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Off-Season Work Helped Beloit Memorial Football Team Start Season 3-0
Former Beloit Memorial coach Mark Anderson once said, “High school football isn’t about stars. It’s about taking average guys and making them into pretty good football players.”
Of course, it helps to have a few stars, too.
Ask the Purple Knights. They have a pretty good share of both commodities and a 3-0 record to show for it.
“Some of the guys who may not have the God-given skills that some others have really worked their butts off in the weight room in the off-season and they have elevated their game,” head coach Brad Dement said. “They’re stronger. They’re quicker. And they’re very coachable. That’s on them for buying into what we’re preaching. Obviously, having a good coaching staff is a big part of it.
“So it’s a combination of guys buying in, working their butt off and having coaches doing a great job, too. That brings that average kid up into that next level.”
Dement said it is also an even-keeled that won’t let the sudden success go to their heads. If anything, this group is pragmatic and knows it must get better.
“Our schedule only gets tougher so we have to,” Dement said. “We’re not where we can be. Once we get rolling on all cylinders we’re going to be a pretty fine team. Defensively we are playing really well, but offensively we have some new guys up front who just need more reps to get better technique-wise. If we get a little back-side cutoff or keep our feet moving and get our head across the right way we could have some real big plays open up.”
The Knights have benefited from a strong senior class seeing action on both sides of the ball, including Dontavious Olson, Aydn Potter, Tucker Sherrod, Jaedyn Coleman, Mike Nora and Owen West.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have kids who are willing to sacrifice and do the things we need to do to be successful,” Dement said. “We’ve been 1-8 and 2-7 and these kids have kept fighting. It’s fun seeing that. The past couple of years were kind of frustrating, but they never gave up.
“One of the differences between this year’s team and some of the teams of the past is that before, when one thing went bad everything started to go down. But these kids fight through it. The seniors have done a real good job policing the team and making sure they keep pushing each other through adversity. ”
That was evident Friday when Elkhorn recovered its onside kick to start the second half and the Knights compounded their problems with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. But a stout defense answered by keeping the Elks scoreless in a 16-0 win.
When things go bad or you make a mistake it’s all about how you react to that,” Dement said. “We’ve been responsive and bounced back. But we’re not taking anything for granted. We have to continue doing it.”
The Knights have a star in the backfield in junior James Ford, who seems well on his way to another 1,000-yard season with 394 yards rushing so far, a 5.6-yard average and six touchdowns. But Ford needs a partner like Toby Robinson a year ago. Vinson Reed was off to a good start, but was hurt in the first half against Elkhorn and may not be ready to play this Friday at Union Grove.
“I want (Reed) for the rest of the year so I’m going to be on the side of caution,” Dement said. “We do have some kids who were academically ineligible who’ll be ready to go this week. One is a running back and another is a linebacker. Then next week we’ll get back a kid who can play both positions. At that point we’ll be at full strength and that should really help us. They should help take the load off James.”
The Knights have had essentially seven players playing both ways or at least routinely in rotations on both sides of the ball.
“We’d like to get that number down, but we’re probably going to keep playing those guys (safeties Olson and Potter) on the back end,” Dement said. “They’re in good shape and they’re seniors and they don’t want to come off the field. If we get a big enough lead we’ll take them out of there, much to the chagrin of my defensive coordinator.”
Olson had a remarkably efficient game last week with three of Beloit’s five takeaways. He had a a pair of interceptions and a forced fumble, plus an amazing 34-yard touchdown reception from Potter.
“He really played well,” Dement said. “We had a number of guys who had good games. It really was a team effort.”
It will take another one to keep the win-streak going against Union Grove (1-2, 0-1), which is coming off a 41-6 loss to a stacked Badger team.
“Union Grove is a totally different team than Elkhorn on offense,” Dement said. “They’ll try to spread you out. They have a lot of different formations. They’ll go five-wide. They want to get some lanes in there. They want to pass the ball or run the ball with the quarterback a lot and they have two of those. One is a bit shiftier and the other a bit bigger. We’ll have to be disciplined and we want them to have to drive the ball and not hit us with anything big.”
Of course, the best defense will be Ford and Co. stringing together ball-control, clock-consuming drives.
“Ten, 12-play drives and finish them,” Dement said. “That’s what we’re hoping for. This is another team like Elkhorn that has been in the middle of the pack and if we want to be an upper echelon team we have to beat these teams.”
