WICHITA, Kan.—
The Trinity football team improved to 3-3 with a win over Douglass this Friday, breaking a three game losing skid in just their fourth season of 11-man football.“Determined, hard-working, focused,” is what sophomore quarterback Matt Jones says about his football team.
For many on the Trinity team, it has been a problem to play as a team. For Coach Jared McDaniel, serving his first season as head football coach, it has been a problem of depth and filling in holes.
“They play hard, we don’t have a lot of depth in a lot of places,” said McDaniel. “But they go out there and they do what we ask them to do, I couldn’t ask any more of them than that.”
Trinity’s younger players have been forced to step up this year due to a number of injuries of the junior and senior players.
“We saw guys going in for [Layne] Dobler when he was hurt, and for [Alex] Ast when he was hurt,” said senior Jordan Sutton. “And we saw guys filling in at linebacker and defensive end, and it’s just this attitude of: I will do what I can to serve my team and not myself.”
The Knights are confident in their team’s ability to go far even due to these hardships in the early going.
“I think this team believes a lot more than last year, we believe that we can go far, and we don’t need size to go far,” said JJ Poulos, senior.
Trinity is led by a various number of leaders, whether it’s the way they play on the field or vocal leadership.
“Two people came to mind, Tyler Burns and Layne Dobler. Tyler leads with his play and his determination to win and never give up on a play. Layne is a vocal guy and before the game he gets us going as well as on the field when things are going wrong,” said Jones.
With a young team comes a lot of growing time and maturing as a team. The Knights know that they are capable of completing their ultimate task of getting past districts; this would be the first time in Trinity Academy history.
“The biggest thing we tell them is to go out and compete, it’s another opportunity to go out and compete and just try and go out there and make yourself better,” said McDaniel.
Trinity is optimistic that they have a bright future in the football program, and will soon be adding the addition of a football stadium expected to open in the 2013-14 season.
