Strength training, conditioning and concept comprehension, these are some of the priorities that Parkwood High School head football coach, Tim Speakman said will allow for the Rebels to be a more competitive team for the 2019 season.

“We’ve worked very hard in the off season with our strength program,” Speakman said. “We’ve worked hard to increase our football knowledge and our IQ. I think our kids have really bought into what we’re doing here and we all look forward to being a lot more competitive than we’ve been in the past.” Another aspect that will make the team more competitive, Speakman said, is the large group of experienced and talented seniors in important leadership positions.

According to Speakman, the ability to come out on top this year will come from the team’s ability to play at a high level through the end of the fourth quarter. “For the past two years,” Speakman said, “we have not been able to maintain the same intensity for four quarters. We would be in the games for two and three quarters and then in the fourth quarter we were falling off. A lot of it had to do with our strength and conditioning and getting to the point where we needed to be.”

One of the most outstanding improvements, Speakman said, is the team’s ability to process and understand defensive concepts. “The increased understanding of the concepts of our coverages,” Speakman said, “has given them the ability to change things defensively. This means that if we make a defensive call and they come out with something different than we expected, the players are able to have the confidence to change the defense in order to give us a better chance at success.”

The first game of the season for Parkwood will be played at home against North Lincoln on Friday, August 23 at 7 p.m.