Football team drops four straight losses to start the season
Despite the secondary defense’s efforts to stop the Parkview Patriots from scoring, the Wildcats lost the season opener 26-48 at War Memorial Stadium.
Coming into the 2022 season, people had high hopes for the football team. The varsity team is returning eleven starters, including a senior quarterback, running back, and experienced wide receiver core. However, the football squad is off to an 0-4 start with losses to Parkview, Bixby, Mustang, and Bentonville.
“It’s gone pretty much as bad as it can get,” senior safety Britt Wittschen said. “We didn’t expect to start 0-4. Even with our tough schedule, we thought we’d do better than we are now.”
Some players, such as sophomore receiver Hayden Wood, attribute much of the struggles to a multitude of minor mistakes.
“We just haven’t been doing the little things right,” Wood said. “We’ve been missing a lot of tackles and forgetting many of the plays.”
Senior tight end Luke Adams agrees with Wood. He doesn’t think any major changes need to be made, the team has just had some minor lapses mentally and physically.
“We’ve been getting way too many penalties, haven’t been playing as a team, and just aren’t doing the little things right,” Adams said. “They’re some pretty easy things to fix, but these little mistakes have just been piling up.”
However, there are some positive things to take away from the first few games, despite the final score. Adams has noticed improvement in some important aspects offensively and defensively.
“Our defense started off not tackling very well and our offense didn’t execute plays as well as we could’ve,” Adams said. “But, in our most recent game, we didn’t miss as many tackles and carried out long drives.”
The football team plays Rogers Heritage this Friday, their first home game since Bixby on September 2nd.. Many of the players, such as Adams and Wood, are hopeful this game will turn the season around. Overall, Wittschen believes the team has shown continuous growth over the four game span and can only go up from here.
“Although it may not look like it, we’re getting better in areas on the field like tackling and play execution,” Wittschen said. “If we continue to do that, the wins will start coming.”