John Paul II Crusaders football coach reflects on the season

Pinno, who coaches the defence, said the team continued developing a zone defence introduced late last season.

“I felt like after one year, it’s something that we can have a lot of success with as we keep using it throughout the years.”

On offence, Pinno highlighted several players.

“Our quarterback Kage Koch, I think, did a great job. This was his first year full-time playing quarterback. He led our offence and we became a pass-first offence because of his ability to throw the ball,” Pinno said.

Pinno also highlighted Grade 9 receiver Matthew Pyle and Drew Cain, who moved from defence to running back. He described offensive lineman Vince Lidon, a Grade 11 captain, as “an absolute rock for us on the offensive line.”

Pinno also praised several players on defence.

Tristan Rose earned the starting safety spot in his first year playing football, while Yuri Henderson found more success after moving from offence to defence, Pinno said.

He also credited Austin Crone, who moved to the defensive line, with “always doing the small things to lead us to success.”

Pinno pointed to a 28-14 loss to Delisle as a standout game, saying he was pleased with the team’s grit despite the result.

“The defence ended up shutting them out in the second half,” he said. “Our offence saw a lot of success. They saw struggles too, just like any other football game.”

Pinno also thanked the coaching staff, school and community for their support throughout the season.

“They help me out a ton and they know their stuff and I feel like we have the supports necessary,” he said of the coaching staff.

“Also wanted to thank just the school, like people within the school helping me out on game day,” he said. “We had quite a few people come out to all of our home games and we’re hoping that we can continue having that same support for all of our home games.”

After a season with many inexperienced players, Pinno hopes the experience they gained will help next year.

“If we don’t have to go backwards next year because the kids have those skills, then we can just keep ramping up and keep improving other areas of our game that we need to improve,” he said.

Although he hopes to see improvement on the field, Pinno said high school sports are about more than wins and losses.

“We have to get away from wins and losses and just think about where are we now and how do we improve,” Pinno said.

“A concept that we talked about last year was good to great,” he said. “As a good football team, how do we become great?”

“Improvement’s the only thing I care about.”

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Ryan.Lambert@pattisonmedia.com

by Ryan Lambert

John Paul II Crusaders football coach reflects on the season

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