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FARMINGTON — Austin Lewis begins his second year as junior high head foot- ball coach at Farmington with a compre- hensive understanding of a new system installed by varsity head coach J.R. Eldridge. "His culture bringing it in from the seventh through twelfth grade, we are learning what it means to [function within] the system that he has offensively, defen- sively and special teams and incorporating RCB (respect, belief, commitment), VVR (Vicious, Violent and Relentless) in every- thing that we do on and off the field and these kids have taken to it," Lewis said. "They are better teammates for it know- ing that they need to be this way with each other as well to be better teammates. That way they can work together on the field and it's already showing in the preseason now." OFFENSE Quarterback Luke Elsik starts at quarterback coming off an eighth grade year when he had a little bit of playing time at quarterback. "He was kind of our runningback/quar- terback hybrid last year so he's got some legs as well as an arm," Lewis said. Runningback Russell Hodge starts at runningback this year. Lewis describes him as a thick, well built runningback who can get to the edge and get outside. "He's got some quickness to him, but he can also take it to the middle and bang it in there," Lewis said. Receivers Four athletes will play receiver, Brandon Waters, Kenyon Thomas, Morgan Schader and Zane Schmitt in the new offense. Lewis sees things coming together. "This year on offense we have a quar- terback, runningback and a receiving corps that played well as eighth graders. Moving up to ninth grade they work well together, they're quick, speedy, super smart, our offense is very cohesive," Lewis said. Offensive Line On the front line the junior Cardi- nals are blending in some eighth grad- ers. Trevor Harvey starts at center with guards Layton Mitchell and Jamar Drum- goole along with tackles Clayton Clark and Colton Taylor. "If we get those guys on the offensive line to work together, a few that are eighth graders playing up for this ninth grade group, if they get a little more vicious, violent and relentless at the offensive line. I think we'll be pretty good on offense," Lewis said. "We'll be hard to stop as far as taking the space the defense gives us and spreading the field out sideways and deep with those receivers that we have." DEFENSE Defensive Line The junior Cardinals will play with four down linemen in their new defensive scheme introduced by Eldridge. Dillion Keller plays one end while Lewis said the other spot is going to probably be combination of Callahan Ramer and Clay- ton Clark. The interior linemen will be Dodge Usrey, Caleb Crotser and Kayleigh Burr. Lewis is confident the defensive line, even though the junior Cardinals will have a couple of eighth graders coming up, will have a good rotation going. Those guys up front can improve quickly by adapting to one another. "Both of our ends are pretty quick and in our footwork we want to keep the ball going sideways with those guys. At inte- rior linemen we're good at firing off the ball, getting hands on our key and being 479-684-4900 www.ozarksgo.net get fast get fast get gigabit Run with the fast crowd and get the fastest internet in the region with no buffering! FIBER INTERNET // TV // PHONE OZARKSGO.NET // 479.684.4900 Wednesday, August 25, 2021 Enterprise-Leader 5C 2 0 2 1 F o o t b a l l P r e v i e w By Mark Humphrey ENTERPRISE-LEADER FARMINGTON JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL PREVIEW Junior Cardinals Embrace New Philosophies SEE JUNIOR CARDINALS PAGE 6C