Tompkins Weekly

Welch set to begin a new era with Ithaca High football



By Will LeBlond
Tompkins Weekly

 

After a winless season in 2017, the primary goal for the Ithaca High Football team is well outlined this fall.

The Little Red will be on the hunt for more success on the gridiron and they will be led by first-year head coach Clarence Welch, who has a focus that goes deeper than just the win-loss column. The Ithaca High grad was able to show his new approach in the team’s first practice of the season on Aug. 13, where he started to build a winning mindset in his players.

“We’re really trying to change any bad habits,” said Welch. “We’re trying to have them not cling on to that past and move forward and think positive. We’re trying to build each other up.”
Welch brings experience as a three-sport athlete while with the Little Red and a two-time captain on the football team. He was also named the team’s Most Valuable Player during his senior season before he went on to play collegiately at Hartwick.

His football journey continued after college, as he returned home not long after to join the Cornell Sprint Football team as an assistant coach for just under a decade before his alma mater came calling.

“It’s the approach and the preparation,” said Welch on his coaching philosophy. “Being afforded the opportunity to coach with some guys who have been coaching for 35 to 40 years with the Cornell Sprint team, I got to learn an old school way and a new school way.”

Welch is looking to apply a mix of those old school and new wave methods, and he implemented that right away during the team’s first practice at a quick pace.

“Everyone at all levels are changing the way they practice, the game is not played standing around. We’re trying to preach that and have a much more up-tempo feel and enthusiasm at practice,” said Welch. “Kids are different these days, they’re used to sitting around and playing video games, as opposed to when I was a kid, I can remember going out and playing sports all day long. I’m trying to get them back in that mentality of being active and upbeat.”

The first practice of the season ended with a very upbeat conclusion. After Welch had finished talking to his players, they huddled together and senior Louis Webster echoed the team’s goal for the season when he exclaimed that he does not want to go winless again.

This fall, it won’t just be about Webster and the seniors, as Welch is looking to establish a base of success that will last for a while to come.

“I think it is for the seniors, but the young guys don’t know much about it,” said Welch on their winless 2017 campaign. “For the juniors and seniors, they’ve been around it and they’ve seen it. I think it’s in the front of their minds that they don’t want to go winless again. That’s what we’re preaching in practice, to prepare so we don’t make mental mistakes in games.”

The Little Red will open up the new season on the road against Oswego on Aug. 31 and will have their home opener a week later when they’ll welcome in STAC rival Vestal to Moresco Stadium.

 

 

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