Shane Wilson
Finally.
The Emporia State football team finally won another game. The Hornets had been on a seven game losing streak this season – their lone win came on Aug. 27 against Southwestern Oklahoma State. Alas, the team finally fired out of the gates and captured their second win of the season against Truman last Saturday.
Honestly, the Hornets’ dismal play on the field led me to believe that they weren’t going to win another game this season – but hey, I’m glad they proved me wrong. Maybe the taste of losing was too much for one game.
Losing is a staple of competition, even if it doesn’t belong to the glamour portion of competing. If there is a winner in an event, there most certainly has to be a loser. Unfortunately for the football team, the latter has been more prevalent as of late.
It’s easy for the fans and general public to point out the things that are going wrong for the Hornets – mediocre quarterback play along with untimely injuries and illness have plagued the team since the start. Youth definitely plays a factor in the sometimes poor decision-making abilities of the team as a whole. It’s easy to say, there aren’t many bright spots on this team.
What is not so easy is to pinpoint those problems and conceive feasible solutions to fix them. If the play calling is bad, then why not promote a new staff member to be the offensive coordinator? If recruiting is an issue, why not come up with different strategies that play to the possible future recruit’s interest? Perhaps a new strength and conditioning regimen is in order to help thwart possible injuries from occurring.
A variety of possibilities are available to aid this team – yet the Homecoming game is already upon us, which signals the near-end of the season for the Hornets.
The Griffons of Missouri Western will enter the city of Emporia on Saturday with a record of 7-2, 5-2 in the MIAA – the Hornets will have to play a perfect, and I mean p-e-r-f-e-c-t, game in order to come away with a victory. Missouri Western is currently seated nicely at third in the MIAA, right behind Central Missouri at #2 and Northwest Missouri at #1.
If you’re Emporia State, how do you approach a game like this? What is it going to take to turn this group of student-athletes into champions?
I don’t have the answer. But somebody does. Someone within the football organization must have a plausible way to bring honor back to Welch Stadium.
Unfortunately, I don’t think a sloppy overtime win against Truman is going to be enough of a motivator to enable this team to play tough, assignment correct football – but hey, hopefully they prove me wrong.
Shane Wilson/The Bulletin
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