During a packed game on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, Park’s boys football team battled a tough game with an interesting second half. The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but the last half was postponed due to dangerous weather. The second half was played Saturday, Sept. 30, with Park eventually losing 17-7 versus Bloomington Jefferson. Overall the team agreed that the weather delay somewhat helped the team rather than harm them.
Varsity coach Alex Polk said that although the delay didn’t help with actual gameplay, it did act as a reset for the team.
“We started early yesterday, we had a short halftime and we weren’t able to get it going anyway. There’s the delay, I think it honestly helped us because we weren’t doing as well as we needed to on day one,” said Polk. “We were able to kind of reset, which could have benefited us, but I don’t think it really impacted anything in terms of the actual gameplay.”
Watching film and reflecting on the previous night helped the team realise what they could’ve done better, said junior AJ Foster.
“I think it helped us, since that’s kind of icing the opposing team,” Foster said. “We have time to look at their film, and look at what we could have done better from the two quarters that we played the other night.”
According to junior Devontay Hamilton, the whole team fought hard and that it was a battle between the two teams.
“I’m proud of everybody,” said Hamilton. “We came in and we were strong, mainly towards the end, but we all came and it was a battle, a good battle. We all fought really good and hard.”
Polk also said that nobody gave up which made it a good game, even though it wasn’t the most ideal outcome.
“They kept on going, it was a quick game because of how much running there was, but nobody really gave up which is good,” said Polk. “We kept on tackling and kept on grinding on offense, but just didn’t work out.”
Hamilton said the entire team deserves acknowledgement because every member of the team pushed themselves and fought hard.
“The whole team, the coaches, everybody, we had a good, hard fought game, everybody deserves a shoutout,” Hamilton said. “Even the other team coming over and giving us a good game, everybody deserves one.”
Polk said sophomore Josh Rickord had a nice game and showed good leadership.
“I think I’m gonna double back to Josh’s mentality. I think that was great leadership,” Polk said. “He lowered his shoulder a couple times, he scrambled really well. That kind of aggressiveness and tenacity on the offensive side was great.”
Park football is getting ready to play their next game against the Tartan Titans at 7:00 p.m. Oct. 7 at Tartan High School.
