As the St.FX X-Men get set to host the Mount Allison Mounties tonight in Antigonish, the team wants to bounce back from the 2012 season.
Head Coach Gary Waterman said there is a different feel to the team this year and that is bodes well for the team’s 2013 expectations.
“We had a disappointing season in 2012,” explained Waterman. We were looking for maturity in our players, now they are a year older.”
“I’m looking for them to be consistent. We feel like we provided them enough things and plays to help them be successful and we want them to reap the benefits of it now so we expect them to focus on things we need to do to get better and be mature about doing it. I really like the focus of it. People are going to see a refocused team, a gelled team and the team is going to get better each week.”
In tonight’s game, the X-Men have some key goals they’d like to achieve with both the offensive and defensive units.
“Offensively, the big thing is we want to be consistent,” commented Waterman. “We want to make the easy plays that are there.”
“People that know us over the years know we have the ability to make some explosive plays and we’ve done well with that, but missed some of the easy ones. Our goal is to be consistent with our players offensively and make the plays that are there to be made, move the chains and start and finish off our drives. Offensively, that is our goals. Defensively, we have a new Defensive Coordinator. We’d like to be able to make minimal mistakes our there as we are learning our system, play fast and put our guys who are tremendous athletes, in positions to be really successful with their athleticism to make some plays.”
It appears that Clay Maskiewich will get the nod as starting quarterback although the X-Men are confident in both his and second quarterback Tivon Cook’s abilities on the field.
“We’re confident with him and Tivon Cook,” said Waterman. “Clay is an extremely mature kid who’s also going into his last year.”
“He commands the offense and the players really respect him. He’s really shown some great strides. Last year, he was new to our team learning a new system, split the work in the offseason to come back. He’s really grasped the new concept. He’s been showing well in practice.”
Ultimately, the X-Men need to prepare for a tough challenge tonight in the Mounties. However, the X-Men are confident that they can be a formidable opponent to the New Brunswick team.
“We know that Mount Allison is going to be a hard team to play against,” assessed Waterman. “They grind, fight and scratch for everything.”
“Kelly (Jeffrey, Mounties Head Coach) does just a great job with them. They are basically going to be coming in and after watching them on film there will be stuff and things they probably did not show so I expect them to have a few new wrinkles and for them to play hard. We’re going to have to be ready for them.”
Kickoff is 7:00pm
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