In what was labeled as a rebuilding year for Sandra Day O’Connor High School football, the Eagles will look to make a deep run in their upcoming 2018 season. With second-year head coach Steve Casey at the realm, hopes are high for his young and experienced team.

Once the season ended, Casey gave his players one week. Since then, they have been in the weight room four days a week, on the field two days a week and have been doing film study on where they need to improve.

“I’m looking forward to a much improved and dynamic team,” Casey said. “I’m really excited about where we are today compared to a year ago.”

The Eagles lost 26 seniors after this last year but knowing that as their last season was winding down, Casey wanted to make sure he got his younger players some playing time during a game. That gave them the experience and knowledge they needed when it comes time for them to fill those roles of their departing senior class.

“Our message has always been ‘next guy up’,” Casey said. “You’re one play away from being a starter if you’re a backup, and one play away from being a starter to a backup. There’s nothing like competition, so if there’s a guy behind someone pushing for their job, they’re going to do all those extra things that makes them a better player. We’re at that point now where our depth is getting better, they work together great as a team but also push each other.”

Eagles quarterback Ethan Moller also recognizes the progress that he and his team has made over the past few months and is looking forward to show everyone what he can do on the field next year as a senior leader who drives his offense down the field.

“I’m looking to prove everybody wrong,” Moller said. “We had a bad record last year at 3-7 so nobody’s expecting much from us, so I’m looking to prove them wrong.”

With all of the offseason training that’s going on, The Eagles are also raising money in their fundraisers and booster clubs this offseason to get new uniforms. They have what is called a “lift-a-thon” which consists of four different lifts (deadlifts, squats, bench and power cleans), and can get either a flat rate donated or can have a pledge for every pound a player lifts.

With the lift-a-thon already being a set event to help raise money, the program has already spent $11,000 from the account of other fundraiser in which they have been partaking. That money has been effectively spent on new five-man sleds and tackling bags to make the players better and safer tacklers.

“Player safety is the number one focus,” Casey said. “I never want to see a kid get hurt, obviously it’s a brutal game. It’s even gotten more physical and faster because of kids’ training regimes that has made them bigger, faster and stronger. We talk to the kids all the time about safety issues and we have a great training staff here. We also do a pretest concussion protocol so if a kid gets leveled he’ll have to take that test before he’s allowed to step back on the field.”

The Eagles just finished hiring their new coaching staff as well, bringing in a whole new junior varsity staff and hiring new coaches to coach at the freshman level. They have also brought up their head JV coach last year to coach the varsity defensive line and have brought in a new defensive back coach.

“The most important team in our program is the coaching,” Casey said. “We have got to be on the same page so our kids know what’s going on.”

On top of fundraising for new equipment and gear, Casey has also put together a side group of parents who he sits down with every Tuesday morning to have coffee at 5 a.m. and talk about things that they need to do to help the program. Whether that be finding ways to raise money for a new locker room, weight room or anything else that might be helpful.

“We are called the ‘Bald Eagles’,” Casey said. “It’s a bunch of dads and when I took over the program, the number one thing I wanted to do was try and get the open line of communication with parents and be transparent to help facilitate facilities and things we need to be more successful.”

It is easy to say that good things are upon the Eagles on and off the field and the players, coaches and parents are looking forward to great next season. Middle linebacker Tanner Sharp expects great things from his team next year as he has watched the progress him and his teammates have made.

“Expect to see a lot of hard hitting, guys flying around, a lot of discipline and at the same time, guys having fun.” Sharp said.