Defensive Coordinator Brian Hooper Talks Football
Canyon Lake High School Swingman / Safety Jeremy Greene (#7) tackles Fredericksburg wide receiver Judson Beard (#6). rr[Photo Credit: Mark Robinson / MJR Photography / www.mjrphotog.com]
Canyon Lake football is off and running and now prepare for a much different type of season compared to year’s past.
The good news was seeing football, volleyball, swimming and cross country athletes starting their preparation for their upcoming Fall season.
Get Defensive Hawks!!
The ReSporter caught up with Defensive Coordinator Brian Hooper for his thoughts on the start of football.
“It has been a long time since we have seen the kids,” Coach Hooper stated after seeing the school closing for classes in March.
On what was worked on to start practices, “We just worked on our basics and started working on diagnosing plays and formation. We have a lot of athletes but just two returning starters for our (defensive) backfield and we have players that have not had experience on varsity yet.”
Junior Jeremy Greene and Senior Tyler Pauly are those two Hawks that return with varsity experience.
“I’m excited and we hope to raise the bar and get to where we have not been before,” Coach Hooper started.
“We will have more speed and that always helps getting to the ball and that will allow us to get into more coverages.”
Canyon Lake was blessed with some very successful sub-varsity teams last year after seeing the Freshman and Gold team with a district championship and a Junior Varsity that had a winning record that finished second for their district race.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
“That will give us plenty of competition,” Coach Hooper surmised on how players will earn a chance for getting a starting nod. “This year we will be slower in making those decisions since we have just one scrimmage so we are not pressed in making those type of decisions as quickly. But they (players) understand that competition is what will get them on the field.”
The Lake has been in their element in starting the season these past few years and that will be a trait that is hopefully repeated when CL starts their season against state ranked Wimberley on the road.
During these last 5 campaigns, Canyon Lake, has allowed only 3 touchdowns and are working on three consecutive shut-outs to start the season. Last year the Texans scored 45 points against CL and for the season gave up 26 points per game.
In fact, it was the first year since 2015 that CL’s opponents ended the season scoring more points per game.
“It takes longer for the offense to get going compared to defense,” Coach Hooper interjected. “The defense is usually ahead to start the season we just want to improve daily and if we can hold our opponents to a gain of 3 or less yards on first down then that is what we want. We will have packages and a call and the kids will have to execute it.”
Hawk’s Hit (Tackle) Man
What other standards would the defense want for having a good chance for a victory? “We need to win the turnover battle especially with our offense since that will allow our offense to take time off the clock. Limit big plays of 15 plus yards and we would like to limit explosive plays to 4 during a game….we can’t have missed tackles and we are wanting to hold that to 6 times as that can drain us during the game.”
On thoughts bout the schedule and new teams that were picked up, “We will have a tough non-district,” Hoop stated. “There are a lot of running teams and we will be seeing more tight ends and that will give us extra gaps we will have to defend. (Austin) LBJ will be explosive.”
The Hawks during these last two years has started with a, 13-1 record counting the first 7 contests but it has been the end of those two schedules that Canyon Lake lost their wings with a less than spectacular, 0-8 finish to those seasons.
Good enough for a playoff but needing a better seeding would be optimal and that comes with raising the bar as Canyon Lake prepares for another year of football.
Good Luck Coach Hooper and Go Hawks!!
