As Lightridge’s football program tackles its fourth year, the coaching staff is very positive on the progression the team has made in such a short time.

The first year the team had almost no upperclassman players, and the program had an independent schedule, meaning they had the opportunity to pick their own opponents due to the pandemic. Their first year record was 4-2 against teams from similar sized schools.

 “The COVID year allowed a lot of the new kids to play varsity football during their freshman year, which is rare,” said assistant coach Joseph Re. “They had only put on pads two weeks previous to the first game.” 

Re said that this allowed them to learn the game early, and thus allowed the senior players in the fall of 2023 season to gain the experience to help them succeed.

“The first year we competed well in a few games,” said head coach Bobby Eavenson. “All the other games we lost by a lot.” 

After these tough losses, Eavenson said, “they practiced hard and built a strong connection with their teammates, which led Lightridge football to see some distinct changes.” 

 Their second year brought a standard schedule against teams that were from larger schools and who were significantly more experienced than them. The result was a 4-6 season. The third year also had a 4-6 record, but they were able to close the huge gap in scores that had plagued them the previous season.  

The gap between winning and losing became smaller and smaller and the team was able to compete with high quality teams.  This difference in score was encouraging to the whole coaching staff.

“We went from losing big to losing small,” said Eavenson. For example, while the second year the team lost to Loudoun Valley 38-13, they were able to close the gap and lose 35-34 the third year. Although these games weren’t wins, they were able to change the dynamic of the game, and prove that Lightridge is a team to be reckoned with. 

Re believes that Lightridge Football has grown a tremendous amount and has not only fulfilled its four core values, integrity, sacrifice, accountability, and competition, but has “turned these football players into great young men.”

 He believes the program will continue to grow and all the players and coaches will continue to keep “learning on the fly.”

Assistant coach Miles Lipscomb agrees.

 “Success for the program is seeing the young men become disciplined and be able to take accountability for themselves,” said Lipscomb. “ Seeing how the kids are developing, I know we’re on the road to success.”

Through six weeks of the fall of 2023 campaign, the team’s record is 4-2, including wins against regional rivals Independence and Freedom.