Despite win, Coach Kunczewski believes team still has a lot to learn before next game
Ward Sutlive, Campus Carrier asst. sports editor
There’s always room to grow. Tony Kunczewski, head coach of the football team at Berry expressed that sentiment when he spoke about his team’s latest victory.
“I [don’t] think that team morale is low,” Kunczewski said. “We’re disappointed that we didn’t perform to the best of
our abilities.”
On Saturday, the Berry football team won their first playoff game against LaGrange College by a score of 18-14. The team will be playing against Trinity University this Saturday.
“Our first two playoff games happen to be against teams that we’ve played this year,” Kunczewski said. “But that’s the way the brackets shook out.”
Despite their win, Kunczewski still believes that his team can do better.
“This program’s built on not playing to the scoreboard,” Kunczewski said. “It’s playing to the standard that we set for our team. We don’t feel like we’ve met it.”
According to Tyler Blalock, a freshman running back on the team, the players put a lot of effort into practicing for this game, partly because LaGrange is known for defensive rush schemes. One way the team prepares for those plays is by having their scout team simulate LaGrange’s defense in practice. According to Blalock, one of the team’s greatest strengths is their flexible and adaptable mindset.
“We’re pretty resilient,” Blalock said. “We can get scored on, and it doesn’t faze us because we know what we can do.”
According to Kunczewski, the team has not had many close games this season. Kunczewski thinks that having such a close win this time will provide his players with a strong incentive to do better during the next game this Saturday.
“I think that maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that we had a close game,” Kunczewski said. “We haven’t had many, and hopefully we can use that advantage [when] coming into this week.”
Several members on the team felt good about the game while preparing, including freshman wide receiver Grant Cook. According to Cook, the senior players on the team were in especially good spirits. One of the seniors’ key strengths is that they are good mentors to the new members. They provide advice on how to improve certain plays and are very welcoming.
“The team doesn’t make you feel like you have to earn your way in there,” Cook said.
Kunczewski noticed several areas that his team could stand to improve in during the LaGrange game. The team had too many penalties, which in turn hurt their offensive drives. According to Kunczewski, their defense tackling was also weaker than normal. However, although he knows that they have some work to do, Kunczewski believes in his team.
“There are definitely some things that we can improve on heading into this week,” Kunczewski said.
The team also won the region championship, giving them a spot in the playoffs. Their final championship game of the season was against Southwestern University on Nov. 15th, which Berry won by 49-7. That victory was very good for the team’s overall morale.
“It feels great,” Cook said. “It’s awesome to be a part of this and watch all of these guys do the great things they do on and off the field, and I think that it’s well deserved.”
The team used several strategies to secure their championship victory, including watching a recording of the Southwestern team in action. While watching, they studied the player’s movements and mimicked their plays throughout the week. This was so that they could find the weak points in their formations.
“We really just prepared ourselves and played the best football that we could play,” Blalock said.
According to Kunczewski, the team used a more offensive playing style for the LaGrange game. They also utilized an attack-based method for defense. This differs from their normal style, which is primarily an even mix of both offense and defense. One facet of their playing style involves combining the run with the pass. Several of the team’s strategies involve deception, including sneaking passes and faking runs.
“Our defense is just really hard hitting,” Cook said. “They are really good with their jobs and are very disciplined.”
According to Blalock, there are many exemplary players on the team that are very important to their overall dynamic. Two of them include graduate student Josh Rogers and senior Colby Sykes. Both members are running backs and complement each other’s strengths and make up for each other’s weaknesses very well.
“They could score anytime they touch the ball,” Blalock said.
As running backs for the team, Rogers and Sykes have many different responsibilities. A particular strength that the two have is their ability to score points through rushing.
Kunczewski and his team are very familiar with Trinity University this year. This is because they played Trinity in week five of the season and won with a final score of 29-6. Kunczewski plans to make sure that his team has a stronger showing than they did previously. He has a lot of faith in his players and knows that they can succeed in the upcoming game.
“I think that experience will make us better this week,” Kunczewski said. “Because oftentimes, when you go through adversity and come out on the other end of it, it makes you stronger.”