By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DALLAS, Ore.– The Dallas Standard means being disciplined.
And during Wednesday’s mid-day practice, Dragons Head Coach Andy Jackson was preaching that to his players. To be the most disciplined team out on the gridiron come Friday night.
“One of our biggest focuses is attention to detail, the little things. The first steps, working the downblocks, moving your feet, all those kind of stuff and that plays a big role in Dallas Football,” said Jace Mosley. “I think all of my teammates put in a lot of effort. As a team, we put in a lot of work.”
“The standard’s here are pretty big and it pays off. A good football team has to have good standards. If you don’t put any effort in, if you miss a block and you just stand there, you’re never going to get anything done,” adds Tommy Hess. “So I think that effort piece, especially in practice….doing everything hard and doing all the little things as hard as you can, it makes the big things easier.”
And that attention to detail is going to be big for the Dragons this season after graduating some big names from last year’s squad. But with that, comes opportunity for those around those seniors from last year to take their roles and make it their own.
Guys like Mosley, Hess and Bert Latta return with another year under their belts to live up to the Dallas Standard they’ve grown into through the years.
“It’s been a huge deal for us to set the standard for our teammates, especially the younger guys,” starts Mosley. “We have quite a few younger guys stepping up this year and filling roles that need to be filled. I think us setting the standard is a really big deal.”
And as for leadership for these seniors like Hess, last year’s contributions went a long way as they finished up their fifth practice of the year with the sixth coming up Wednesday evening.
“It was like getting thrown into the fire, I had no idea what I was doing, I just got put in there and I was just leading a team basically full of seniors and I was a junior. I think the experience was huge because I was getting pushed everyday, every game with the stress and now that I’m here senior year, it makes it a lot easier and that I have a little more confidence,” said Hess. “We’ll be just fine this year with those guys leaving, we had good leaders. Hunter (Rivers) really helped me along, showing me what I need to do, being more vocal.”
Dallas will head to South Salem to take part in the Saxons Jamboree on August 28 before the Dragons kick off the season on September 4 at Central. Dallas’ first home game of the year will be on September 11 against Newberg.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
