Head Coach Sam Parker Excited as season approaches. Go Lake!
Let’s Go Hawks!!
Canyon Lake’s Football Season continues to draw closer and after having a renaissance year that had your Hawks able to make the top 5 in two categories on Texas Football website (The Texas Football Bible) that dealt with improvement offensively and defensively from their previous season.
CLake was top 4 among schools that improved their defense by reducing points allowed by 22 points. In 2023, The Lake, allowed 50 points per contest and last year reduced that by 3 touchdowns. While Canyon Lake improved their win total from 2 to 8 wins which ranked 5th for that state ranking.
That 2023 season team struggled to stop opposing teams leaving CL needing to outscore opponents each Friday which proved to be an impossible situation.
Last year’s team was able to improve their offense after an average right at 28 points per game two years ago to a 40 point average last season. In fact that 40 point average beat that 2017 team who averaged 38 points per outing.
Make us Proud Hawks!!
Head Coach Sam Parker had a calculated smile when asked bout this upcoming season, “Our Defense as a whole will be exciting to watch.”
CL’s Defense will return several players who has some outstanding stats put on their resume after last season. Tristan Alexander comes to mind with his ability for getting interceptions as last year was just two off from old timer Eric Nelson had back during his 2010 season when he secured 9 that season.
Another DB Ben Parma had 12 pass break ups last year which is the most for a season while linebacker Eli Hammons led the team in tackles and tackles for loss.
Those riches continues on the defensive line having Dalton Hodges, Joseph Matos Padilla, Wyatt Roberts, and more return with an added Outside Linebacker Isiah Eureste who returns after missing half of last season with an injury and before that mishap this player was blocking kicks getting sacks and was never a wall flower on the field during his brief stint last season.
GO LAKE!
“There are 3 stages we work on during our offseason,” Coach Parker surmised. “We work on strength, then the mental part and then putting those on the football field which we are presently doing this summer.”
The UIL changed how coaches can interact with teams which was certainly crutial with how well Canyon Lake was able to change with a new coaching philosophy on both sides of the ball last year.
“Language is hard learning and we still did better as we finished with an 8-4 season which gave us credibility,” Coach continued. “We were allowed so much practice time and 1/2 we spent last year has turned into a whole….in the old days coaches had no football during the summer and now we are able to work on putting pieces of our puzzle in the right place.”
“We have over 80% of our players coming to our summer program and any coach would be happy with 70-75% during this time of the year…that helped last year and with the newness worn off we are able to get much more done without language hindering us from last year,” Coach said.
QB Jace Wheeler will be entering his second year after a successful first go while settling in as a Sophomore. Wheeler already ranks at 5th place in passing yards (1893) and is the leader throwing 30 touchdowns which passed (pardon the pun) Brandon Belcher (3 yrs) and Ross Wagliardo (2 yrs) who finished with 28 during their career.
Granted, Wheeler is in a much more pass happy offense compared to those 11 years of the slot-t. Wheeler missed 2.5 games last season and with another year of getting acclimated to this offense that should help his overall chance of managing the game as the signal caller.
Stay in Shape Hawks!
“He (Wheeler) has taken steps this offseason and we have a very good receiving core and it will be important for him get the ball in the right spots,” Coach Parker quipped. “Going through the reads is the hardest for a quarterback and he is delivering the ball with confidence and with another year we want to keep things going forward.”
To note this offense was able to finish their first campaign with yardage being equal by the run and pass after gaining 2220 rushing- 32 TD and 2118 passing- 31 TD’s. That will help in those contests when The Lake being down in a game and able to call a run or pass for a chance of a comeback.
With all the greatness of a slot-t…that was not an advantage for making comebacks that are 2 scores down.
In a Boerne game several years ago it happened but that contest had a special team kick-off return touchdown that helped jettison that comeback victory.
Canyon Lake was also a plus 6 in turnovers and the Hawks have added Mountain Valley’s Lee Self to take the reigns of special teams this year.
The Lake will have some big shoes to fill especially in those skill positions that were lost to graduation but with a defense that has a chance of improvement and a offensive line that returns several starters will allow this offense opening some holes while helping QB Wheeler keep his jersey clean and that can go a long way in seeing an improving product on the gridiron this August.
“Ultimately we are becoming a better football team with our players getting stronger and faster,” Parker closed.
With the recent rains and seeing an improved team should help the Lake Rise this season, GO LAKE!!
This will prove to be a good test for district to show if a first round loss can be turned around to a win in those round-about district schedules.
