#CFCHSFB PREVIEW (ONT – Ottawa): Simplicity key in CFC#46 Knights season opener against Coyotes

CFC#46 St. Peter’s Knights want to keep it simple, get the fundamentals down and their system in place when they play the St. Francis Xavier Coyotes at home on Friday in National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association (NCSSAA) action.

This will be the first of three match-ups between the Knights and the Coyotes this year, one more in the regular season and once more in the playoffs. Head Coach Jim Mick knows this and that’s shaping his game plan for the week.

“We’re going to continue down our path and not think, okay we have to do this to win this game, we want to set our program to develop and we’re not going to veer off the course just for one game, no use showing them a bunch of stuff yet,” said Mick.

The Knights will be sticking to their base run package on offence along with some complimentary passing and they’ll save the more complex packages and plays for later in the season.

A big reason why the Knights are keeping it simple this week against the Coyotes is they want to make sure the younger and new players to the team have the base schemes down.

“The veteran guys get it, they’ve been through it with me before,” said Mick.  “They know we need to get the base down, because if we can’t get the base down we need to know why. There’s a lot of teaching to be done.”

It’s the same story on the defensive side of the ball. The Knights are going to run a four man front and four sets of defence. Included in these sets will be two players from the Knights junior team who Mick wants to get more game experience, one at safety and one at defensive end. The defensive end has only been playing football for a week so this will be great chance for him to learn in game.

“Our philosophy is that he’s such a good athlete that he needs some game experience to learn and to get him some experience in our game will pay even bigger dividends than the junior games,” remarked Mick.

When it comes to their big men the Knights will be using more than just their starting lineman. They aren’t in a position to have guys playing the whole game and the back-ups will need to provide some relief while getting quality game experience at the same time, according to Mick.

In terms of a game plan designed for the Coyotes, Mick knows they have a strong quarterback and slowing him down will be important to the Knights success.

“I know they have a quarterback I coached him in the All-Star game last year, he definitely can throw, and definitely has confidence,” outlined Mick.  “He kind of does what he wants, but if he gets hit a couple times thing can change.”

“Hopefully we can get some pressure on him.”

As far as the rest of the Coyotes are concerned, Mick knows they have some athletes. The Coyotes haven’t played at the senior level in a few years and they have been rebuilding and are now back at the senior level with some quality players.

The Knights and Mick know they have a long season ahead of them and all will not be won or lost in the first game. The game plan is to stay simple, get some younger players game experience all while working on the fundamentals that will help them improve as the season progresses.

 

 

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