Led by head coaches Brady Bechtel and Chad Johnston assisted by Lucas Wilson, in the first ever year of the team, the John Adams unified flag football team earned a sectional championship and a regional qualification. Keeping in mind that this was the first year of this new program, The Tower reporters took it upon themselves to talk to the players and staff about what it was like to be a part of this newly developed sports installment in its earliest year. In the words of Dylan Lawwill (Dlaw), “With a new group of faces and a first-year coach, it took a while to find out how we wanted to run our team. At the start we just needed to find out the best fits for each position and who can run our plays the best. Our offense continued to get better throughout the season but our defense took a way longer time, but with players like Sam [Pryor] and Cornell [Crawford], by the time playoffs rolled around we had things figured out”
The group had a rough start to the season going 0-3 but, after claiming their first regular season win on Sept. 28, unified’s senior night, it was full speed ahead. According to Gus Reinke, “It definitely didn’t start off how we would have liked. We lost our first three games by a lot and so we didn’t have much confidence going into the final game of the regular season. We really started clicking against Central Noble I would say. Once we got that first win on senior night, it felt great and we were really ready for sectionals.” After the victory over Tippecanoe Valley, it was time to take care of business and get that hardware.
Patrick Mndalila (Pat) commented on what it was like to have an opportunity like sectionals this early in the program: “We felt like we had a very special and important opportunity to showcase how good we are. To be completely honest, we didn’t expect to win because of how inexperienced we were compared to all these other teams…” Another thing Pat mentioned was how much of an impact Lucas Wilson had on the team’s progress and success throughout the season. “Lucas Wilson was our offensive coordinator and he really stepped up with drawing up plays for us while getting everyone on the team involved, a lot of credit goes to him.” While on the topic, there was an undoubted, collective appreciation for Lucas’ wide repertoire of unique plays. Wilson’s drawing board was a huge help when the Eagles found themselves in a pickle by coming up with plays that confused the opposing teams.
Along with the importance of Lucas as offensive coordinator, on the coaching side of things, it is obvious that Bechtel was the right fit for head coach as was Johnston for assistant coach. Since having experience as a head coach and assistant coach duo for the boys basketball team, Bechtel and Johnston knew how to work with each other. In fact, it was even said at one point that the pair was “a big reason why we made it as far as we did.”
In the days leading up to each of their four regular season contests, the team had practices on Mondays and Wednesdays. Through conversations with players and staff, said practices can be described as progressive; progressive in the way that although things started off rocky, as the team got comfortable with each other and got into a groove, things leveled out and became smoother. While talking to him about the ebbs and flows of practices, Reinke touched on how after getting over the rough patch , the whole crew had only one thing on their mind… state.
Cornell Crawford spoke on the difference in competition between East Chicago Central (ECC) and Valparaiso, the two teams the Eagles would have to play, and beat in order to gain the the sectional championship title, “East Chicago was definitely easier than Valpo, but the Valpo match was challenging but did become easier once we found our groove.” When asked about the sectional contests, Dlaw definitely had something to say about it, “The main difference in the two teams was the pace they played at, East Chicago Central had little enthusiasm, was slow, and looked like they didn’t know what to do on the field. On the other hand, Valpo had depth, was exciting, had experience, and was very fast.” Dlaw talked about how after the Eagles match versus East Chicago, after adjusting to their pace and their game, the way Valpo came out was quite a surprise. Adams defeated ECC in the semi finals 44-28 and then went on to beat four time reigning champion Valparaiso 51-43 in the finals. The future of unified flag football at Adams is bright. As many of this year’s players alluded to, on multiple occasions, a return to the field next season, everyone is at the edge of their seat to see if the team can make that state run in year two. Ari out.
