Coach Mark Mariakis
Q. How would you characterize this year’s team?
A. We return many players with experience, but we’ll still be a young team overall.
Q. What will be the keys to your success?
A. Finding depth and younger players stepping up.
Q. Who will be your key leaders on the team?
A. Ian Gains (Sr., RB/LB), Mondo Ellison (Jr., RB/LB), Seth Turney (Sr., OL/DL), Owen Cook (Jr., OL/DL), and Josiah Sneller (Sr., TE/DE).
Q. What are your biggest reasons for optimism?
A. We have experience at many positions, and our team has grown from having 45 players to having more than 60 in one year.
Q. What will keep you up at night?
A. Most of our team is still young, so depth will be on my mind.
Q. What can you build on from last year?
A. Our offense and defensive schemes will be the same as last year, so players should be more comfortable.
Q. Any lessons learned from last year?
A. We can be in games, but we have to learn how to finish strong!
Q. Will we see anything different this year?
A. Our basic schemes will be the same as last season.
Q. How would you characterize your team’s speed?
A. We’re getting faster as a team in our skill positions, but we need to improve our overall team speed.
Coach’s View
Moving into Division II this year adds strength and challenges to our schedule, but our players are still looking forward to the season. Our players understand that our preparation, commitment, and focus must be spot-on if we’re going to achieve the team goals we’ve set before us. As a program, we should always remember that no matter what the scoreboard says, we are not performing “for” value, but we should perform “with” value – the value we have through the shed blood of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ!
Photos Courtesy of CCS
Mondo Ellison
Seth Turney
Josiah Sneller
Bret Bowman
Ian Gaines
Owen Cook
Gaines Tallent
