Coming off its 34-14 victory against Milwaukee Lutheran last Friday, Homestead’s varsity football team has been preparing for the Homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 25 against Port Washington.

Head Coach Dave Keel said that the team has been preparing very hard for the game this week by fighting off all of the distractions of Homecoming Week and just trying to focus on the game.

With its 3-2 record so far this year, the team feels like they have been working hard and that they have done many things well. “The team has done a great job facing adversity of all kinds. We only have five or six returning starters, so a lot of kids are just now playing varsity football for the first time,” Jake Bruner, senior defensive back, said.

“This year, we’ve come a long way both physically and mentally on both sides of the ball. Although we haven’t had some outcomes we wished for, we’ve learned from our mistakes and became more tightly knit as a team,” Sean Driscoll, senior defensive back, said.

Junior quarterback Eric Zoeller was in agreement with Bruner and Driscoll. “We’ve really been focusing more on us and less on other outside factors. We’ve done a good job responding to difficult losses; we’ve learned a lot from both of them,” Zoeller said.

Even with all of these strengths for the football team, the team, however, does feel like they have some weaknesses that they can improve on to finish the season.

“For our team this year, we’ve struggled to stay upbeat and to play consistently well for a whole game, but we excel when everyone does their job and is focused on winning,” Driscoll said.

“We need to get better at capitalizing on our opponents’ mistakes; we let too many great opportunities slip by in close games,” Zoeller said.

Bruner was more focused on the defensive side of the game. “The number one thing that the defense has to work on is playing sound football. Everyone needs to make sure that their responsibilities are done before they do anything else,” he said.

The game this week is different than any other game of the year because it is the Homecoming game. Every year, this game is very special to the players because they can see all week how excited all the students are to watch and be at this game.

“The Homecoming game is different because all week around school you can see all of your friends and classmates coming together and dressing weird or dressing in school spirit wear, and it really gets you excited for the game, knowing that all your friends have your back, either on the field or in the stands,” Driscoll said.

Zoeller agreed with Driscoll. “The Homecoming game is really special. There’s an exciting buzz around the school, and the crowd is always really fired up. It’s very exciting,” he said.

The team plans on giving everything it has on every play on the field come Friday night, regardless of who the competition is. “The Homecoming game is always a very big game for us, regardless of the opponent, since there are always more people in the stands, as well as a much rowdier student section,” Bruner said.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Carly Kleiman

Junior quarterback Eric Zoeller pitches the ball to senior running back Matt Winters.