After many summer practices and new players joining the team, the varsity football team looks forward to a new season with new goals as they look ahead to eight games and two scrimmages.
New Head Coach Brandon Batory is looking forward to a great season as he loves football and is eager to work with the players. His favorite part about the KO football team is the size. While KO’s football team is somewhat smaller than other schools, Coach Batory thinks that it creates a nice bond between all the kids on the team. “The really cool thing is you see all walks of football skill,” he said. “We have division one football players on our team, and we have kids that have never played the game, nor do they know the rules. So we have such a wide breadth of that as well and everything in between, so it’s really cool to see that develop over time.”
Senior wide receiver, cornerback, and running back Co-captain Chase Fountain agrees, and his favorite part is the good relationships he has with everyone on the team, despite their skill level or grade.
Senior wide receiver and cornerback Ben Stengel’s favorite part of the KO football team is the new sense of unity this year. “I am looking forward to proving how hard the team has been working over the off-season,” he said.
Coach Batory thinks that unity plays a huge role when it comes to a team sport. “Together as a team, we want to make sure we stick together, that we play for each other, and that we love and care about each other,” Coach Batory said. “One thing that I also want to see throughout the season, win or lose, is that we stick together and play for each other.” Fountain agrees and hopes that the team can stay together even when things get hard.
“One thing that I also want to see throughout the season, win, or lose, is that we stick together and play for each other,” Coach Batory said. Fountain agrees and hopes that the team can stay together even when things get hard.
One challenge for the football team this year is the new offensive system that they are putting in place. “We want to play in a specific way, so that takes time to adjust to,” Coach Batory said. However, Coach Batory believes that the team will rise to the challenge.
On Saturday, Sept. 10, the football team scrimmaged Kent and Salisbury Schools, both Class A Teams. “This was quite the challenge for us, but we rose to the occasion,” Coach Batory said. “I was so proud of their efforts.”
“I think the team had some uncertainty about how we would do against tough competition going into the scrimmage,” Coach Batory said. “Leaving the scrimmage, I saw a lot of smiles. I think we showed ourselves that we have the potential to do great things this season.”
He said that he hopes the team keeps their priorities in mind: playing with love in their hearts, staying hungry, focusing on the details that matter (alignments and assignments), and continuing with sustained energy and focus in practice. “By focusing on the process and our standards, the results will take care of themselves.”
On Saturday, Sept. 18, the football team had another scrimmage and played against Proctor Academy, a team that KO has played in the past but won’t be playing in the regular season this year. They were quite the talented team, with three Division one Football players on their roster. KO remained competitive but ultimately lost 6-0.
Coach Batory highlighted some key players, including senior tight end and defensive end Co-captain Jacob Amburn, unblockable as a defensive end. “He had multiple TFLs (tackle for loss) as well as drew three holding penalties against the offense,” Coach Batory said. He also brought up junior wide receiver and safety Rhandyn Bair, who had several big catches on offense, one of which occurred while being tackled by a defender and another long catch and run with great blocking by Fountain.
Coach Batory thought that despite the poor outcome, it was a good scrimmage overall. “Things didn’t go as smoothly offensively, so there was a bit of struggle and adversity that the team has to go through before real games,” Coach Batory said. “We still need to continue to work on our responses to adversity, and stay in our performance zone.”
On Saturday, Sept. 24, the football team played St. Lukes under the lights. With a big turnout for the fan section, the wyverns were set up to succeed. However, it came really close at the end and the wyverns sadly lost 24-21, however they played well.
Coach Batory loves coaching the football team and is so glad to be able to continue to make an impact on KO. “KO has been home to me for as long as I can remember, so just being able to coach kids and being able to be a positive influence in their life is so important to me,” he said. “ I want to help them improve in any way on and off the field, and I just want to be that positive role model for those kids and make them better. And if I can make them just 1% better, you know, I’ll sleep well at night.”
