Finishing strong- Wrapping up NGU’s football season
Casey Burton, Sports Editor
North Greenville University’s past football season has been one for the books. The team has improved greatly from previous seasons and showed out by finishing 5-5.
The team’s previous season’s records have been at a constant for a few years. It wasn’t until this year that North Greenville has made some changes in the coaches and staff which helped pick up the speed of improvement.
This past season has shown great enhancement to the program compared to the past; the team has won as many games as they hadn’t. Some may have different opinions on how successful that is, but the team didn’t have a losing season which is progress.
Due to more football successes, more student engagement has been on the rise. This past year, every game was packed slam-full on the NGU side of the turf. This is different from previous seasons.
Everyone in the community has been ecstatic about the wins this year. From parents, alumni, faculty, athletes, coaches and donors; there has been support and excitement from all walks of Tigerville. Although there were not many home games this year, the team spirit was not lacking.
From the team’s first game of the season to the last game, there was growth shown as well. NGU lost 13-10 against Charleston Southern University with many mistakes made throughout the game, to go on and close the season out winning 27-17 against Shorter University.
Throughout the season, the corrections that were given by the coaches were applied on the field by the players. This is good for the team as a whole and has upped the teamwork shown throughout the games. The new coaching staff has helped grow the program as well as the smoothness of plays.
Jeff Farrington, head coach of NGU football has been encouraging and leading the team in new ways this past season. He has held his practices and communicated with the team differently than how the team operated in previous years. This change has shaped the team, and it has definitely shown on the field.
This year has given a lot of confidence and hope to the team for next year. NGU needed a season like this past season to gain that long-awaited boost of encouragement to help their performance in the future.
“We are ready for next year and are excited to see where we end up. In the off-season, we know exactly what to work on and perfect to have even better statistics next time around. We are going to make Crusaders everywhere proud next year,” Farrington said.
The team will be losing quite a number of seniors this year, but the confidence given to the younger players will help make up for the new dynamic. There is also already a selection of recruits being looked into for next year, so the team is ready to make even more improvements after such a good year.
