Last week’s Friday night was electric for North Canyon as the stadium floodlights shone, fans filled the stands, and players ran onto the field; the season’s first football game had started. The game had high expectations as North Canyon scored the first touchdown against Deer Valley, the season’s first touchdown. However, the rest of the game didn’t end as expected with North Canyon 6, and Deer Valley 62. As the game came to a close, I was able to get interviews with Head Coach Johns both before the game and after before the start of the game I was able to ask Coach Johns what he was most excited about this season which he stated, “It’s a new team so I’m excited to see how the juniors do this season along with both helping and seeing how the younger boys develop.” I also asked what Coach Johns was looking for tonight for his players and he stated, “I’m looking for them to compete and be competitive tonight”. At the end of the game, I was able to get a follow-up and when asked what the plan was he stated, “I plan for the team to get better through and by studying film of tonight’s game”. When asked what he planned to improve, Coach Johns’ stated: “To fix mistakes that happened during the game like drops, fumbles, and interceptions that happened.”
In addition, I was also able to question players before and after the game as I was able to interview Nathan Patterson, a senior playing as a guard, and Damian Fletcher, a junior as the left tackle. When asked about what work had gone towards the season, Nathan stated: “The off-season had gone well and been prepared for tonight’s game” Damian said, “It had gone well and it is time to apply what we’ve learned and not buckle under pressure.” When asked about one thing they were excited about the season, Nathan said, ” I’m excited to go through the season with the team I’ve worked so hard with all off-season.” Damian also shared his thoughts stating ” I’m excited to go through the season with the team winning”.
With Friday’s night game ending, I was also able to get after-game interviews with Zion Carillo, a senior playing as a right guard, and Giovanni Pugliese better known as Gio, a junior and our varsity quarterback. When I asked about how they felt about the game with it being a defeat for North Canyon, Zion stated, ” I feel alright about the game but what matters is that we pick up ourselves and dust ourselves down to improve so next game we win” with Gio stating, ” I feel good but we still have some growing pains to deal with since it is our first game. ” I was also able to ask the two players what they did well on with Zion stating: “I did well on offense and I did what I had to do.” Additionally, Gio said, “I did well on quick passes making sure I was able to pass the ball through the field quickly.”
Even with the first game being a defeat, both the football team, the school and I hope for this to be a lesson and come back better and stronger to secure a victory.
