Cougar football team ready for busy July

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

The 2016 high school football season wasn’t kind to Van Wert.

Already faced with younger faces at many positions, the Cougars had to deal with a multitude of injuries, especially at quarterback.

The end result was an 0-10 (0-9 Western Buckeye League) season, but head coach Keith Recker believes there was a silver lining in that dark cloud.

“The benefit to having so many different guys play last year is now we have some competition for spots that guys have to work to get,” Recker said. “We can list three or four guys that can play a position, which creates depth for us which is always a good thing.”

While discussing Van Wert’s off-season program, Recker said his players are hitting the weights, a must for any successful program.

“Our numbers have been what we expected them to be,” Recker explained. “Typically we are in the 40’s for numbers from freshman to senior. This number is lower than it should be, but our workouts are pretty tough which means only guys that are truly committed are willing to show up.”

“The guys that are here are the guys we need.”

The coach also noted that workout sessions are held with the basketball team to avoid any conflicts, and he said the schedule has worked well.

As far as using instructional days during the summer, Recker said the Cougars do very little in terms of actual football during the month of June, in order to get in the best shape possible. That means the bulk of instruction comes in July.

“For four days a week for two weeks, we will run our summer practices where we install all of our offensive, defensive and special teams schemes,” Recker explained.

“We have three 7-on-7 competitions planned,” Recker added. “We have Antwerp and Parkway coming to our place on July 11, Crestview coming to our place on July 18, and then we go to Oak Harbor on July 20.

Before coming to Van Wert, Recker served as Oak Harbor’s offensive coordinator for three seasons, and he said the overnight trip to Ottawa County is special.

“Once we get up there we will workout in their weight room, then we’ll do a 7-on-7 with them,” Recker said. “Once that’s finished, their booster club feeds us lunch, then we head to East Harbor State Park and set up tents and camp there for the night.”

“Our players get to go to the beach on Lake Erie, play volleyball, sit by the fire and just enjoy a night. It really is a fun thing we do and the guys really look forward to going on this trip.”

The Cougars will finish their workouts with their youth camp, July 24-26.

Van Wert’s 2017 football season will kick off August 25, at Bryan.