By Tim Donnelly
ESPN Ithaca
Recently on ESPN Ithaca’s Between the Lines, host Tim Donnelly spoke with Ithaca High School Football Head Coach Clarence Welch. After seven consecutive season-opening losses, Welch led Ithaca to a 51-8 victory over Oswego to open their 2018 schedule. Here is a snippet of that conversation; to hear the full interview, visit ESPN Ithaca’s on-demand PodCenter at ESPNIthaca.com.
Tim Donnelly: 51-8 at Oswego, how is that for an introduction to you being the head coach of the program?
Clarence Welch: It feels really good. I’m actually really happy for our kids, our team, the program. You know it’s been seven years since we’ve won a season opener, but to even just get a win in the first game, I’m really excited for the kids.
TD: Did you expect it? Like you said, it’s been a while since this team was able to put a tally in the victory column the first week of the season.
CW: Honestly, we just expected the kids to play hard and to execute, do their assignments and hopefully get the W like we did. To put that many points on the board, I can honestly tell you ‘no’ we didn’t expect that. That obviously puts a big smile on my face, the coaching staff and the kids. It just shows that their hard work paid off.
TD: Now, I know that you were bringing some new elements to the team, some new schemes. How were you able to get them to adopt those new schemes, buy-in, know their assignments essentially in one off-season?
CW: Going back to what I said during the preseason and in the very beginning, it’s just keeping that up-tempo practice, the up-tempo momentum, and just trying to rep as much as we can in practice. You know, learn by doing and just doing it fast.
– – –
Between the Lines with Tim Donnelly can be heard weekdays 4-6 p.m. on ESPN Ithaca (1160 AM/107.1 FM) and at ESPNIthaca.com.
Leave a Reply