The Marauder football season has come to an end with a record of 0-10. With the end of the season, it´s time to reflect on how they performed this year. This also gives the coaches the time to reflect on how both they and their team did.
Before the season started, Coach Lidy had two goals for his team. The first goal the team had was to improve each week. He stated, “We stay healthy, but we try to put the best team on the field every Friday and improve on that.”
A second goal that was set by Coach Lidy was to win every home game Mount Vernon had. “…those goals will not be happening. But right now we are just concentrating on getting better each week,” he said.
While each player has the skills to be a leader on the team, Coach Lidy believes that the team lacks a strong collective lead. The varsity team mainly consists of sophomores and juniors. With the lack of a senior taking a leadership position, Lidy is pushing every member of his team to be in a position to be a leader. “So we are continuing to push guys, whether older or young, in a position of leadership.”
Coach Lidy is looking forward to the current 8th graders coming to join the football team. Their team has only lost one game so far in their season.
“Currently, the 8th is having a great year. So we are looking forward to some great numbers and success,” he said.
With new players coming, that means the experienced players will be able to help them when it comes to unknown skills or extra help. Different players have different techniques to how they help a struggling player.
Caleb Ashley, a senior in Mt. Vernon said, “I usually talk with them and ask them to tell me what they don’t understand about it, and then usually I try my best to explain it better to them.”
This is also what another senior, Jacob Hankely, does when helping the young players on the team. “I am patient with them, and I try to explain it to them as best as possible. I also try to be encouraging if they are making mistakes.”
Hankley believes that since the majority of the team is young that the best way they can improve is to work harder and to grow as players for next year.
According to sophomore Knox Kala, many varsity players will be returning next year. “I feel that we will do better next year since we will have a lot of our varsity players returning and new players coming in.”
Before the players even touch the field, they must prepare themselves mentally and physically. Everyone has their own ways to get into the headspace for a game. Kala and Hankley both take advantage of the times they have to work out in practice, while Ashley prepares for games with faith.
“I prepare mentally by praying, really. My faith means a lot to me, so God gives me the strength to play as hard as I can,¨ Ashley said.
Even if a player is prepared, they will always suffer a rough patch, and a rough patch for the Mount Vernon Marauders was the game against the New Palestine Dragons. The ending score for that game was 0-73. It was a rough game not only for the players but for the viewers who supported these players. While the score hurt, players were able to find ways to accept the loss.
Kala said, “I felt upset, obviously, but I wasn’t as upset as some of my other teammates. Sometimes people are just better, and there isn’t anything you can do; that’s New Pals’ motto.”
Hankely’s response to the New Pal game was, “I recognized my mistakes by watching film and moved on to the next game since we don’t need to worry about them in the sectional.”
Even with a record of 010, Lidy still kept the team motivated. The first thing Lidy does to motivate a team after a loss is to put everything into perspective.
“We’re 4A, our sectional schedule so far has been really, really tough…again, we’re trying to keep promoting that at the end of the year, we want to be playing our best.”
The season of 2025 was rocky for the Marauder Football team. However, next season players will take the mistakes this year and strive to be better and stronger.