One thing is driving the Victory Christian football team this spring.
“Make it back to state and win it,” said rising senior safety Jethro Francois.
The Storm lost to Champagnat in the Class 2A state championship, 14-7.
“Get a ring,” said Francois. “You don’t want to be naked on that finger. You want a ring. You want to go back and redeem that loss, and win it this time.”
“There’s not much need for extra motivation,” said returning quarterback Caleb Lewis.
“Losing a state championship is pretty much the worst thing that happened to us as a football team. That’s pretty much our sole motivator going forward.”
“When you start getting into the daily grind and you get into workouts, and you get into spring practice, the reality sets in that there’s a lot of work to do,” said second-year head coach Tommy Lewis.
“I don’t think anyone on this field is resting on their laurels. We have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go to even think about getting back to the playoffs let alone the state championship. Reality sets in pretty quick.”
“We do have a really different team than last year,” said Caleb Lewis. “We lost a lot of really important seniors, really important guys. At the same time, we just have to work hard.”
One of those important losses is University of Texas bound, three-star defensive tackle, Chris Nelson.
“You lose the fear factor,” said Francois. “He’s a big guy, so a lot of penetrating. He helped on pass defense and run defense. He filled up a lot of holes. So, it’s going to be real tough.”
“We’re very young,” said Coach Lewis. “We have a lot of current 9th and 8th graders that are playing this spring. Getting them up the learning curve has been a big part of what spring practice is all about.”
The Storm graduated 17 seniors. They will be very young and inexperienced, especially on defense. They lost six linebackers, and two out of their three defensive linemen.
One big positive for Victory Christian is that they return a very talented signal caller. In his junior campaign, Lewis led Polk County in passing. He threw for 3,025 yards with 28 touchdowns. He says he is not interested in personal achievements for his final season.
“A personal goal is the team goal,” said Lewis. “Winning a state championship is more important than whatever stats I get, whatever accolades I receive. Really, I just want to do whatever it takes to get back to the state championship. If that means throwing for 5,000 yards, so be it. If it means only having 1,000 it doesn't matter, as long as we win.”
Victory Christian plays their spring game Friday against Christ Church Academy in Jacksonville.