Next week begins another football season for the Banks County High School Leopards and that means that this week on the practice field, coach Blair Armstrong is going to push the team through final preparations.
With film from the past Friday’s scrimmage against Franklin County, the Leopards can pinpoint what areas need improvement, before they take on Social Circle in the season opener Aug. 27.
In the scrimmage game against Franklin, Banks County started off strong, controlling the game early in the first quarter to get ahead 13-0. Franklin County couldn’t get within throwing distance of the endzone until 1:44 left in the first quarter.
Franklin would score and tie it up before the quarter was finished and held the Leopard’s offense for the rest of the night.
According to Armstrong, the same problem of not finishing that nagged at the Leopards last season played a factor in the scrimmage.
“The biggest thing is in the first outing of any season, you see lots of things to improve on,” Armstrong said. “My most impressed area was how we played at the beginning of the game. We did well offensively and defensively to get up 13 to nothing, but then we did the same thing we kind of did last year in three of the games, we relaxed and didn’t finish.”
Even with seven of the Leopards playing both ways against Franklin County’s fresh players on either end, Armstrong said that he thought Banks could have performed better.
The Leopards had few penalties in the scrimmage and worked well early on, but as the players relaxed mentally, it gave the opening to Franklin to win. Franklin scored six touchdowns to Banks’ two, final score was 45-13.
Learning to finish is the primary goal for the team before starting the season. How to handle getting ahead and also how to mentally prepare for when the other side gets ahead, without giving up.
“We watched a lot of film from the scrimmage to see what we need to do to improve. The biggest thing is that they are aware of [the mental aspect]. They have to make up their mind that they are going to do what it takes,” said Armstrong.
Banks County takes on Social Circle next Friday night on the road in the 2010 season opener.
Armstrong expects a very good team that lives up to its reputation of a playoff team.
“We have to execute. When we do we look like we did at the beginning of the first quarter, now we just need that for four quarters,” Armstrong said.
