HAVRE — After a winless season, second-year head coach Jerome Souers and the MSU-Northern Lights have shifted their focus to the 2023 season as they go through their spring training. Souers is looking to rebuild the team into a winning program by looking at some of the issues they faced last year after he took over as head coach.
“We were deficient in depth, deficient in experience, deficient in physical development last year, and we were deficient in skill mastery and our fundamentals,” said Souers. “The only thing we really could work on last year and change was the team culture and the team chemistry. That grew tremendously.”
Throughout the ups and downs of last season, the team was able to find some light in their troubles and that is what keeps them motivated. Now that they are in the offseason and gearing up for what they hope to be a better year, the coaching staff has been heavily recruiting and looking to expand their numbers.
“We’ve been busy developing guys on campus, and we’re at 47 right now but we intend to double that by fall,” Souers said. “We’re actively recruiting and will continue to until we reach the numbers that we need.”
The Lights program is a “player run program” as described by the coaching staff. The players are allowed and encouraged to coach each other up on their mistakes and even make defensive play calls. With eight new faces already at spring training, the returners are taking initiative to teach the new players how things are done within the program. As they continue to build team chemistry, one of the big goals of this spring is to have continuous progression and become a physically stronger team.
“Most of our guys gained 10 to 20 pounds in size, and our strength numbers grew dramatically. When you’re bigger and stronger, they have to adjust to that weight so their agility is a little off and their balance is a little off,” said Souers. “That’s the beauty of spring ball. You kind of get used to the new body as you’re developing it. We have a lot of guys that look different than they did last year.”
