Kings Football » Coach Olds Corner

As the cliché goes, “ugly but effective” pretty much describes our game with Wilmington this past Friday night. However, another cliché also applies, “a win is a win”! In this case, not only is it a win but it is a win for our outgoing seniors on Senior Night! Only 50% of the over 700 football teams in Ohio get to send their leaders out in this style!

If someone told me that your team would amass 115 yards in penalties and 4 turnovers prior to playing, I might not have showed up! As many of you know, that is generally a recipe for defeat. But on this night, we managed to muster up 23 points and 412 yards in total offense in spite of our mistakes. Wilmington had a tough night as well committing 10 penalties while the home team reached a team high 11.

On this night, the Kings defense stole the show holding Wilmington to just over 130 yards in total offense. The 6 & 2 Hurricanes never got within striking distance throughout the entire game.

The win sets up what will prove to be a very good and important game that will determine the conference championship as well as locking down the #2 seed in Region 8. The loser will likely finish in the 3^rd spot and will host as well!

See you on the field!

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

This past Friday night, the Knights past yet another road test with a 49-14 victory over the West Carrollton Pirates and moved one step closer to recaputuring the FAVC Cardinal Championship and a Region 8 playoff birth. As the visitors cruised to a 21-0 lead early in the first half, the home team took advantage of a couple of King’s mistakes and converted them into points. At the half, after recieveing some encouraging words from Coach Olds, the Knights rattled off 28 unanswered points! We spoke during pre-game of “sleep walking” through a game like this and the ramifications that went along with it. Although I would not call it “sleep walking”, I might have called falling it “dosing off during a boring speech” and waking up quickly as your neck snaps down.

Despite the mini let down, many players played well and accepted the pre-game challenge to “give back and get better”. Jamire Westbrook and his offensive line eclipsed the 1000 yard mile stone midway the 3rd quarter! Congrats to the entire offensive unit!! Defensively, Justin Crull recorded his league leading 5th interception! And Sophomore WR/DB Parker Phipps recorded his first varsity touchdown with a beautifully thrown ball by Junior QB Jensen Gebhardt.

This coming Friday marks the last regular season home game making it Senior Night. No doubt the underclassmen will play hard for their seniors while they welcome the Hurricanes from Wilmington into Kings Stadium. They bring a very good record of 6 & 2 overall to this FAVC showdown. The winner of this game is practically guaranteed a playoff birth in the 2010 Region 8 playoffs!

See you at the game!

Coach Olds

When we pulled up to the Walnut facility for Friday’s game, I had noticed that we were being directed to a different facility for our locker room. In years past, we had changed clothes, taped ankles, and did pre-game talks in what would amount to a hallway. So needless to say I was excited! That is until the host walked all 60 players into an academic classroom with 30 +/- academic seats (not conducive for guys in shoulder pads and pants to sit in!) along with a teachers desk complete with computer! I didn’t know whether to laugh or to completely blow a gasket!  After a little “creative thinking” by assistant football Coach Lance Olberding, he had players carry over the sideline benches and we used those for our halftime meetings located outside of that classroom / locker room!

What else was “nutty” was how we got our first score of the game. We would start off kicking to the home team and tackling them deep in their own territory- a great start for our defense. On their first play of the game, the center for Walnut snapped the ball past the QB (who was not watching) and into the end zone where Junior Tommy Schnee quickly recovered to make it Kings 6, Walnut 0.

After this play, the Eagles seemed to settle down and play and good game. However, on this evening the visiting Knights would prevail by a score of 35-14. As a whole, we certainly continue to improve. Our ground game is also starting to define itself with the offensive line play getting stronger and stronger! Although the score was not quite as lopsided as last week, we as a staff and as a team felt like we accomplished what we had set out to do. And this was to focus on what we needed to do to win and to get better, not so much what Walnut was doing. This week, we travel up I-75 to take on our newest league member, the Pirates of West Carrolton High School!.

See you on the field!

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

The long over due creation of a “rivalry trophy”, a canoe paddle, is in its’ second year even though the games between Kings and Little Miami is 47 years old, returns to Kings high school after defeating the Panthers by a convincing score of 55-0. This was the largest margin of victory to date in this rivalry.

This was also Alumni Night for Kings Football and what a show the current Knights put on! The number of Alumni that took part in the pre game festivities was somewhere around 100. Also, former Kings star and current Cincinnati Bearcat Colin McCafferty served as an honorary Captain on this evening. McCafferty walked onto UC’s football program 5 years ago and has earned a scholarship the past three season which included two Big East Championships and several bowl appearances!

Some may wonder if such a rivalry still exists after the Knights have dominated the last 15 games by winning 14 of them. Even though Little Miami is rebuilding from last year’s fine season, rivals such as these rarely become lopsided. In fact, it is very common for the favored team to “sleep walk” through a game like this. But on this beautiful evening for high school football, the home team made all of the fans and alumni take notice that this team had no intentions of waltzing through this local contest. In the first half alone, the game had to be stopped 7 times to assist injured Panthers off the field! While the home team brought a physical style of play on this night, they also displayed the ability score and score quickly on both sides of the ball with long touchdown throws, long runs from the line of scrimmage and with interceptions on the defensive side as well!

The challenge for the Kings team is to stay hungry and to continue to crave the opportunity to get better through each day of practice this week. This Friday, the Knights travel to Walnut Hills to play a much improved Eagles team that has proven to be stingy of the defensive side of the ball and possess the ability to score fast with their speedy QB and RB!

See you on the field!

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

Watching the replay of this game on Friday certainly showed shades of being an ESPN Classic with a Kings victory, 32-30. Glen Este was as good as advertized and our team went “toe to toe” with the FAVC Buckeye conference power for four quarters. If only Kings Island could duplicate an actual ride that brought out the range of emotions that this high school football contest did, they would have probably the greatest amusement park ride ever created!

Both teams played extremely hard in every phase of the game! Both defenses rose to the occasion when they needed to and just when you thought each team’s offense left them, a player would make a fantastic effort that resulted in a score! The special team phases for both squads would get involved with the visitors scoring on a fake punt only to be followed up with a 98 yard touchdown return by the home team! This was just a sample of plays that would make this night extra special for Kings and their homecoming crowd.

The last time the Knights had a game broadcast they got embarrassed by a very good Turpin Team. As they say, “the second time is a charm”! Personally speaking from experience, it was much more enjoyable this time around not only due to the win but knowing what to expect with the interviews, sideline cameras, and all the extra publicity that comes with such an event.

Probably the best news of the night was the fact that our team overcame a few situations that will not doubt pay larger dividends later in this season. As a team, we came back from being down late in the game-not easy to do! We had players play hurt the entire game-not easy to do! We played extremely hard for four quarters-not easy to do. We showed explosive scoring potential with several plays throughout the game-not easy to do.

Lastly, two very important groups of people outside of our team deserve “kudos”. This group would be our Athletic Department and Administration team. On this night, these groups made sure this experience was enjoyed by all-just not the football team. Our Student body (also know as The Red Sea) was on full display as they enjoyed a pre-game pep rally sponsored by Outback! Without question this promotion helped gather the largest student section ever assembled at any one Kings Athletic event in over 20 years at Kings High School! On this night, it was a “classic” in each and every possible meaning of the word. Probably the best news of all…..we have the second half of the season to look forward to!

See on the field!

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

The old expression, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, can certainly apply to this year’s football team. After suffering a self inflicted defeat 2 weeks ago, the young Knights had no time to sulk with backyard rival Loveland waiting in on deck circle. Our battle cry all week in preparation for the typically hard hitting contest has been, “play 4 quarters!” On this beautiful evening Kings came out with guns blazing.

As the visiting team, we took the field first. Just as we did, the Tigers were greeted with the roar of fireworks as they exited their Tiger shaped tunnel complete with smoke! What a nice show!! The only issue was that one of their defensive leaders ran out to mid-filed carrying a rather large piece of wood over his shoulder. The normal football fan would not pick up on the symbolization of that plank of wood. It simply means to, “Bring the wood”. Going into this game, it was pretty cleat to our staff and players that Loveland’s defense was certainly worthy enough to carry such a symbol. But in this case, it was as if Red’s 2^nd baseman Brandon Phillips’ badly timed comments were transformed into a piece of wood! On the first kickoff, Kings defenders Brady Vanover and Brian Huffman provided fireworks for Kings by blowing up a would be Loveland blocker. This set the tone for the Knights version of “bringing the wood!”

For the second Friday in a row, the Knights offense drew blood first posting 16 points in the first quarter! The visitors would go on to posting their first shutout of the season while the defense ended up totaling 29 points on the evening.

For the first time in this young season, our guys played hard for 4 quarters! This showed at the half with some tired faces-as they should be! The same fire and energy that was present the first half, came out of the locker room at the half and virtually duplicated its first half effort!

See you on the field,

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

Although our young TEAM is a year older, there is still much, much to learn. They learned Friday night that “the best

TEAM doesn’t always win but the TEAM that plays the best usually does”. No one will dispute that we had superior firepower and more opportunities to win the game than the home team, Harrison had. The difference, they capitalized on their chances while the visiting Knights let theirs’ slip through their fingers on many occasions.

Once again, we seemed to be outmanned upfront physically on both sides of the ball but up until mid way through the final quarter, the defensive and offensive lines for us played well enough to win. In situations like this, all you can do as a coach is ask your kids to do their best and up to that point, I really think they did that for the majority of this contest.

There were many bright spots for our team but it was the untimely penalties and dropped balls that caught the eyes of our staff the most. The good news…..all of these things are correctable. As coaches, we will focus on what we need to improve upon.

This week brings us perhaps one of the biggest challenges of this young season. Loveland is another Buckeye Division team that also happens to be one of our local rivals. And we all know what is involved when playing a rival such as Loveland. Their strength will be their defense as they will prove to be one of the best we face the remainder of the year! To secure a win, we will need to take advantage of any and all opportunities that are presented! Although our TEAM may still be young, if they can learn from the past, we will not let another opportunity like that one pass us by again this season!

See you on the field!

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

The pre-game speech was centered in challenging the defense to play faster, more physical, and with more discipline. Consider the “challenge” accepted. Milford put up over 50 points last week against a Cincinnati Public school in Hughes. Their offensive numbers were very, very impressive as you might guess. But on this night, The Eagles quickly discovered that they were not playing Hughes.

At the end of the first half the score read Kings 31 & Milford 0. Not only did the defense post a shutout for the first half, they held the Eagles to only 20 total yards! Eventually Milford would find the end zone 3 times on the night with 2 of them going against your reserves late in the 4^th quarter.

Traditionally, the biggest and most coveted defensive award that can be earned is the “big stick” award. A small paddle is created and painted along with the date, score, and winners name painted on it. There were many times last year we could not give out the award do to the lack of big hits! But on this night, the tables would be turned! Last week we gave out 3 paddles! And for the Milford effort, that number will probably be doubled!!! In fact, the secondary hitting seemed to be so contagious that it quickly spread to the entire defensive unit!

Unlike in the opener versus Lebanon, we played extremely well the first half. Although we were less than stellar in the second half, most of that goes on my shoulders for pulling guys and giving our young guys a chance to get under the lights on a Friday. This Friday, Harrison will be the biggest test by far. They are one of the best coached teams we face each year and they are also one of the most physical ones as well. Turnovers and big plays will determine the winner of this game on this night!

See you on the field!

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

Although the heading sounds like the title of a boring book, Friday’s opening was anything but boring! As this year’s seniors would walk down the hill into the stadium, I am quite sure their stomachs were about at the top of their throats. As the dust settled at the end of the first half, the score showed things all knotted up at 14-14. The first half highlights included Sophomore Nick Collado returning a kickoff 90 yards for his first touchdown as a Kings Varsity football player while sophomore middle linebacker Austin Copeland had a hit on Lebanon’s running back just before the half they sent him to the sidelines for help from their medical team.

After getting beat 45-17 a year ago by the visitors, the coaches felt like our team had much more to give. And they were right. In the second half, the defense started to play like they had shown in the pre season holding Lebanon to only one score the second half with that coming off of a turnover. The offensive staff felt similar to that of the defensive staff. In the first half, the Knights offense only got 14 snaps. However, in the second half that amount would more than triple while scoring 3 more times. Junior running back Jamire Westbrook piled up 171 yards on the ground along with a spectacular TD catch from Jensen Gebhardt measuring 41 yards. Westbrook and Senior Ben Bennett ran behind a young offensive line that totaled over 40 knockdowns with sophomore guard Kennedy Cook claiming 12.

This week, a much improved and veteran Milford team will test the young Knights even more. Once again the players will post practice goals to work on this week in hopes of continuing to improve upon what they already have established!

See you on the field,

Coach Olds

GO KNIGHTS!!!

For only the second time in my 12 year tenure as head football coach, I found our team playing a game that had no playoff implications. So in going into this game, as a staff, we had to make sure the players had to play “for something”. When you are in the playoffs, you never know when your last game will be for sure until it is over. You are also most likely to end your season with a loss. But on this particular night, we controlled our outcome along with having an “extra” emphasis on winning!

The first factor was that while we had negotiated what many would consider a less than successful season as we stood at 2 & 7, we had the opportunity to send the seniors out on a winning note. But on this particular senior night, visiting Walnut Hills also had something to play for-a chance to post a winning season for the first time in many, many seasons by winning their 6^th game of the season. The other factor for the players that with this win, it would be a personal mile stone as it would prove to be my 100^th win in my 12 season career as Head Coach at Kings.

As the game unfolded, it looked very similar to the many games we had had earlier in the year. And usual, we were on the losing side by the smallest of margins. In the previous week, we lost a heartbreaker to rival Little Miami in an overtime battle that could have easily gone the other way. And two weeks prior to that, we would lose to eventual league champ and city champ Turpin at homecoming by a score of 14-7 while also letting the chance for an upset slip threw our fingers.

With less than a minute to go on this special night, Walnut Hills was staring at a winning record square in the face from out 9 yard line and with a fresh set of downs to reach pay dirt! On their first play, they made it to the 5 yard line. On second down and third downs, our defense stood firm negating both tries. And on fourth and goal, their last attempt resulted in a forced fumble by their elusive QB and a recovery by Senior Trey Knecht. The only thing left for the home team was to execute two “victory snap” formations and to run the clock down to zero.

Over the next 15 minutes, I experienced many ranges of emotions-many that still seem awfully blurry! But the best memory was watching our players run toward me and begin to get in line to personally congratulate me one at a time in order to exchange a handshake and a hug. It will be these moments that will not be forgotten. The sincerity in their eyes was unmistakable. It was another “reinforcing moment” for me that I am in the right business. And this business is not necessarily the “winning games” but rather the business of “winning kids”.

As adults, I think we all know that the opportunity to really learn about people and ourselves occurs through difficult and challenging moments in our lives regardless if it is an athletic contest or perhaps with a personal issue. Without question, I learned more about myself through this season. I will not go into great detail because they are very personal but I will share that I am motivated more now than ever to continue to help young boys develop to into men. And if not men, at least better people!

Thanks for your faithfulness in the program and in me!

See you on the field (next year!),

GO KNIGHTS!!!

Coach Olds