H.S. Football Preview: Ishpeming Hematites

One week ago today, high school football practice officially kicked off the 2012-13 high school sports season. Each football team across the state has now had a few practices with their pads on, getting back to one of the games best traits- the hitting!

In Ishpeming this afternoon, the Hematites were hitting one another, preparing for their first game of the season, which is less than two weeks away. Through one week of practice, Ishpeming head coach Jeff Olson is pleased with what he has seen so far from his players.

“We’ve been doing a lot, working on fundamentals and techniques this last week”, said Olson. “The kids are responding to that. This is an extremely hard working group of kids. Obviously we are behind where we need to be right now, but that’s preseason.

They are working extremely hard, they’ve given us all the effort that we want, so hopefully that will lead to some wins as we get along here.”

“We have high expectations for ourselves” said R.J. Poirer, a senior linebacker and fullback. “We don’t want to publicly come out and say what our goals are, but we have every high expectations for ourselves.

“We are a hard working group and we are returning a couple of lineman and defensive players from last year.”

Speaking of last year, the Hematites went 9-2 before falling in the regionals. Ishpeming has made the playoffs every year since 2002 and they hope to make another deep run come playoff time this season.

But right now, the playoffs are the farthest thing from Coach Olson’s mind.

“This is an extremely hard working group”, Olson went on to say. “And hopefully that will lead to wins. We are confident we can do that, but we are a long ways away from being able to do that right now.

There’s a lot of things we need to shore up. But they work hard, their attitudes are great, and that’s a good sign.”

Ishpeming opens up their season Friday, August 24 at Iron Mountain.