Leopards enjoy week off before district

By DARIN ALLRED

Register Sports Editor

One of the more interesting phone calls I have received here at the Register came earlier this year when I ran the Gainesville Leopards’ football schedule. The caller wanted to know where Bye High School was located, since I had put on the schedule that Gainesville played Bye this Friday.

I had to explain to the caller that “bye” actually meant that the Leopards had an off week where they did not have a game scheduled. The University Interscholastic League gives public high school teams 11 weeks to play 10 games. Most schools choose to schedule their bye week in the middle of their season. Some districts, like District 13-A that includes Era, Collinsville, Lindsay and Muenster, only have five teams so their bye week comes in the middle of their district schedule.

Gainesville’s bye week comes when most coaches would prefer to have an off week. Not only is it right in the middle of the season, it is right before they start district play.

But is Leopard head coach Ricky Lock a fan of the bye week?

“I am after five games,” he said. “If we would have had two and then had a bye week I probably wouldn’t like it. In the middle season I think it gives us a chance to give anyone that has a minor injury healthy again. In our case I think it’s good because it’s right before grades come out and right before district.”

The off week will give Leopard tight end Patrick Westbrook a chance to recover from a hip pointer injury. Some other players have minor injuries. In addition, the flu bug has hit the Leopard locker room. Around five players have been out with the flu this week, after two were out each of the previous two weeks.

Coaches have different philosophies when it comes to the best way to use a bye week. Some get back to the basics and work on fundamentals, while others use two weeks to prepare for their next opponent. For Coach Lock and his team, it’s a little bit of both.

“We have already traded film with Whitesboro (Gainesville’s first district opponent) and we are slowly implementing what we are going to do,” he said. “We work on conditioning and some fundamental stuff as far as blocking and tackling. We are not in the position where we can just hit each other all of the time because of our depth, but we do schedule in our practices a time when we are going to be physical.”

The Leopards are 4-1 heading into district play, which is their best record at this point since 2005. When asked what grade he would give his team right now, Lock gave the Leopards a B-minus.

“I think we have made some improvements in some areas, but we have a long way to go obviously,” he said. “We play a lot better than we played in ‘08, that's obvious, but we have to learn how to put people away when you get somebody down. I don’t know if it’s because we haven’t been in that position often, but this is a whole new bunch so it’s hard to gauge it on that. We graduated 19 seniors last year so there is like five or six returners. We just have to learn to finish.

“Sometimes we play to the level of competition too,” he added. “We have the capability of playing lights out and very well and then we have had some bad moments. The first quarter against Castleberry was not very good. The third quarter against Hirschi was not very good. The third quarter of Burkburnett was not very good. We have yet to put together four quarters. Decatur was probably the closest thing we've had of putting together four quarters and we still had two touchdowns called back against them.”

The coach says that his team has a lot of room for improvement, but he likes the progress they have made.

“I can see it, especially in our offensive line and our defensive front,” he said. “Harold Wills, the last three games, has gotten better and better and has made bigger and better plays. Both our linebackers (Wills and Landon Lock) are our top two tacklers right now, as they should be in this defense. We're getting very consistent play in our defensive front. Calvin Calhoun has been consistent all season long and the same with Westbrook at outside linebacker. We have gotten great play from Cody Welch who has been able to come over and play both outside linebacker positions and spell Westbrook some at tight end. Franklin has been steady at 100 yards a game. I didn't probably give it to him enough at Burkburnett.”

Gainesville will open district play Oct. 9 at home against Whitesboro. District 9-3A will once again be a battle this year with the likes of Celina, Prosper and Argyle awaiting the Leopards.

“You know, you get in this district and there is no margin for error,” Lock said. “You can't mess up. It's too good of a district. You've got three teams in the top 15. You have to be able to put four quarters together.”

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