As summer winds down and with the start of the high school football season on the horizon, Shelbyville Central's Golden Eagles are hard at work but the emphasis is more than developing fundamentals and position skills on the field.
Recently hired head football coach Jud Dryden has made changing the culture of the team his top priority.
"As far as players are concerned, the number one priority is setting our culture and making sure they are aware of the expectations set for them as
well as ourselves and do everything we can to move forward on that right away, " Dryden said. "We want a culture here at Shelbyville Central where our players are committed to each other like a family and a culture where we believe success comes from having a good attitude and being committed to each and working through those hard times accountable. Those are the things that we want to truly define as our success. That's where our culture comes from."
The Eagles are doing what every team does in the preseason; conditioning, working on their offense defense and special teams. But success tends to follow the teams that work the hardest and work together as a team.
Discipline both on and off the field is as important as any aspect mentioned and that goes along with culture that Dryden is trying to build as well.
"Our job, in part, as coaches is to make sure these young men know what it is like to be an adult. One of the things we want to impress upon them is when they make a choice the consequences of their choices go beyond just themselves and filters those around them as well," Dryden said. "On the field we want to make sure we eliminate those big penalties that hurt the team. That can be difference between winning or losing. This has been a major focus during the preseason and they know it is unacceptable if that happens and there is a price to be paid if it does happen. It all about self-discipline and self-control and those two things help make a great football player as well as a great human being and a great man."
Offensively, the Eagles will look the same with a few tweets while on defense will continue to look to get to the football and apply as much pressure as possible.
Dryden looks to put more attention and detail on special teams which can make a big difference in a close contest.
"It's nice that we will basically run the same systems on offense and defense with the same terminology. We will add a few things on both sides of the ball but this makes our transition a lot quicker and much easier," Dryden said.
When he took over as head coach a few weeks ago, he had a number of coaching positions open. Two new coach have been hired with three more in the works over the next few days.
Shelbyville Central opens the season on Thursday night, August 18 at home against Tullahoma at 7.