to it. The first part is they bought into the new system. They come into zero-hour weights. They put in their work each day. As a coaching staff, all the freshmen work with different varsity coaches, all the position groups, so unlike a lot of schools we have our freshmen work with their individual coach for their position that also coach varsity,” said Schmidt.
Practices have evolved throughout the year. For half of practice, the freshman does offense with the varsity offensive coaches and then transitions to defense with the varsity defensive coaches. They also run scout teams, which has been big for the team’s ability to make good plays and stops.
Even the most successful teams have to tackle difficult challenges and make improvements. With the jump from middle school to high school and a new group of players, being able to learn new things is crucial to the team’s success.
“There’s so much of a learning curve because we all have a new defense and there’s a new offense, so just getting them to buy into the new system and how things are done differently than they have been in the past,” said Schmidt.
The team stays motivated through the season knowing their future opportunities. Coaches work on building strong players now for unbeatable players in the future.
“The thought of just getting better each week and just knowing that this is, as a freshman, it’s your last year to play just with the freshmen but it’s also playing to the future, so these kids are building a foundation for when they’re sophomores and juniors and seniors,” said Schmidt.
Though the varsity team has not been able to bring home a win, all players work hard, but the challenge level isn’t the same for the freshmen. Many factors play into being able to win games. The varsity team faces opponents with players who are older and have more experience working in the system they have. With the freshmen team having a good number, the lack of players on the varsity team makes a difference in game results as they don’t have enough players for subs and most players have to play both sides of the ball.
“I would say there’s not much difference, it’s just playing varsity is a lot different than playing freshmen games … They all work hard. They all do their jobs, it’s just different competition levels,” said Schmidt.
Being an athlete is putting in the work and learning new things daily to prepare for being a great athlete in the future, taking it all one day at a time. A big thing is practicing how to be a leader and being there when needed.
Freshman quarterback Cole Kirtly has been a big leader on the team, even stepping up and playing well in a varsity game. He has been playing football for eight years and has put in a lot of hard work to get to where he is now. His favorite thing about this season was going 7-1 and proving that they can compete well against anyone. His biggest improvement has been showing great leadership and pushing his teammates in positive ways.
A good thing that he will take with him through future seasons is to always put in work, even when nobody is watching.
“Always show effort and put the work in when nobody is watching because in the end, if you want to be a great athlete you have to do the work for yourself and not just when the coach tells you,” said Kirtly.
Working with the higher staff has also helped Kirtly show great accomplishments. He is appreciative of the support that has been shown to him throughout the season and in his biggest moments.
“It has been good they are all amazing and helpful, mostly when I was playing varsity quarterback everyone was supportive and always gave me confirmation and helped me out,” said Kirtly.
He holds high hopes for the future of Newton football to keep putting in hard work and be dedicated to starting a winning series.
“I hope that we can start a culture of hard work and dedication to the game playing with passion and winning as a team,” said Kirtly.
Freshman cornerback and wide receiver Landyn Rains has played football for three years and has shown great gameplay this season. He said his favorite moment this season was winning with his teammates.
“Getting wins as a team because we never really won that much and being able to win and actually feel successful with the people that I’ve been playing with for a long time,” said Rains.
As well as coaches, players go through more challenges than just what is given to them at practice. A big challenge for them was starting fast and playing through the full game, rather than starting slower than in previous years.
Rains has made great improvements and is proud of making the changes to be more coachable.
“I think I’ve improved a lot on being more coachable and being able to take constructive criticism,” said Rains.
Moving up and working with higher-level staff has been a major factor in the success of the team, making the players stronger, better, and winners.
“I feel like I am learning a lot more and I am just actually getting better instead of staying the same,” said Rains.
His hopes for the future seasons of football going into working with even higher-level players and tougher competition is to turn the football reputation around, start to win, and show success for the varsity team.
