Published: August 20, 2008 01:11 am            

Proving ground: Moore looks to turn things around in his first season

Frost head football coach Clark Moore will have his work cut out for him as he goes into his first year.

The season ended early for the Polar Bears in 2007, and Moore hopes that this year will not come to a similar conclusion.

“We are going to field a team that is going to compete,” Moore said. “I had a chance to get to know the kids coming back from basketball and baseball.

“They are not afraid of hard work and are a joy coach. They all have a good attitude.”

The small things will be important for Frost.

Last season the Polar Bears had just a hand full of first downs in the six games that they played and scored just one touchdown while giving up 47 points per game on defense.

Offensively, Frost went through some transitions starting last season in a shotgun formation, then moving to an I-form, next the Wing-T and eventually ended the season with a double-slot set.

This time around there will not be the experimentation. Moore intends to stick with the Wing-T.

“We never really had something that we ran consistently last season,” Moore said. “We are going to try to be more consistent in what we do on offense this year.”

Senior wingback Anthony Anaya and junior fullback Ty Ritterbach will get the majority of the carries coming out of that three-man backfield.

Anaya and Ritterbach combined for 190 total yards on the ground in 2007.

Last year is in the past in Moore’s estimation. He does not want to linger on what this team didn’t do in ‘07, but what they intended to this year.

“We really don’t want to focus on last season,” he said. “We want to be able to accomplish some goals early in the season that we can build on.

“Hopefully as we get into the year we will continue to be competitive.”

To turn things around, Frost will look to it’s senior leadership.

Defensive back Mike Constantino, linebacker Dillon Lankford, quarterback Sam Stroder and wingback/defensive back Anaya will all be playing big roles for the Polar Bears on both sides of the ball.

The number of players that the Polar Bears will have suited up come Aug. 29 in their first game of the season against Santo has been question mark through the summer.

While Frost choose unanimously to not make the transition to six-man football, Moore says that he is prepared to work with what he has.

“Your players have to be in shape when you have small numbers,” he said. “And you have to be a little more strategic.

“We look forward to the challenge. We want to prove that we can do this.”

        

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