(Photo by Adam Routon)
North Lamar coaches and players talk during a timeout against Canton.
By: GREG HIGGINS
eParisExtra.com
To say the North Lamar coaching staff is disappointed with the way their team performed Friday night might be an understatement. As a matter of fact, coming into the game the coaches thought the team was well prepared. That’s probably the most puzzling aspect for the North Lamar coaches. This was the same team, that one week earlier, had knocked off Bonham pretty handedly and, prior to that, barely lost to Commerce.
“They never got into the game nor fired up for the opportunity to play a game,” Coach Felty said in an interview with eParisExtra. “We’ve worked on refocusing.”
Felty and the coaching staff have used this week to work on mental toughness with the players during practices. “We’ve made it a more mental workout,” he explains. “We’ll go through a drill then we’ll run awhile, and we’ll go through a drill then run a while.” Coach Felty and his staff have been emphasizing the importance of being ready to play and becoming more physical as well.
Of course, the coaches aren’t the only ones that were disappointed about Friday night. “The Seniors realize they didn’t play well,” Felty says. “They know it’s their last go round, so we had a good workout [Monday] afternoon and [Tuesday] morning.”
The great thing about football, though, is that you don’t have a lot of time to worry about the last game, because you’ve got another game to get prepared for. This week’s foe, New Boston, poses a different type of threat than Canton did. Canton’s offense was based around their quarterback, Chandler Eiland, and his brother, Connor. “[New Boston] runs almost the same type of offense we do. We’re almost carbon copies,” Felty says.
Felty knows that in order to beat New Boston, they have to clean up every area of the game. “We’ve got to tackle well,” he says. “We can’t give up big plays. They’re known for big plays. We’ve got to keep the ball in front of us and mainly we’ve got to tackle well and play hard for four quarters.”
Of course it’s easy to say what needs to be done to win the ball game. Hopefully, the Panthers can put those words into action and bring home another win in front of the home crowd. Kickoff is set for 7:30 on Friday night at R.L. Maddox stadium.
Greg Higgins - Sports Editor Greg has lived in the Paris area for most of his life and is a huge sports fan. He loves talking about sports and writing about it. Greg has been a part of eparisextra since the beginning of 2012. He is also very active in his church. When he's not writing about or watching sports, you can find him working out or hanging out with his wife.
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