Freeman Coach An Able Guide
There are plenty of pitfalls a first-year coach has to navigate.
Some relate to losing too much; others come with overconfidence from winning.
Jeff Smith is trying to split the difference.
Freeman has struggled this year, but the Scotties upset Northeast A favorite Kettle Falls 8-0 on Friday.
“A win like this is a big confidence-builder for the program,” the first-year coach said. “I think the kids believe in what they’re doing. If they combine their desire and their effort with what we’re trying to do … they see they can be successful.”
Sounds right for a 2-4 1A team whose first win was 6-0 against a B-11 team.
The key is perspective.
“The approach we’re taking is we don’t want to make it the highlight of our season,” he said. “I think we need to play at that level every week and we haven’t been. We’ve had those kind of expectations all along. We don’t want to make it out as some kind of fluke.”
Freeman has played good defense all year. Offensively, it has been a struggle. The Scotties have scored two touchdowns in a game just twice.
Kettle Falls, behind standout running back Jon Payne, was a tough assignment.
“They’re the real deal. They’re a good team,” Smith said. “We were disciplined. We had a great desire to compete. We hung in there and got our one touchdown across and played defense. That’s the thing we’ve hung our hat on this year, we’re going to come out and play good defense… . We gained quite a bit more (confidence) in our offense, particularly our passing game.”
Now the Scotties can build.
“We’ve talked a lot about X’s and O’s don’t make big plays, players make big plays,” Smith said. “That was the thing on Friday. Players made critical plays that we haven’t been getting. We had a good week of practice. The kids came out and played hard for four quarters. We really haven’t put together an entire game.”
Just the facts
Lind and Sprague-Harrington made the pages of the Seattle Times because Lind left the field Friday before the end of their 8-man football game with the Falcons winning 45-6.
The reason?
“Our concern was not running up the score, which is what the Seattle Times said,” Lind athletic director and principal Neal Kimball said. “We had been 45-pointed before that. What I was concerned about was the kids’ welfare.”
Lind had 12 players dressed for the game. Not all would play.
With the Lind quarterback taking a pounding behind a freshman-sophomore line, the Bulldogs decided to end the game late in the third quarter.
Kimball said he didn’t follow what he has learned is proper procedure for Lind’s actions.
“If we embarrassed (Falcons coach) Randy Behrens, we’re sorry,” Kimball said. “We didn’t intend to do that. We felt if we were going to err, we were going to err on the side of the kids. There are no hard feelings. We wanted to go and play, provide them with a homecoming game.”
Behrens was a little bit surprised but sympathetic.
“Apparently we didn’t substitute to the extent we said we would,” he said. “I honestly, sincerely felt we were adhering to the agreement. At the same time, we have to understand. They’ve had a very difficult season. Their numbers are down. They knew it was our homecoming. They didn’t want to short-change us by forfeiting. They need to be given credit for that. They did show up.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: PREP FOOTBALL Big games A playoff berth is on the line in the Greater Spokane League, maybe even a home game, when Shadle Park (5-1) visits No. 10 University (5-0) on Friday. If Shadle wins, there could be a three-way tie for first with the Highlanders, Titans and Mead. The Highlanders would be in the playoffs for sure. U-Hi wins and it opens the playoffs at home. Last week, there were five 2-2 teams in the GSL. Now there is one at 3-2 and five at 2-3, a game out of a potential playoff, and four meet head-to-head. The other huge game is for the Great Northern lead. Medical Lake (4-0, 4-2) is at No. 2 Pullman (3-0, 6-0) Friday at 7.