Week #6

 The Vikings traveled to Pennington Field in Bedford for the 5th of 7 state qualifying tournaments in north Texas this season. As most everyone knows, Lamar is the only HS team in Texas to qualify for the state tournament every year of its existence. We talk to the team about “protecting the record” from the first day of practice. As I said in the first coach comments back in March, there was no 2020 7 on 7 season because of the pandemic. Because we missed a year, we literally had never met the players; let alone coached them. So, we knew building trust early with each other would be important. Then, unexpectedly Coach DeLay and some of his staff left LHS. So, football related activities such as spring football were put on hold. To help fill the void we scheduled extra 7 on 7 practice each week. We knew it was important for some continuity at least as a 7 on 7 team. So, all these factors meant we had extra challenges to qualify this season. We kept telling the players to stay focused on the things we COULD (effort; practice; conditioning) control and not worry about the other things like hiring a new HFC and staff; that would eventually come together. Still, we did not qualify through the first four tournaments. Down to three remaining tournaments the pressure to “perform” really started to mount. Could we stay focused and positive as a team and TRUST one another?

Last Saturday the Vikes did just that, keeping their poise and meeting the challenge, going 4-0 to qualify for the 23rd year! This showed me the guts this team has, and I think there were some real-life lessons learned about perseverance and performing under pressure. Couple qualifying with the hiring of Lamar’s own Billy Skinner as HFC and a great staff, things are really looking up!

We will still compete in the last two tournaments to get some of our younger players some varsity level competition and to stay sharp for the trip to College Station 6/24-6/26. I am very proud of these young men and their resilience. Join me in congratulation the newest members of this very exclusive club!

Coach Poynter