Spring Football Creating Competition; Kickers Perfecting Their Game

After day after day of spring football featuring lots of emotion, Wildcats Football Coach Greg Owens same things dragged a little bit Wednesday (May 9), the eighth day of spring workouts. Coach Owens speculated that higher temperature may have been a contributing factor. He said his coaching staff is doing a good job of creating competition this spring with situational stuff like blitzing or third and long setups. Coach Owens said they still got a lot of good stuff done Wednesday but without the emotion of prior practices. He said the Tuesday break for 7 on 7 games was good since it allowed the Wildcats to compete with someone else. He said Gilmer got after the Wildcats varsity in their first game Tuesday but he said he liked the way the Wildcats played better in a second game. Coach Owens said a real positive thing about spring football is extra time the coaching staff has to work with players on technique. With lots of reps for all players, Coach Owens said the Wildcats are able to get all on the players on video so they can be evaluated. He said coaches can tell a player exactly what he needs to work on. Spring football culminates with a spring game, right now tentatively set for Friday, May 18.

While most Wildcats’ football team members go about spring workouts, two Wildcats’ kickers continue to perfect their field goal and extra point kicks. Wildcats Head Soccer Coach and Head Freshman Football Coach Nicky Wiggins knows both kickers very well. They are members of his soccer team and each played one season kicking for the freshman team. Ozial Lopez is a right footed kicker who will be a junior this fall. Hector Hidalgo is left footed and he’ll be a sophomore when school begins in August. Coach Wiggins said both kickers are pretty consistent. He said they don’t have a strong leg like Wildcats kickers have had in the past but he said from around the 30-yard line both were like money in the bank. Coach Wiggins said Lopez was especially good at pooch kicking on kickoffs that Coach Owens loves so much. Coach Owens personally works with the kickoff teams. Coach Wiggins said both kickers caused turnovers with their kickoffs for the freshman team. Coach Wiggins said both players are friends and he added they encourage each other. He expects a good competition. Coach Wiggins said he has not talked with Coach Owens about it yet but he said Coach Owens may find a role on the team for both kickers. Coach Wiggins said Lovejoy utilized both a right footed kicker and left footed kicker on their team we saw in the bi-district playoff game last year.

Author: Staff Reporter

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