St. Regis teams get ready for 2014-2015 season

ST. REGIS – The St. Regis High School football and volleyball teams have been busy during the pre-season, readying themselves for the first challenges of the upcoming seasons.

For the Tiger football team, the first challenge will be playing cross county rival Alberton. For the Lady Tigers volleyball team, they will be starting the season with not just one game, but a series of them during a tournament in Drummond.

Both teams spent the last week and will be spending this week making last minute adjustments before taking their fields and courts to represent St. Regis.

Tiger Football

In addition to moving to just a junior varsity squad, head football coach Rob La Brie said he was excited to have his own team this year as last year the team was a co-op with Alberton.

“It took a lot of recruiting,” La Brie said. “We went to some of the kids and we said, ‘look, we are the St. Regis Tigers again. Do you want to play football?’ Otherwise, we ran the risk of not having a team. We had most of the basketball players come out so it’s good to see multi-sport players out here.”

With only three returning seniors in the line-up, La Brie has a relatively young team taking the field this season. He said the key in getting younger players up to speed on the game of high school football is to focus on fundamentals.

“We have been working on a lot of drills where they are exposed to game-like situations,” La Brie said. “It’s so they actually see those things unfold in a game. Especially for the freshmen, we’ve been working on basic forms for tackling and throwing and catching the ball. We want to put them in a position to be successful.”

The three seniors on the Tigers said they were ready to lead the young team on and off the field. Gibson J. Lowry, quarterback and running back, said what he was focusing on most during the build up for the first game of Tiger football in over a year, was his energy level on the gridiron.

“I’ve been working on just hustling more,” Lowry said. “I need to be more aggressive than I used to be. I’m a senior now and not as tentative. I’m ready to get out there and play.”

Another senior playing multiple positions said he was ready to help the younger players adjust to a higher level of play. Andrew Manathan, who recently returned to St. Regis after a year away, said he was ready to help lead the team.

“We are going to try and just encourage them,” Manathan said. “We do stuff away from practice with them so they feel more comfortable with the older guys. We don’t want them to feel like the odd ones out.”

Senior and starting quarterback Dakota Wickham said for the team to be successful this year, they have to keep the mental part of the game in mind at all times. He said players have to keep calm even if things aren’t necessarily going their way all the time.

“This team is going to have to play smart,” Wickham said. “We need to keep cool, keep our heads and not get mad. We need to make sure the younger players know what they are doing and guide them on what they should be doing.”

La Brie said he was excited for the upcoming season and especially for the first game versus Alberton. He said, having seen the way the Panthers play ball after last season’s co-op, he knows what they bring to the field.

“Alberton is a very good football team,” La Brie said. “I have a lot of respect for them. They love to hit and they tackle well. We need to be ready for that. We need to bring a lot of energy to that game and just be fundamentally sound.”

Lady Tiger Volleyball

For the Lady Tigers volleyball team, head coach Jennifer Pruitt has thirteen players on her roster and she said the team has shown a lot of promise this year so far in practice.

The team will need to transfer what they learn in practice to the games rather quickly as they start the season with a full-blown tournament in Drummond this weekend after a match against Darby. Pruitt said she has a lot of confidence the team will be ready.

“Practice has been going well,” Pruitt said. “We have been working on our passing game and putting the ball on target. We are working on our defense and picking up the ball and scrambling for everything that is hit at us.”

One thing the team has also been working on is replacing a key player who was injured last year and has not been cleared to join the Lady Tigers on the court yet. Pruitt said it was tough loss for the team but they are confident they can get another player up to speed in time to start the season.

“Our setter from last year, Madison Hill, tore her ACL during divisional basketball last year,” Pruitt said. “So, we have been working on replacing her until she gets her full release to play. So we’ve been working with our new setter.”

Pruitt said one thing she tries to instill in her players is the essential nature of teamwork. She said without that key element, success in volleyball is difficult.

“That is what volleyball is all about,” Pruitt said. “They have to play together. If everybody is hitting on the same cylinders, it’s going to be a good game.”

The first home game for the Lady Tigers of St. Regis has yet to be determined due to construction in the gym. Pruitt said she felt confident the gym floor would be done in time for a tentatively scheduled game in early September.