Although the season hasn’t been what they originally envisioned it to be, the varsity football team’s goal is to not put their heads down and instead, continue fighting at each game. They want to create a culture at La Salle that emphasizes how if you work hard you can accomplish your goals. 

“I just want to leave a legacy on the team here at La Salle, kind of help have a part in building a culture that will be successful,” junior Grant Ellison said.

In hopes of one day reaching their goal of winning a state championship, the football team has made a new motto to follow this year: “pound the rock.” 

The meaning behind the statement is “to keep going no matter what,” Ellison said. “You hit the rock with a chisel and you can hit the rock like 50 times and not see any results, but eventually you’re gonna give an especially hard hit and the whole thing will split. And it’s not necessarily that hit that did it, it was all the hits before it that kind of started to crack it internally. So we hit the rock every time we’re doing anything.” 

In order to get the work in early, the football team checks in at 3:15 p.m. to either train in the weight room, or attend a study hall for school work. By 4:00 p.m. the team has a meeting where they watch film of other teams or themselves to prepare for upcoming games or talk about what happened in the recent game they played.

Then they get onto the field where the team warms up, rotating between offense and defense work before individually working with their position groups. The team always ends together as a whole to finish off their day at practice. 

Something that many may not know about the football team is that they have a wheel full of punishments that players must spin if they show up late to their pre-practice meeting. 

“I like it because it kind of keeps people in line,” Ellison said.

The football team has also put work into bringing a new type of team chemistry on and off the field. “We built a good bond with each other, which translates to on the field with us working hard for each other,” senior Jack Koppy said. “We didn’t really have very much [team chemistry] previously.”

Other seniors on the team share this sentiment, believing that the team environment is especially strong this season in comparison to other years they’ve played. “This year we probably have the best team chemistry,” senior Milan Skoro said.

Game days often feel like the “calm before the storm,” says Ellison. While having to put their bodies on the line every single time the ball is snapped, the team manages to stay calm until they enter the field at the beginning of the game when their adrenaline rush sets in and gets them hyped up for the game to come. 

“It’s really important that we get in our right mindset so we can play to the best of our abilities,” Koppy said.

The football team has many traditions that happen during the game. The newest one, starting last year, is that the seniors sign the pole of the American flag which the team enters the field with. Another is the hanging of all the previous linemen’s cleats in the locker room. However, the longest-lasting team tradition has been listening to the song “Mo Bamba” after they have a win, as it has been a tradition since the song was released in 2018.

With a welcoming community and environment from the beginning, the La Salle football team has made a large impact on many of its players. 

“Going to the games during middle school and seeing the good environment here and the fun atmosphere on game day, it’s just electrifying and fun and I just really wanted to be a part of it,” Koppy said.

The team’s goal of reaching the playoffs still stands, with only needing to win one more game. The team’s next game will be on October 21, against Woodburn, also being the team’s senior night.