"Our kids are fired up. We've got a good group of guys, they've worked really hard. I think they've bonded well as a team and today is just a chance to compete and get a little better," said Head Coach Joe Schwander.
Forest Hills Eastern enters this season with high energy after having a 5-5 season and this year they're looking for more.
"Every year we want to improve. We're looking to do that. Last year we were 5-5 if you include the playoffs. We just want to do better than that. Every year we just want to get better," said senior running back Bryson Kuzdzal.
"We just kinda ave to rely on each other. And work on getting better even when it's the hard times and the rough teams. But we're always looking forward to learning. Always looking forward to being more physical, more aggressive. Win some championships. That's always the goal so I feel like we'll all learn as a team," said senior defensive tackle Austin Fenech.
This is Coach Schwander's 4th season with the Falcons after previously coaching at Belding. He says that his goals for the team are the same from the day he started.
"The expectation is the same every year. I don't know if it's third year or fourth year. I think you teach from the learning and the kids want to be taught so our kids are no different. They want to learn everything and compete, and we're working like crazy as coaches to help prepare them and we just have a great group of guys that are excited to play football," said Schwander.
For junior tight end Jake Heemstra, each day they work hard. Starters haven't been named yet and they know that those roles can be changed at any minute.
"We really pushed each other in practice and I'd say that so far that's carrying over. And it's helping us out a lot. We're all just pushing each other around in practice and we're competing for spots. Like we don't have set spots, we're competing so if you have a bad practice you could lose a spot," said junior tight end Jake Heemstra.
I asked senior Austin Fenech what game sticks out for him in his head the most from last season, he said it wasn't just one, but all of them that they could've improve on.
"I feel like every game really. Every game there's always so much room for improvement. And you really can't go wrong with just making one more tackle," said Fenech.
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