For local sports fans, August is one of the action-packed months. Minor league baseball is coming into the most important part of the season and on Monday, all eight local high school football teams stepped back onto their respective fields. The excitement and the fresh hope was felt throughout each first practice yesterday, especially for a certain defending state champion.
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Auburn Maroons captain Nick Lepak, center, participates in a squatting drill during practice at East Middle School Monday afternoon.
Auburn Maroons captain Nick Lepak, center, participates in a squatting drill during practice at East Middle School Monday afternoon.
“It feels awesome to be back out here,” Auburn football coach Dave Moskov said.
On the fields behind Holland Stadium, the Maroons started their first practice since winning the New York State Class AA title in November. While there was no shortage of enthusiasm among the nearly 90 players hoping to earn a starting spot on the JV or varsity team, the handful of starting players returning to the team know there is work to be done.
“Last year is over with,” said Nick Lepak, a first team all-state lineman and co-captain . “We're excited to be back out here and to do what we have to do, but we have to work just as hard as we always have.”
The Maroons know that without graduated players such as captains Quendel Ellison, Darnell Murphy and Ryan Hutchings, as well as Brandon Tape, and BJ Simmons, that the climb might be a little steeper, though not impossible.
“This is a different year,” co-captain and first team all-state safety Matt Hoey said. “Not to take anything away from players like Quendel and Darnell and those guys, because they were great players for us. But we're going to have to work harder this year.”
“The most important thing is that they believe in each other,” Moskov said. “As kids come and go, you can't replace a Quendel, you can't replace a Darnell, but what we can do is learn from what they've taught us, and that's how to be a team and how to believe in each other. The new crew comes in and it's very exciting for them. They can say, 'Hey, let's go. We have new guys here and new faces, let's do the same thing we did last year and rally around each other'.”
Like any other team attitude, the energy is infectious behind the stadium where the Maroons will begin defending their title against Cicero-North Syracuse on Aug. 31. Even on day one, the Maroons stretched, sprinted, threw, caught and fell in a stance, all with a purpose.
“I think inherently, there's a bullseye on our chests, but I think that comes with the territory. Right or wrong, that's the way it is,” Moskov said. “When you have a bad year, those kids come back the next year saddled with the disappointment of the year before. And now, you're saddled with the success of the year before, for better or for worse. From our standpoint, we're sticking with the goals that we've always had and that's to focus on each day, each game, one at a time. Nothing has changed from last year. Focus on today, focus on each other and focus on our first game - the things we have control over and everything else, we just put into perspective. We can weather the highs and lows, but we have to get back to the basics.”
With all of the winning in sectionals and then in states, the Maroons got their offseason program started a bit later than usual, but this year, they put quality over quantity.
“We did start the weight room late, about three weeks after the championship game, but I think we doubled our efforts in the offseason,” Moskov said. “I can't remember an offseason where we've worked harder. We knew that we had to start later and we knew that we had a lot of young guys, so we doubled our efforts to kind of make up for some of that. We're working them, we went straight back at them out here. We told them that in 120 years of Auburn football, last year is history just like everything else. It's recent history, but it's still history. We're moving on with all of the basics and the fundamentals that we believe in.”
On the fields behind Holland Stadium, the Maroons started their first practice since winning the New York State Class AA title in November. While there was no shortage of enthusiasm among the nearly 90 players hoping to earn a starting spot on the JV or varsity team, the handful of starting players returning to the team know there is work to be done.
“Last year is over with,” said Nick Lepak, a first team all-state lineman and co-captain . “We're excited to be back out here and to do what we have to do, but we have to work just as hard as we always have.”
The Maroons know that without graduated players such as captains Quendel Ellison, Darnell Murphy and Ryan Hutchings, as well as Brandon Tape, and BJ Simmons, that the climb might be a little steeper, though not impossible.
“This is a different year,” co-captain and first team all-state safety Matt Hoey said. “Not to take anything away from players like Quendel and Darnell and those guys, because they were great players for us. But we're going to have to work harder this year.”
“The most important thing is that they believe in each other,” Moskov said. “As kids come and go, you can't replace a Quendel, you can't replace a Darnell, but what we can do is learn from what they've taught us, and that's how to be a team and how to believe in each other. The new crew comes in and it's very exciting for them. They can say, 'Hey, let's go. We have new guys here and new faces, let's do the same thing we did last year and rally around each other'.”
Like any other team attitude, the energy is infectious behind the stadium where the Maroons will begin defending their title against Cicero-North Syracuse on Aug. 31. Even on day one, the Maroons stretched, sprinted, threw, caught and fell in a stance, all with a purpose.
“I think inherently, there's a bullseye on our chests, but I think that comes with the territory. Right or wrong, that's the way it is,” Moskov said. “When you have a bad year, those kids come back the next year saddled with the disappointment of the year before. And now, you're saddled with the success of the year before, for better or for worse. From our standpoint, we're sticking with the goals that we've always had and that's to focus on each day, each game, one at a time. Nothing has changed from last year. Focus on today, focus on each other and focus on our first game - the things we have control over and everything else, we just put into perspective. We can weather the highs and lows, but we have to get back to the basics.”
With all of the winning in sectionals and then in states, the Maroons got their offseason program started a bit later than usual, but this year, they put quality over quantity.
“We did start the weight room late, about three weeks after the championship game, but I think we doubled our efforts in the offseason,” Moskov said. “I can't remember an offseason where we've worked harder. We knew that we had to start later and we knew that we had a lot of young guys, so we doubled our efforts to kind of make up for some of that. We're working them, we went straight back at them out here. We told them that in 120 years of Auburn football, last year is history just like everything else. It's recent history, but it's still history. We're moving on with all of the basics and the fundamentals that we believe in.”
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