By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
The Lakeview Gators football team is growing – in the head count as well as expanding its football skill set under third-year head coach Lawrence Seawood Jr.
Lakeview, which plays Pickering at 4 Friday to kick off the second annual Battle on the Bricks NRMC Jamboree at Turpin Stadium, hosted a three-way scrimmage last Thursday against Green Oaks and Glenbrook.
There were 34 Gators dressed out, the most in quite a few seasons at Lakeview, located just outside of Campti a couple of miles west of Black Lake.
Seawood, in his 15th season at Lakeview, said his team is developing and diversifying. The process begins with a very simple objective – great effort, which Seawood saw in the scrimmage.
“Everybody was playing hard,” he said. “That’s where it all starts.”
The effort showed up on defense.
“We haven’t gotten to the point where I see 11 hats going to the ball yet, but I’m starting to see eight and seven,” he said. “Once our guys hear what I’m preaching and we get the full defense flying to the ball, good things will happen.”
Lakeview has for years used a run-heavy offense, but this season the Gators will be going up top, by popular demand, said Seawood.
“We’re not just ground and pound at Lakeview any longer. These kids like to throw it around and they’ve said, coach, let us air it out.’ This is a game. It’s not easy, it takes a lot of hard work, but you want them to have fun and so we’re doing some of what they want to do — but under my jurisdiction.”
The scrimmage competition didn’t showcase a vast array of formations, although the Gators have added a collection of trick plays, again, by request of the players. Seawood said for his young team, easy does it.
“I’ve seen coaches who try to implement the Alabama offensive and defensive schemes with kids who are trying to learn how to play football. So a lot of times I break it down to the very basics and don’t make it complicated,” he said.
“I tell them, ‘just take care of your business and we’re gonna be alright.’ We’re just trying to make it easier for them to learn.”