West Platte coach likes win, but not little mistakes
Brent Lager
Citizen Staff
Expectations can either motivate or break a football team. For most, it does both.
Yet for coaches, expectations hold a completely different meaning than they do for players and fans. While players expect to win big and fans expect to win often, coaches usually sweat the small stuff.
Just ask West Platte coach Chuck Siler.
“I was more concern myself with the little things,” Siler said. “Maybe a miss block or blown assignment, those are the type of things we need to correct.”
So even though West Platte was able to win big Friday night over Lincoln Prep, 32-18, it was the minor mistakes that stood out to Siler.
“I thought we played very well, but as always, at this time of the year, we have things we need to correct” Siler said.
A good defensive effort, along with a devesting ground game led the Bluejays to the lopsided victory. Still, even with the big win, West Platte, 1-0, will look to be sharper this Friday when it hosts Lawson in a key KCI Conference matchup.
Sure, the team would love to take another 234 yard passing and 117 yard rushing performance from quarterback Brett Grindstaff, which included three touchdowns against Lincoln Prep.
West Platte would also like to see Harrison Shipman run for another 104 yards, watch Seth Rulon catch two touchdown passes again, or go crazy when Tony Brown gets another sack.
But for all the things the Bluejays accomplishing against Lincoln Prep, they know that they need to polish some of their rougher edges before Friday night, according to Siler.
“We just got to raise our level of play,” Siler said. "I know the kids know that and we have talked about that before, but now we just need to cut out the mistakes."
First games are first games, though. The positives for West Platte included a solid defense that took the ball away three times and had three sacks, a quarterback that had over 350 yards of offense and an offensive line that for most of the night dictated the game.
The areas that need improvement are the three turnovers and allowing some big plays on defense, but that’s what is expected of a first game. A little bit of sloppiness, a pinch of fatigue and a lot of nerves, but with the blowout win, consider expectations surpassed by the West Platte football team, at least for one week.
“Our overall effort was great on both offense and defense so I was pleased with that,” Siler said. "We just need to go out and keep playing now."
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