By By Tim Cottrell
The Northview Chiefs entered the season looking to improve upon a disastrous 0-7 2004 campaign.
Improvement did not seem to be the proper word for the Chiefs' 3-0 start to the season, but three consecutive losses at midseason have put the team in a bit of a funk.
Luckily, the Chiefs have an unexpected week off to work out the kinks and return some of the early season promise the team showed.
John Paul Catholic High School in Tallahassee, Fla., the Chiefs' scheduled opponent for Friday, asked to postpone the game. The contest will now be played on the Chiefs' originally scheduled off-date of October 21.
Northview head coach Cody Keene said Catholic was suffering from injury woes.
"They tried to cancel to start with, due to injuries," Keene said. "He didn't have enough players. He said he had a couple sick and a few injuries. Luckily we both had the same off date. Our plans are to play them."
While a week off may be an attractive option for some, Keene said he would prefer to have a game to prepare for.
"I'd rather be playing," he said. "I think we need to play to get better. We can work in practice – and we are – but you need to play to really get better as the season goes along."
In addition to that, Northview is on fall break this week, so players are not in regular school time. After giving the players Monday night off, Keene practiced them at 8 a.m. Tuesday, and plans to practice them early Wednesday and Thursday.
With a relatively free week of practice, Keene said the team would work on proper execution.
"We're going to work at cutting our mistakes and penalties," Keene said. "We've got to cut out penalties in crucial situations. We've got to see if we can do a better job of concentrating and carrying out our assignments."
On the injury front, the Chiefs were able to get back several players Friday night, but got a scare when Nakita Myles went down midway through the second quarter. Keene said he expected Myles to be fine for the Chiefs' next game and to be virtually injury-free overall.
"Thomas Wolfe (guard) is healthy," he said. "He played Friday night. He should be ready to go next week. Nakita's fine. It was just a twisted ankle. We should also have Jordan Cook (tight end) back at full speed."
With only three games to go – two of which are district games – Keene said the Chiefs had to become more efficient to get to the playoffs.
"I'm telling them if we score when we have opportunities; if we quit making mistakes; if we execute when we need to in the red zone; if we had been doing that we'd be 6-0, or at least 5-1," Keene said. "If we make the plays we should make we'd be 5-1 or 6-0. When we eliminate those mistakes and stop beating ourselves we're going to win again."
After taking this week off, the Chiefs will open up district play at home against South Walton next Friday at 7:30 p.m.