Wolves ready for 2018 season

By Staff, 08/16/18 1:10 PM

PRESCOTT – Winning teams have one thing in common – a culture of success.

Winning teams, year in and year out, expect to win. They expect to win on the first day of practice. They expect to win each time they take the field and they expect to be in the playoffs each and every season as well.

This culture is alive and well in Prescott. The Curley Wolves have a culture of success. Sure, there have been some down years, but, historically, the Wolves are always in the hunt from the first game throughout the playoffs. “We have a good culture here,” said Head Coach Tommy Poole, “it’s second to none. We’re where people try to get to. As far as culture, I like where we’re at now. We show up and expect to win. The community expects us to win. The players understand this and do it.”

Since Aug. 1, the Wolves have been on the practice field, pounding on one another and working to get the timing down on their offensive and defensive plays. Monday night the team hit the road to Ashdown to scrimmage against the Panthers. Poole said the team made it through the scrimmage healthy and that’s a good sign. In fact, there have been no health, or injury, problems since practice began.

The team, he said, made some mistakes in the scrimmage, but nothing that can’t be corrected in practice. On the other hand, he added, the team did some good things, too. Poole said this squad hasn’t needed to be coached effort as each player gives everything they’ve got from the start to the end of practice. In addition, he said, this team already has a good chemistry, a “family atmosphere”, adding there are no superstars and the team treats one another as equals. “I feel we’re ahead of the game. I feel good about this year. We’ll only worry about what we can control,  take it a week at a time and see where it goes. This is a good group to be around.”

According to Poole, each player knows their job and what their role is with no questions asked. He tells the team the toughest opponent they’ll face each and every week during the season is the Curley Wolves. “We’re our toughest competition and need to focus on getting better every week. We control how we execute and need to be better versions of ourselves each week.”

Poole said he was glad to see what the team worked on in practice put into action during the scrimmage and how it was executed. This year’s sophomores, he continued, don’t play like sophomores, but more like juniors or seniors. This gives the team a leg up on the competition as it could mean fewer mistakes during games.

This year’s seniors, he said, were state champions as sophomores. They didn’t like not going deeper into the playoffs last year. It talking about the culture of the Wolves, he said, they expect to be playing during Thanksgiving week every season, and were disappointed last year getting knocked out in the second round. But, as Poole said, that was last year. “A lot of teams set the goal of playing during the Thanksgiving break, but if we’re not playing then it’s a disappointment to us. Our players expect it.”

The Wolves, he said, have been working hard to get in title form. The passing game looks good, but, as he added, Prescott isn’t a passing team. The Wolves will take what the defense gives and do what’s needed to win. If this means running the ball 40-50 times again, or passing 40-50 times a game, so be it. The Wolves will work to exploit weaknesses in opposing defenses and, he said, are balanced enough to do it.

As the special teams coach, Poole said the team will never be good enough. The Wolves have to replace a punter and kicker from last year’s squad and have been focused on finding the right person for the jobs since Aug. 1. However, he said, it’s hard to practice special team play during scrimmage at full speed. This is because special teams play is where it’s easiest for players to get injured.

“We’re solid now, but we’ll get better throughout the season. I’m excited about it.”

Prescott opens its season early this year, Aug. 24. The Wolves will be on the road as they head to Lafayette County for a date with the Cougars. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.