COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers hosted the Anna Rockets on Wednesday in a 7-on-7 scrimmage and showed significant improvement due to hard work and determination.
The two teams competed at Anna on Monday and the Buccs had several rough moments due to the physicality and intensity displayed by Anna and the fact that the coaches from both team was not able to do any coaching.
The Buccaneers reviewed the film from Monday and made adjustments on Wednesday, which was extremely impressive considering there was a limited amount of time to address the mistakes.
Plus, just like Monday, both team’s coaching staffs didn’t do any coaching on Wednesday, which put the players in position to make decisions, call plays on both sides of the ball and execute.
Overall, the Buccaneers did a great job in decision making and increasing the effort and intensity, which was much better than on Monday.
“We had five varsity guys who were not able to be here today, but these kids played well,” said Covington coach Austin Morgan. “They did a great job of owning the energy.“
Several Buccaneers made huge plays and gave relentless effort. Sophomore quarterback Landin Cassel made many great throws, even though a few were dropped by wide open receivers. Still, some big catches were made by Parker Hoying, Day’Lynn Garrett, Jordan Miller, Jonathan Miller, Garrett Leistner and Sam Helman.
“Landin made some great throws,” said Morgan. “He’s so strong right now and can launch that ball. Sometimes he puts too much heat on it, which it makes it hard to catch, but he is growing very well.”
Defensively, the Buccaneers showed significant improvement as well, which was ignited by the leadership provided by upcoming senior Garrett Leistner, who established the tone of enthusiasm and relentless effort. Several huge plays were made defensively as Parker Hoying picked off two passes and Day’Lynn Garrett intercepted another pass by jumping a route in the end zone. James Kuether and Diego Lopez performed very well too.
“Parker Hoying had a huge day,” said Morgan. “He’s more vocal and showing leadership. He has been a huge help for us. (James) Kuether and Diego (Lopez), those two guys work very, very hard and they are improving as well.”
Yes, the Buccaneers did make some mistakes, but not as many as they made on Monday. The execution was much better and the most important improvement the Buccaneers made was due to the relentless effort given from start to finish.
“We are so far ahead than we were last year,” praised Morgan of the players. “These kids are putting the time in and improving drastically. I’m excited about what is ahead of us.”
A huge amount of credit also goes out from Covington to the Anna Rockets for giving the Buccaneers very stiff competition on ever play in the two scrimmages. Competing against a team the caliber of Anna helps a young Buccaneer team improve in their development.
The Buccaneers have nearly a month to prepare for their next 7-on-7 scrimmage, which will take place at Northmont on July 13th.
