they have a real clear picture of what we are trying to do .”
One new aspect is more of an offensive focus on spreading out , along with new skills , such as reading coverages , and throwing the football more . It will be a learning process for a young team that lost quite a few to graduation last year but in its place ? Good energy and excitement .
“ There will be some kids that maybe , a couple years from now , would have had to be playing on Thursday nights that get to play on Friday nights ,” Marmion said . “ There are pluses and minuses to that . We know for the longterm that the program is great , but it presents some challenges with some inexperienced kids who are going to get a baptism by fire on Fridays . It is exciting and challenging at the same time .“
When trying to fill out the starters to replace the nine graduating seniors , Coach Marmion looks at experience and athletic ability at similar positions . Getting the best athletes on the field sometimes includes making more switches to positions .
“ A veteran may give you a better opportunity to be successful , but you also have to look and see how to get our best 11 on the field ,” the head coach said . “ One of the realities about being a school our size is that generally a lot of kids go both ways . So you have to look at if he is playing on this side of the ball offensively , playing this position , we really can ’ t take him off the field .
“ What would that look like for us on defense ? Is there someone else that we are going to start on that side or are how we going to rotate our kids ?”
It ’ s a delicate balance , especially when you factor in rest periods and physical tolls . And it starts with conditioning in the summer .
“ So they come into August in shape and ready to go ,” Marmion said . “ You also
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We know for the longterm that the program is great , but it presents some challenges with some inexperienced kids who are going to get a baptism by fire on Fridays . It is exciting and challenging at the same time . have to look at having some kids that are better on one side of the ball compared to the other , so I can afford to rest them on defense and put a different guy in that I can ’ t afford to take out on offense . So those are some of the decisions that you look at .”
After missing most of the second half of last season due to injury , quarterback Evan Chrane returns to lead the offense . “ He has a great football mind , he understands the game , he ’ s a smart kid , and someone who is not going to be outworked ,” Marmion said . “ We were asking him to do some different things compared to last year , so there is a learning curve with that , but he is working hard with it .”
Between summer workouts , vacations , camps and minor injuries , Marmion said it ’ s been a work in progress to get all four of his starting receivers out on the field at the same time ,
“ We have actually been able to give some of the younger kids some reps that they might not have gotten otherwise , but we look at it like , Evan is a three sport athlete for us , and he is a dualthreat for us at quarterback ,” Marmion said . “ We expect that he will make as See EAGLES , Page 66
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