When Northlake Christian concluded spring practice on May 2nd, after back-to-back playoff appearances, spirits were high.
“We're all excited to be back here and play football,” senior quarterback Luke LeBlanc said. “This year, I feel like we have more players stepping up into leadership roles. Last year we had a lot of younger players, but now we have a lot more guys stepping up.”
One of the returning leaders is junior Kameron Casnabe. Last season, District 7-2A's offensive MVP broke his own single-season touchdown record with 29 rushing scores while gaining 1,338 yards on 190 carries. He also had 19 two-point conversion runs.
Kasnabe would like to build on those numbers, but said he was even more impressed with the team's understanding of the offense.
“We're even more strategic than we were last year,” Kasnabe said. “It's becoming more natural because I feel like everyone knows what's expected of them. Now we just have to keep getting better. We're playing more together now. Soccer. Other than that, we're all friends, so we do everything together.”
Coach James Willis, who is in his sixth season at NCS, said his staff is treating the spring like OTAs and he likes the way his players approach spring practice.
“We're heading in the direction we need to go,” Willis said. “Our goal is to be in the top 11 on the field at a time. We like everything we're doing right now. Everyone understands what we've been doing for the past four years. “So things are becoming natural.'' I love what we're doing now. ”
Willis added that June and July will focus on technique before starting practices in August, but senior lineman Lee Dauterive has been impressed with the young players this spring. said.
“We had a lot of kids who hadn’t played much come in and show us their skills,” Dauterive said. “Right now we're building something. A lot of us have been playing since middle school, so there's chemistry. We're deepening our strategy. We're brothers here. There is love.”
Junior wide receiver Jordan Willis echoed Dauterive's comments, saying the junior class and team stepped up in the offseason.
Coach Willis hopes the emphasis on fundamentals will lead to more success this fall.
“We teach that the big will be the little,” he said. “We can expand our menu and do more because they now know the big picture: what we do and who we are. Once they understand what they're doing, they can start building different things. It's getting easier to remember what they're doing.”
