Princeton Times

Sports

Discussion

August 3, 2012

Tigers, Panthers ready to tackle season

By MATT CHRISTIAN Princeton Times

PRINCETON — A tumultuous beginning to the fall practice has not had an effect on the enthusiasm of first year Princeton Tigers football coach Randy Peek.

Named the interim head coach three days before the Tigers took the field at Hunnicutt Stadium, Peek is enjoying his “dream job.”

As his players circled the field to warm up for their second practice of the day, Peek said, “I'm a graduate from here. I bleed blue and white.”

Peek added that the Tigers were making progress just three days into the third day of his tenure. He said that the Tigers wouldn't be in for a large transition because some of the seniors and juniors had played for him at Princeton Middle School.

“We'll definitely be relying on the running game,” Peek said, “[runningbacks] Tahj Sho-Johnson, Brett Carroll, Aaron Saunders, and Devin Allen are going to be keys for us this year.”  

Peek was hesitant to put a number on the amount of wins he expected this year. He said that the Tigers' goals were to be competitive in every game and get better from week-to-week.

“Our schedule is very tough and we've got a lot of young kids out here,” Peek said, “Plus, you have to have luck on your side and you never know how that's going to turn out for you.”

Having pulled together a staff of coaches within three days of getting the job, luck appeared to be on the coach's side.

“I've got a great staff here,” Peek added, “I got the job and made eight or nine phone calls and everyone I called accepted.”

Then, Peek turned his attention making sure that the team wasn't shortcutting a warm-up run before practice.  

•••

Meanwhile in Gardner, first year coach Bobby Wyatt lead his PikeView Panthers through their first work out on Monday.

“Right now, it's just about focusing on the fundamentals,” Wyatt said after his team had finished its afternoon workout, “We're going back to the basics of football. A lot of times right now, we're focusing on making sure the guy's stepping correctly.”

Wyatt's biggest goal going into the season is to instill confidence in his players. He said that he was not looking to this season as wins and losses, but looking to it in terms of character development and improvement on the field.

“We had a meeting with the parents about this at the beginning of the summer,” Wyatt said, “The goal of football is to teach these kids to be responsible young adults.”

Having never based a season in his long career at Pocahontas (Va.) and Tazewell (Va.) High Schools on the record, Wyatt reminded that any wins the team had would serve as a confidence booster but the main goal was to improve and get better from day-to-day, week-to-week, and game-to-game.

He's also committed to the players that have already shown up at the school in Gardner.

“I don't want to let [the number of kids playing] to get too big,” Wyatt said, “Wednesday is the very last day that someone can come and join the team this year.”

“That's been a problem for this school in the past. People wait and wait to come out and they never do.”

But, his team's not at a full compliment yet. A couple of his players are unavailable due to another summer camp commitment.

“That's okay,” Wyatt added, “I know where they are and they'll be here next week.”

Text Only
Sports