Coaches Corner with Bracken’s Lloyd Fields

Bracken Christian will be starting their Spring Practice next week as the Warriors will soon have something that might be different, with no Achilles on the field for the first time in five years.

But that is ok, since the brains of BCS football powerhouse really belongs to Head Coach Lloyd Fields as he will also enter his sixth year at the helm of Bracken Football.

The ReSporter woke Coach Fields from his slumber the other day to get his take on next week’s spring work outs.

The ReSporter: Hey Coach next week is the start of spring practice, what are your expectations this season?

Coach Fields: “We will start next Monday and this will be one of our shortest spring practices as we will only be on the field for five days. But I feel we can get a lot done and try to find out how we might be able to compete next season.”

The ReSporter: Let’s break down your team with the defense first.

Coach Fields: “For the last two years we have been running our defense on auto pilot, I had players that had a good grasp of what we were doing and all we had to do is tweak a thing or two.”

“This year we will be going back to basics and hopefully we can find some players we can count on.”

The ReSporter: What are your goals for the defense?

Coach Fields: “We will be trying to get players slotted into an area but we still will have depth problems this coming year.”

“You can’t replace leadership and that is what our graduating Seniors gave us last year. In fact, Eli (Achilles) had been one of our leaders since his Sophomore year and when Eli spoke people listened.”

“We will probably have more players this year that will lead by, ‘do as I do and not as I say.'”

The ReSporter: What is your overall impression on what you might have with the players for this season?

Coach Fields: “This Senior Class across the board will be solid. Across the line as a group, this might be the best line in Bracken’s history.”

The ReSporter: Give us a glimpse of your offense for this upcoming season.

Coach Fields: “This will be a pound and ground type of offense. We have lost a lot of speed and so that will change how we move the ball.”

“Eli (Achilles) will be in Waco this week-end running in the State Meet and the players that we have for next year will not have that type of speed.”

The ReSporter: Will this cause you to have to change your offense or defense?

Coach Fields: “No….when I came to Bracken, the type of offense I brought was from a tight formations and so what we did was adjust that offense to the speed that Bracken had at that time. Now we will take our offense back the way it used to be.”

“Our tight offense is not my worry, it will be our spread offense. We will need to find three backs that we can spotlight.”

The ReSporter: What are you thinking defensively?

Coach Fields: “Defensively, we might have our quickest nose guard in Mason Anthony. He reminds me of Jeremy Johnson and John Colby reminds me of Joe Lonigro.”

“Our Defensive Ends will be our biggest strength with three good players in Goober (Preston Koch), Davis Scott, and (Gunnar) Stouhandske.”

“We will take our linebacker to x-backer to help that part of our game.”

The ReSporter: So based on your answers, it seems you are feeling better about your defense?

Coach Fields: “Our defense is ahead of our offense. We do have some tough games early next year that will stretch our defense with speed.”

“We have Logos Prep and Austin Hill Country, that will have speed and we will see how our team will react to that type of offense.”

“I’m really concerned about playing Logos Prep in Houston in early September in that Houston filled in swamp.”

The ReSporter: Wow, I think you might have some Houston readers taking an exception of calling them a swamp.

Coach Fields: “It’s Houston, it is near the Gulf and during that time of year, the humidity will not be a good thing for our players. But, yes….it is a filled in swamp.”

The ReSporter: Thanks Coach, based on your last comments, I’m thinking you would rather stand on Hill Country rock than a filled in swamp.

I’m thinking you will be looking at the weather channel the week of that game.

Coach Fields: “Yes, that would be a correct statement.”

The ReSporter: Thanks Coach for your time. The ReSporter looks forward to seeing the boys getting their bearings next week.