Football

Sweat dripping down their faces, the summer heat beat down on the backs of the red, black and white clad players. 

Only a week after the end of the 2021-22 school year, 84 faces, both new and old, gathered for the 2022-23 football preseason, ready for a grueling three months. 

“The preseason gives us a chance to bring the new kids into the program, allow them to meet people and then make sure that we’re in shape and ready to go,” said Kevin Veltri, head coach of the football program.

Currently, Veltri looks forward to seeing how players new to varsity step up to their new responsibilities.

 “We’re asking them to take on quite a big role,” Veltri said.

Compared to last year, Veltri notices differences in the team, especially with the change in quarterbacks from John Perdue (‘22) to current junior Stephen Gill.

“It’s a different team than last year offensively. With John Perdue as the quarterback, we were a little bit more run, heavy type stuff, ball control, clock control. Now with Stephen coming in and then a new crop of receivers as well, we’re a little bit more uptempo, throwing the ball around the yard.”

And this change hasn’t stopped the football team. Following their back-to-back victories against Houston Christian and Fort Bend Christian, the football team claimed their wins with a score of 48-14 and 34-28 respectively. 

“It’s a great locker room this year,” Veltri said.

To Veltri, more than all, one of the team’s main goals coming out of the preseason was learning from their first couple of games of the season. 

“The only thing that matters to us is how we execute and whether we learn from those couple games,” Veltri said. “As long as we’re playing in the [SPC] game in November, that’s all that really matters.”