Despite getting outplayed badly against league rival Drumheller Composite High School Titans on Saturday at Normie Kwong Park, the Olds High School Spartans managed a couple of touchdowns with less than two minutes remaining in the game to build on their next contest.
The Spartans were defeated 52-19 in Big Sky Football Conference play.
The Titans came out and managed 17 points in the first quarter before Olds got on the board in the second when the Titans were unable to take a Spartan kick out of the end zone, leading to a single point for the home squad. However, the Spartans didn't have much offence and often ran out of downs, leading to the home side kicking the ball away while still deep on the Spartan side of midfield, giving the visitors good field position with which to mount an attack.
“You don't win games when you come out tentative, but this is a learning game. This is not all about the wins and losses, it's about the process of getting better. And throughout this game, we did see a lot of improvement from opening kickoff through to the final whistle,” said George Grant, the Spartans' head coach.
Grant said regardless of the score, he was happy to see that the players came on stronger as the game went on. Grant gave a lot of credit to fellow coaches for helping turn the tide in the second half, which allowed the Spartans to put a few more points on the board and give the players a little better mindset heading into practices in the coming week.
“We did do a number of things in the second half that were much better than the first,” he said, noting that he saw a lot more confidence from the players in the latter stages of the game.
While the Spartans have 39 players on the roster this year, the largest group the coaching staff has seen in a decade, it's a young team that needs to find its confidence, Grant said.
“They've got to trust themselves first before they trust the system, and once we get to that stage, life is much better,” he said.
Grant said the challenge for the players moving forward is for each one to key on what they have to do on the field on every play. If all the players focus on that, the Spartans should be more successful.
The team's next game is an exhibition contest against the George McDougall High School Mustangs from Airdrie on Thursday at Normie Kwong Park.
