By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Los Fresnos is coming off a successful football season.
But the Falcons are making sure they don’t forget the basics as they begin their first practices this season.
“Just focusing on the main fundamentals of football,” Los Fresnos coach Clint Finley said. “We’re trying to get them comfortable with our base schemes and make sure they’re ready to execute what we do basically. Then as we get into the season, the scheming comes into play. Right now we have to learn how to apply to basic fundamental base football, base offense, base defense.
“We’re going to focus on the fundamentals and get good at throwing, catching, tackling and blocking. That’s where it starts.”
During the Falcons’ practice session, position players worked on their craft with their individual coaches.
Tight ends and receivers worked on running crisp routes as quarterbacks tried to hit them in stride, and later on reading coverages. The offensive and defensive lines worked on blocking angles. And quarterbacks worked with running backs and a pair of linemen to work on running the ball toward the outside. Everyone was working on getting better at the basics.
“If you can’t base defense and base offense, then you can’t scheme,” Finley said. “We’ll build on that as we get better.”
Offensively, the Falcons are trying to get better at certain aspects with only a handful of starters returning.
“Just being better at the little things,” Los Fresnos offensive coordinator Craig Foster said. “Understanding what we’re doing is a key part of that … the young guys are still working on that.”
Like the rest of the team, Foster has the offense concentrating on the necessities in early practices.
“Learning the basics, learning the fundamentals,” he said. “We have to make sure we’re all on the same page, heading in the right direction. We’re going to be a different kind of team. We’re trying to work with what we’ve got in our huddles and on our team.”
In other words, play to the strengths of their personnel. They will certainly get some different looks as teams can begin practice in full pads today.
“We’ll find that a little bit more (today),” Foster said of the first practice with contact. “It’s a work in progress (determining the starters), there’s nothing set in stone as we stand at this point.”
On the defensive side, things are a little more static for the Falcons.
With only a few starters lost to graduation, Los Fresnos is concentrating on finding depth.
“We were young last year and that usually means you’re more experienced the next year, so we have some good experience coming back,” Los Fresnos defensive coordinator Mike Evans said. “We feel solid about our starters, eight guys that have started (in games last season).”
Like the offense, the defense is working on the essentials.
“Last year we were rough, the fundamentals weren’t there,” Evans said. “It kind of took us the whole year to get fundamentals in there. We’re starting the year off emphasizing that even more because it made the difference for us going three rounds last year.”
Overall, Finley has liked what he’s seen so far.
“So far, so good, great attitude and great effort,” he said. “There’s a lot of confidence and a lot of knowledge that has carried over from the previous season. We’re coming in pretty confident. But we just have to make sure we don’t get overconfident, that we continue to work hard and improve upon everything, every single day.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.