'12 Team Preview: London Red Raiders
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The London Red Raiders are set to enter the 2012 season, their final season as a member of the South Central Ohio League (one of the charter members during the re-formation in '03), and with that, they, along with their Madison County counterpart Madison-Plains, will head to the Mid-State League next fall.
As for the Red Raiders, in their final go-around in the SCOL, they are coming off a 4-6 overall season in 2011 with a league mark of 4-2, but in the span of last season, they lost 19 seniors and 18 total starters from that year.
But don't dare call this a rebuilding year to head coach Jerry Wasserman, who doesn't believe in the term "rebuilding year," as although a lot of players will play on both sides of the ball, the motto for LHS this year is "Ironman: Relentless."
"It's a challenge, but what we do is we look at this year," Wasserman said. "You can do things like say that this is a rebuilding year, and to me, 'rebuilding year' is a preseason excuse to lose. These kids don't want to lose, so our job is to put them in the best position we can so they can be successful as they can and so that we can compete."
Wasserman made it clear when talking about players lost from last season that besides the seniors lost to graduation, he wanted to change the culture at LHS when it came to his football players and the classroom.
"We lost about 19 to graduation, two to moving away to another town, and we lost way too many [players] to grades," the veteran head coach said before a practice at LHS. "We've lost a couple starters to grades, and we lost five others to grades. In our junior high, we've lost way too many. That's something we've got to fix as a community because we can't have that.
"We got too many kids becoming ineligible, so that's going to be a big focus for us at the end of the season. We've got way too many casualties from academics."
As for the players who are a part of the '12 team, Wasserman said they spent a lot of time with them in the weight room this offseason.
"Our offseason this year, we spent a lot of time with the nucleus of our kids in the weight room. We have a lot of three-sport athletes, so our basketball players didn't get in there as much as we'd like, but they've been working pretty hard since we got them during the summer," he said. "We've had a halfway decent offseason in the weight room. We should be a little bit stronger.
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"Our goal is we have to stick together, and we have to stick together in real short explosions, and we have to understand that it's our responsibility to show up, down after down. We've got a lot of guys who are going to have to play both ways, so we better be in shape."
This year, leading the LHS offense will be senior Kyle Fisher at quarterback, as he enters the year with some varsity experience at the position. Last season as a junior, Fisher had 72 rushes for 552 yards and nine touchdowns. He also had 24 receptions for 350 yards and four touchdowns. At safety on defense, he totaled 40 tackles, along with two interceptions and two fumble recoveries, earning first-team All-SCOL, All-Madison County and second team All-District honors.
"Last year, (Dylan) Follrod spent most of the time at quarterback, and Kyle unfortunately broke his hand," Wasserman said. "Kyle played at the beginning everywhere else with a cast. He was a punter, he played slot back. Kyle's a great athlete, and he can do what you ask him to do. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do once he gets familiar with running our offense."
Other players who should stand out for LHS this season will be senior tight end/defensive end Brandon Samons, who had six receptions for 107 yards and two touchdowns in '11. Defensively, he had 50 tackles (10 for loss) and five sacks, earning him second-team All-SCOL.
Damon Coffill is a senior offensive and defensive lineman who had 75 tackles (10 for loss) and two sacks, while Levi McClellan, a junior linebacker, finished with 40 tackles.
More key returning players for LHS are seniors Dustin Coffey (WR/DB), David Rowley (OL/DL), Colton Martin (OL/DL), Billy Boysel (WR/LB); juniors Zach Newman (WR/DB), Clayton Geib, (OL/DL), Seth Roberts (OL/DL/K); and sophomore Ben Martin (QB/LB).
"This is a football team that I think is starting to knit together and become pretty close, and if we can do that, we'll be more competitive than what people think," Wasserman said. "If you look on paper for what we've lost, that's what I'm saying … I don't like to talk about the losses. I like to talk about who's here and how hard they're working.
"This group of kids, if they're going to be successful, they got to stick together and we got to be tight, maybe tighter than any team that's been here in a while because we're not going to have a lot of depth."
As for the Red Raiders, in their final go-around in the SCOL, they are coming off a 4-6 overall season in 2011 with a league mark of 4-2, but in the span of last season, they lost 19 seniors and 18 total starters from that year.
But don't dare call this a rebuilding year to head coach Jerry Wasserman, who doesn't believe in the term "rebuilding year," as although a lot of players will play on both sides of the ball, the motto for LHS this year is "Ironman: Relentless."
"It's a challenge, but what we do is we look at this year," Wasserman said. "You can do things like say that this is a rebuilding year, and to me, 'rebuilding year' is a preseason excuse to lose. These kids don't want to lose, so our job is to put them in the best position we can so they can be successful as they can and so that we can compete."
Wasserman made it clear when talking about players lost from last season that besides the seniors lost to graduation, he wanted to change the culture at LHS when it came to his football players and the classroom.
"We lost about 19 to graduation, two to moving away to another town, and we lost way too many [players] to grades," the veteran head coach said before a practice at LHS. "We've lost a couple starters to grades, and we lost five others to grades. In our junior high, we've lost way too many. That's something we've got to fix as a community because we can't have that.
"We got too many kids becoming ineligible, so that's going to be a big focus for us at the end of the season. We've got way too many casualties from academics."
As for the players who are a part of the '12 team, Wasserman said they spent a lot of time with them in the weight room this offseason.
"Our offseason this year, we spent a lot of time with the nucleus of our kids in the weight room. We have a lot of three-sport athletes, so our basketball players didn't get in there as much as we'd like, but they've been working pretty hard since we got them during the summer," he said. "We've had a halfway decent offseason in the weight room. We should be a little bit stronger.
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"Our goal is we have to stick together, and we have to stick together in real short explosions, and we have to understand that it's our responsibility to show up, down after down. We've got a lot of guys who are going to have to play both ways, so we better be in shape."
This year, leading the LHS offense will be senior Kyle Fisher at quarterback, as he enters the year with some varsity experience at the position. Last season as a junior, Fisher had 72 rushes for 552 yards and nine touchdowns. He also had 24 receptions for 350 yards and four touchdowns. At safety on defense, he totaled 40 tackles, along with two interceptions and two fumble recoveries, earning first-team All-SCOL, All-Madison County and second team All-District honors.
"Last year, (Dylan) Follrod spent most of the time at quarterback, and Kyle unfortunately broke his hand," Wasserman said. "Kyle played at the beginning everywhere else with a cast. He was a punter, he played slot back. Kyle's a great athlete, and he can do what you ask him to do. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do once he gets familiar with running our offense."
Other players who should stand out for LHS this season will be senior tight end/defensive end Brandon Samons, who had six receptions for 107 yards and two touchdowns in '11. Defensively, he had 50 tackles (10 for loss) and five sacks, earning him second-team All-SCOL.
Damon Coffill is a senior offensive and defensive lineman who had 75 tackles (10 for loss) and two sacks, while Levi McClellan, a junior linebacker, finished with 40 tackles.
More key returning players for LHS are seniors Dustin Coffey (WR/DB), David Rowley (OL/DL), Colton Martin (OL/DL), Billy Boysel (WR/LB); juniors Zach Newman (WR/DB), Clayton Geib, (OL/DL), Seth Roberts (OL/DL/K); and sophomore Ben Martin (QB/LB).
"This is a football team that I think is starting to knit together and become pretty close, and if we can do that, we'll be more competitive than what people think," Wasserman said. "If you look on paper for what we've lost, that's what I'm saying … I don't like to talk about the losses. I like to talk about who's here and how hard they're working.
"This group of kids, if they're going to be successful, they got to stick together and we got to be tight, maybe tighter than any team that's been here in a while because we're not going to have a lot of depth."