Football season has officially begun! Returning from a disappointing season last year, the Falcons took on their school rival, the Liberty Eagles, in a competition students know and love as the Bird Bowl. After a brutal 38-6 loss the Falcon football team is keeping their heads up. Although this is the 21st consecutive Bird Bowl loss for the Falcons, they are hopeful and continue preparations for the rest of the season.
Members of the team can be spotted in school representing their teams by wearing their jerseys, students begin to dress up to the Zoo themes and Friday night lights are officially on!
Prior to the game on Friday, excitement levels were high. Head football coach, Karl Buckwalter, said, “I’m really excited about this year because we have a lot of past players who have come back. They’ve been through a little rain and some tough spots but they’ve come back [stronger].” In preparation for the beginning of the season, Buckwalter notes they have been “… working in the weight room in the off season.”
The loss hit the Falcons hard, with expectations from coaches, students and teachers to win.
Buckwalter, in a pre-game interview, said his hopes for the game were “winning. Just winning.” Despite the “electric atmosphere” and the Zoo’s support, the team was not able to deliver a victory over the Eagles.
Buckwalter describes the night as “…an opportunity lost.” In preparation for upcoming games, Buckwalter plans to “go back to the fundamentals and the basics that [the team was] taught. … and we need to go back to … [the things] we’ve been doing for a while and what we did during our first two scrimmages, and we will be just fine.”
Looking at the game from a player’s perspective, football team council member and 2022 football MVP, junior Clayton Harris, explains that the team “… started off strong on defense but everything kinda fell apart in the end, we just couldn’t get stuff going. We just have to come back stronger next game, have everyone compete, and show all the effort.” Fellow team council member Eli Bynaker says “[the game] wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t as bad as people think. We just need to execute.”
