'13 Team Preview: Fayetteville Rockets
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The football program in Fayetteville isn't even 10 years old, but they have raised expectations this season with a senior class that will be entering their fourth season and a head coach getting his first shot at running a program.
The '13 season for the Fayetteville Rockets should be interesting for the fact there is a lot going on with change and milestones.
The change is last season's defensive coordinator Nathan Geers being promoted to the head coach. The milestone? That would be this year's senior class is the first senior class to play in all four grades at Fayetteville.
They are starting to build a football program.
"I feel blessed to take over such a unique opportunity, a new program," Geers said, as this will be his third year coaching in some variation at Fayetteville. "I can kind of put our footprint on it and make it what we want. There aren’t too many programs out there that are as new as we are. It's a great opportunity for myself, my coaching staff and all my players."
Geers is a graduate of Wilmington College, where he played football. He went to high school in Piketon.
What Geers is excited for is seeing the program evolve from where it began, as they have a record number of seniors and players on the roster.
"It's an exciting time. Everything's growing in an upward direction, which, as a program, that's all you want to see, to continue to take steps forward," he said. "With us having 10 seniors and 33 total guys out here, it shows that our football program's building, going in the right direction, and we're excited about it.
"We understand that we want to be that first team to chalk up a winning season for this program. We think we can go out there and accomplish that and then some, because these kids have put in the time, and they've put in the work."
Though the Rockets (2-8 last season) have experience on the football field, they are still a relatively young team. In '12, FHS scored 114 points and allowed 309. Their two wins came against St. Bernard-Elmwood Place (20-14) and Manchester (48-0).
Geers is happy, though, to have that experience and to be able to build from that.
"We're going to build with the run game. We've got a nice-size line, spent a lot of time in the weight room, and we finally feel that we're up to the physical standards of most of the other teams around us," he said. "We're going to try to pound the football.
"We've got a returning quarterback who started all 10 games last year. He's sound with the football, and we've got some skilled guys that can go out and get it and catch it. I feel like we're a pretty complete team, but our bread and butter's going to be pounding the rock."
The quarterback he spoke of is sophomore Cole Schaefer.
"He's been through the fire, he's made his mistakes and seen how to correct them," Geers said. "When Friday night comes, the game always speeds up a little bit, so to have a guy who's seen that game speed and seen what Friday night speed's about, it's important.
"You can't duplicate that in a practice, and to have a guy that's played 10 games, we're pretty lucky to have him back."
With the running game being a focal point of the Rockets' offense, there are players who will be looked at to lead the way.
The backs who had time last season are Andrew Dowers, Cody Shaw, Jacob Laney and James Snyder.
"Andrew (Dowers) … he's put in the work. It's his senior year, and he's put a lot of time in the weight room," Geers said. "He's a shifty guy with great speed and great vision, and I expect big things out of him.
"Then we've got kind of a bigger bruiser in Jacob (Laney). He's kind of a fullback type. He's short and stout and pretty strong, so he's going to plug up in there. We've got a pretty nice combo of some speed and some power back there."
A running back is only as good as his offensive line, and for that, the leader of the line and of the team is two-year captain Nate Allen.
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"Nate is a phenomenal leader, has a terrific work ethic and he's a terrific football player," Geers said. "He's got power, he's got size and he's got great feet, so he's going to make life good for our running backs, running behind him.
"Logan Wilson is another guy that's spent a lot of time in the weight room. He's got the size and the speed and the footwork to be a phenomenal lineman, and he's a junior. He's started 20 games already, so we've got some experience on the line, and we'll be breaking in some new tackles, but they [have] great help in the two guards around them."
At wide receiver, the player to watch is Trevor Koch, a player who has 30 starts on his resume.
"He'll be a four-year starter, which is a plus," Geers said. "Trevor is a tall guy who can go up and catch the football. He has great hands and runs good clean routes. He'll definitely be one of our go-to guys when it comes to the passing game."
On defense, the Rockets use a 3-4 formation, and as Geers said, "We like to send a lot of heat."
"We try to come from all different directions, so we try to make big plays by bringing pressure from all over," Geers said. "That's what I ran in college, and I kind of took it here, and the kids have bought in and adapted my style. We like to send a lot of pressure. It's paid off in the past, and we expect it to be good again."
With any defense looking to put pressure on their opponent, they need linebackers who can take charge. The linebackers for the Rockets include: Cody Shaw, Jacob Laney, Ethan Wolfer and Tanner Burchett.
"I like the 3-4 defense because you can send a lot of pressure from a lot of different areas," Geers said. "You're not just kind of locked into a gap. It makes it a lot easier to stun and to send heat from all angles, and you're also balanced. It's a lot easier for your backers to adjust.
"We've got a great linebacking core. Cody is one of our inside linebackers, and he's started for three straight years. That's kind of a common theme, which is a good thing. Cody makes big plays for us, lots of tackles and is just a good hard-nosed football player."
Geers continued to talk about his linebackers.
"Jacob is an outside linebacker, and Ethan is a smart football player. He does a terrific job, understands the game real well, always sets up our defense correctly.
"Tanner has started 20 games already. He plays on the inside, and he's got a lot of experience there and is not afraid to come up and hit, either. Our linebackers are definitely the core of our team."
The summer for the Rockets has been one of hard work, and Geers said he likes the attitude of his team.
"The kids have bought into our system and our new coaching staff, and they believe in each other," he said. "They believe in the coaches, and they set high expectations for themselves.
"The coaches set high expectations of them also, and they want to meet those. They know that we can meet those expectations, so this is the best weight room we've ever had. We averaged 28 guys to summer workouts, and we've only got 32 on the team. That speaks to our kids and how dedicated they are and how dedicated they want to be to this season."
Again, Geers is ready for the season to begin.
"We're excited as a team and the coaching staff," he said. "Our kids are going to go out there, and they're not going to back down from anybody, and we'll go out there and we'll play as hard as we can for the entire game. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with what's going on with Fayetteville football."
The '13 season for the Fayetteville Rockets should be interesting for the fact there is a lot going on with change and milestones.
The change is last season's defensive coordinator Nathan Geers being promoted to the head coach. The milestone? That would be this year's senior class is the first senior class to play in all four grades at Fayetteville.
They are starting to build a football program.
"I feel blessed to take over such a unique opportunity, a new program," Geers said, as this will be his third year coaching in some variation at Fayetteville. "I can kind of put our footprint on it and make it what we want. There aren’t too many programs out there that are as new as we are. It's a great opportunity for myself, my coaching staff and all my players."
Geers is a graduate of Wilmington College, where he played football. He went to high school in Piketon.
What Geers is excited for is seeing the program evolve from where it began, as they have a record number of seniors and players on the roster.
"It's an exciting time. Everything's growing in an upward direction, which, as a program, that's all you want to see, to continue to take steps forward," he said. "With us having 10 seniors and 33 total guys out here, it shows that our football program's building, going in the right direction, and we're excited about it.
"We understand that we want to be that first team to chalk up a winning season for this program. We think we can go out there and accomplish that and then some, because these kids have put in the time, and they've put in the work."
Though the Rockets (2-8 last season) have experience on the football field, they are still a relatively young team. In '12, FHS scored 114 points and allowed 309. Their two wins came against St. Bernard-Elmwood Place (20-14) and Manchester (48-0).
Geers is happy, though, to have that experience and to be able to build from that.
"We're going to build with the run game. We've got a nice-size line, spent a lot of time in the weight room, and we finally feel that we're up to the physical standards of most of the other teams around us," he said. "We're going to try to pound the football.
"We've got a returning quarterback who started all 10 games last year. He's sound with the football, and we've got some skilled guys that can go out and get it and catch it. I feel like we're a pretty complete team, but our bread and butter's going to be pounding the rock."
The quarterback he spoke of is sophomore Cole Schaefer.
"He's been through the fire, he's made his mistakes and seen how to correct them," Geers said. "When Friday night comes, the game always speeds up a little bit, so to have a guy who's seen that game speed and seen what Friday night speed's about, it's important.
"You can't duplicate that in a practice, and to have a guy that's played 10 games, we're pretty lucky to have him back."
With the running game being a focal point of the Rockets' offense, there are players who will be looked at to lead the way.
The backs who had time last season are Andrew Dowers, Cody Shaw, Jacob Laney and James Snyder.
"Andrew (Dowers) … he's put in the work. It's his senior year, and he's put a lot of time in the weight room," Geers said. "He's a shifty guy with great speed and great vision, and I expect big things out of him.
"Then we've got kind of a bigger bruiser in Jacob (Laney). He's kind of a fullback type. He's short and stout and pretty strong, so he's going to plug up in there. We've got a pretty nice combo of some speed and some power back there."
A running back is only as good as his offensive line, and for that, the leader of the line and of the team is two-year captain Nate Allen.
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"Nate is a phenomenal leader, has a terrific work ethic and he's a terrific football player," Geers said. "He's got power, he's got size and he's got great feet, so he's going to make life good for our running backs, running behind him.
"Logan Wilson is another guy that's spent a lot of time in the weight room. He's got the size and the speed and the footwork to be a phenomenal lineman, and he's a junior. He's started 20 games already, so we've got some experience on the line, and we'll be breaking in some new tackles, but they [have] great help in the two guards around them."
At wide receiver, the player to watch is Trevor Koch, a player who has 30 starts on his resume.
"He'll be a four-year starter, which is a plus," Geers said. "Trevor is a tall guy who can go up and catch the football. He has great hands and runs good clean routes. He'll definitely be one of our go-to guys when it comes to the passing game."
On defense, the Rockets use a 3-4 formation, and as Geers said, "We like to send a lot of heat."
"We try to come from all different directions, so we try to make big plays by bringing pressure from all over," Geers said. "That's what I ran in college, and I kind of took it here, and the kids have bought in and adapted my style. We like to send a lot of pressure. It's paid off in the past, and we expect it to be good again."
With any defense looking to put pressure on their opponent, they need linebackers who can take charge. The linebackers for the Rockets include: Cody Shaw, Jacob Laney, Ethan Wolfer and Tanner Burchett.
"I like the 3-4 defense because you can send a lot of pressure from a lot of different areas," Geers said. "You're not just kind of locked into a gap. It makes it a lot easier to stun and to send heat from all angles, and you're also balanced. It's a lot easier for your backers to adjust.
"We've got a great linebacking core. Cody is one of our inside linebackers, and he's started for three straight years. That's kind of a common theme, which is a good thing. Cody makes big plays for us, lots of tackles and is just a good hard-nosed football player."
Geers continued to talk about his linebackers.
"Jacob is an outside linebacker, and Ethan is a smart football player. He does a terrific job, understands the game real well, always sets up our defense correctly.
"Tanner has started 20 games already. He plays on the inside, and he's got a lot of experience there and is not afraid to come up and hit, either. Our linebackers are definitely the core of our team."
The summer for the Rockets has been one of hard work, and Geers said he likes the attitude of his team.
"The kids have bought into our system and our new coaching staff, and they believe in each other," he said. "They believe in the coaches, and they set high expectations for themselves.
"The coaches set high expectations of them also, and they want to meet those. They know that we can meet those expectations, so this is the best weight room we've ever had. We averaged 28 guys to summer workouts, and we've only got 32 on the team. That speaks to our kids and how dedicated they are and how dedicated they want to be to this season."
Again, Geers is ready for the season to begin.
"We're excited as a team and the coaching staff," he said. "Our kids are going to go out there, and they're not going to back down from anybody, and we'll go out there and we'll play as hard as we can for the entire game. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with what's going on with Fayetteville football."