Not only the film room with a white board and Xs and Os, but also the huge one with padded seats and popcorn buckets.

Sterling has found inspiration from Hollywood. For instance, Coach Gary Gaines in the movie “Friday Night Lights.”

“He told the team there is no growth spurt between now and the start of the season,” Sterling said. “And we have to tell our guys that. We told them that throughout the offseason when they’re working in the weight room: this is their growth spurt.”

Compared to the other Class A North teams, Edward Little is little. So the Red Eddies’ offense isn’t able to line up and shove it down an opposing defense’s throat. And the defense can’t just build a wall of girth and dare teams to try to fit in between the small holes. It needs to take initiative.

“Something that Rick and I talked about when he came in was that we need to take the fight to the offense when we’re playing in a game,” Sterling said. “Because when we’re passive, we’re not as big as the opponent, and you can’t win a stalemate on defense. If they’ve stalemated you, their running back’s probably running by you.”

“Rick” is new defensive coordinator Rick Kramer, who has brought an attacking approach that utilizes the Red Eddies’ quickness.

“We’re pretty aggressive this year,” senior middle linebacker Noah Yarnevich said. “We’re running a whole new defense, changing everything up. We’re working on pushing teams to the outside and chasing them down.”

Senior Kobe Stange is a defensive tackle, but he also starts on the offensive line, and from that perspective he sees a defense that can wreak havoc.

“It’s an attacking defense, so we’re going to be going hard and fast,” Stange said. “It’s going to be something that as a lineman, (linemen) can’t handle, because we’re putting more men in the box than the linemen can block. So blitzes and all the line stunts, it’s just a lot to handle.”

Edward Little’s offense spreads it out to create space for its fast skill players, and new starting quarterback Grant Hartley has a quiver full of those at his disposal. Especially in the pass game.

“We’re going to throw the ball,” Hartley said. “A lot.”

During the Red Eddies’ Maroon and White game at the end of the first week of practice, Hartley connected with C.J. Jipson and Josh Hamel the most, but there is also Tyler Blanchard, and Hartley said Maxx Bell has been his favorite target since middle school.

“We have so many (threats) at our skill positions,” Hartley said. “We just reload if we need to get new guys in there, really. I’m trying to throw the ball to everyone, not just one person. It makes it harder for a defense to cover.”

In football, there will be collisions. Smaller, faster players inevitably will be caught, or will need to make a tackle or get past a blocker. So in order to legitimately compete against size, speed needs to be backed up by strength. Sterling said the Red Eddies continue to work on that, drawing inspiration from the blockbuster “Iron Man.”

“We have a program called the Iron Man challenge,” Sterling said. “And the theory we use for Iron Man, it’s like the movie, when Iron Man’s sitting in the cave, he’s not waiting for someone to come save him. Same thing in sports: nobody’s going to come save you. You’ve got to build yourself up to go fight your own battles.

“And a lot of those guys have taken to that. They realize that all the tools are in our cave, which is our weight room, and now’s their chance to build themselves up.”

The Red Eddies hope they are in better condition for the battles in Class A North. In 2015, injuries forced many less-experienced players into action, but they performed well enough that Edward Little hosted a playoff game.

Sterling said that due to his lack of a crystal ball he doesn’t want to speculate on how the region will shake out this season. He did say that the Red Eddies are “hopeful.”

“You can have a group athletes come together in any season and make really good things happen,” Sterling said. “I’ve been on teams like that, I’ve seen it happen with other schools, and we’ve got the opportunity to do that because we’ve got, like I talked about, kids that have played together and kids that know each other extremely well.”

lhorton@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link