Inside the Huddle with Cullen Raftery: Huntingdon Edition

Each week senior Cullen Raftery gives his unique perspective on the Golden Eagle football team from “Inside the Huddle”

Losing to Central last week was harsh.  Many mistakes were made by every individual on the field. But what do you expect for such a young team?

Obviously not every game can be perfect or even satisfactory.  No doubt week two was embarrassing, but the team and coaches have set a goal to never experience that again.

With last Friday night far in our past, we are not looking to get payback, or even take it out on another team.  We are  simply looking to get better and develop into a more well rounded team.

Our opponent this week is presenting us with a new style of offense but a similar looking defense than last week. Although the teams may play similarly the team has taken a different outlook on preparing.

Our practices this week were crisp, fast, and productive. With a fire to fuel our enthusiasm over the next few weeks, the entire team has increasingly started to realize this isn’t the time to sit back and wait for the next game. This is “GO” time.

A major theme for this week’s practices was to sort through the old captains and find the real leaders of the team.

Leadership on any team is extremely important to any aspect of a game. Attitudes, energy, confidence, and focus are all things that leaders help enhance during practice and games.

Last week, leadership is exactly what we lacked. Poor attitudes, low energy, hardly any confidence, and a minimum amount of focus is what drove our team into the dirt and Central’s score through the roof.

As our coaches discussed with the team on Monday, captains would be reconsidered because none of the existing captains showed they deserved those positions. This drove new leaders evolve. Temporary captains were chosen for this week’s game, for the purpose of seeing who could step up during the game. This will surely give our team an edge over last week’s performance.

This being said, the preparation this week was more about our team itself, than the team we are playing.

In my opinion this week will very beneficial as we work to become the team we know we can be.