The Lake Highlands football team finished 1-2 during March’s 7-on-7 competition, with their only win coming against North Garland on the final week. But to Coach Scott Smith, winning was not the most important part of these workouts. “We want to become a better team, we want to work better together,” he said.
Working well together for the team was difficult, especially in the first few games. For the first time players who were on the freshman or junior varsity last year were playing with the varsity. Adding to the difficulty? “We had to teach the young guys the playbook and at the same time figure out who was capable of potentially playing varsity,” said quarterback Ricky Zorn.
After the jump, more on what happened:
In the opening loss to J.J. Pearce, the Wildcats didn’t play especially well. Against Jesuit, Lake Highlands displayed its offensive abilities. Both teams scored every time they had the ball, and the game was decided when Jesuit was able to hold off the Cats on their final possession.
Smith said Jesuit and Pearce will have a chance to challenge for the district title next year. He noted that it is much more common for those two schools to incorporate seven-on-seven type drills in their regular practices, something that the Cats rarely do and which hurt them in the three games.
The finale against North Garland showed how much Lake Highlands had improved. The team started working better together and their timing improved. The defense, which had not played well, improved significantly. “We simply got better every week,” said Zorn.
