LEWISTOWN — The Lewistown Golden Eagles football team has been hard at work.
It sounds simple since every football team in the country has been working hard but that’s why the saying exists: there is no substitute for hard work. Only winning teams know this. With returning only nine seniors, six juniors and a first-year head coach, putting in the work, especially in the weight room, was required in order to improve in the off-season.
“It’s mandatory. If you want to have a good, strong team come the actual season, preseason, you got to be working,” senior Dylan Morris said.
Having been an assistant for the past eight years for Lewistown, former MSU-Northern star quarterback Derek Lear now takes the reins of a program that he’s learned to coach by going through the adjustment period from player to mentor.
“I love being around football all the time. Obviously, I’m not playing anymore but now you can coach it through these kids, it’s a fun transition,” he said.
Throughout the transition process to head coach, there’s no question that the team has responded positively to the change.
“He shows up everyday ready to go. Some of us walk in and we’re bleary eyed like ‘Can we watch film today?’ and he’s like ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’ So it’s been awesome,” Morris said.
“Especially with coach Lear, I’ve loved having him as a coach, now that he’s head, I’m just having a blast with this team and coaching staff,” junior Gage Norslien echoed.
The Golden Eagles get a chance to play their first game on the road against Glendive Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. The match-up was supposed to be the last game of the season for both teams last year but was canceled due to COVID-19.
“You know our first game is Glendive, first game obviously is what we’re worried about but these are guys are really excited to finally hopefully have some normalcy and get a full season,” Lear said.
