Indians Gain Valuable Experience On The Field And Under The Lights
Oskaloosa Senior Casey Hill will be a threat on both sides of the ball for the Indians in 2018.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – For the Oskaloosa Indians, the practices may have seemed long and tedious, but the work they have put in during the offseason and in practice had a chance to shine under the lights.
For third-year head coach Jake Jenkins, he’s starting off the season with two successful seasons behind him.
“It’s early,” said Jenkins to the media after the scrimmage. ‘It’s kind of what we expected. We expect our guys to play hard. We expect there to be a lot of questions, and we expected there to be the ‘deer in the headlights’ look because there’s a lot of young guys out playing for the first time on a varsity field.”
“There’s a million little things to fix,” added Jenkins.
The first scrimmage taxed the conditioning of the athletes, while also taking a lot of reps on the field. “You’ve got some guys going both ways,” said Jenkins. “It’s kind of fun to see what they could handle. Try to piece together the puzzle, and see what it looks like.”
“It was good to see them under the lights and see it on film. We’ll really watch film and we’ll see what really happened,” explained Jenkins.
The Indians will travel to Pella Christian on Friday night, with a kickoff set for 7 pm versus the regular 7:30 kickoff time.
The Pella Christian Eagles are always a powerhouse on the field and have nearly the same number of athletes on the field as the Indians.
“On paper, they’re very similar to us,” said Jenkins of the number of athletes on the roster. “It’s going to be a really good game. I think it’s going to be a good test for both teams, especially for the first game of the year.”
As far as surprises from this team, Jenkins spoke about the leaders that are stepping forward. “This group right now, they’re trying to find their identity, and there’s a lot of quiet, lead by example leaders, which I kind of like. Instead of speaking with your words, speak with your actions. So a lot of seniors, they just want to play… They don’t want to talk. They don’t want to say how good we’re going to be or how somebody might beat us. They just want to go out and play football; they just love it. I like how they are just quiet, focused, and they go out, and they love the game of football. I like that from this group of seniors.”
Some of those seniors already know where and what they will play next year in college ball. Others are trying to make that final impression on college recruiters.
When asked if Jenkins saw the push from seniors to get the attention of college recruiters. “We always say our seniors flip the switch, cause you know, it’s their last go around, so they really see what’s in the tank. A lot of those guys have played at the varsity level, and they know how to do that, but yes, you do see that from some of those guys that are trying to go on to the next level, and they are saying how high can I go. What does that look like? What does that feel like? So yes, I have seen that, especially the guys that are specializing in football, and even other sports too.”
Jenkins said that athletes like Cole Henry have now relaxed after accepting offers to play ball at the college level. “He loves the game of football. He’s ready for the season, and I’m excited to see what he does as well.”
