Discoverers Hoping To Bounce Back In 2019

COLUMBUS - The Columbus Discoverer football team is looking for a bounce back season in 2019 after a tough end to last year's campaign.

Columbus finished the 2018 season with a 3-6 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015. The Discoverers started the year at 2-2, but faced heavy competition in the second half of the season, losing four straight to Elkhorn South, Creighton Prep, Millard South, and Omaha Westside.

The Discoverers were unable to win a game on the road, which Head Coach Craig Williams chalks up to the relative inexperience of last year's squad. Columbus returns many of the key players from last year's team, and Williams believes that the added experience of last season will play a big part in 2019.

"We have a group of guys now that have played a lot of football, and they still have a lot of football ahead of them because we're playing a lot of juniors," Williams said. "They have experience under their belt now, they were coming from freshman football and walking into Creighton Prep and Omaha Westside, so I think that getting that experience of going on the road last year and going to those places will help us this year."

Williams says that one of the biggest things he and his coaching staff have noticed about this training camp is the intensity that the players are showing, which was clearly evident at a scrimmage this past weekend.

"We had a scrimmage on Saturday morning, and with the intensity that was out there on that field, it didn't feel like a Saturday morning scrimmage," Williams said. "We actually have a full two-deep at most positions, so we can line up and do a ones vs. ones type of situation, and that's big to be able to simulate what you're going to see on a Friday night."

Columbus will open the season just like it did last year, with a match-up against the Norfolk Panthers. In last year's opener, the Panthers were able to come away with a 35-14 victory, holding off Columbus in the fourth quarter. Williams says for the result to be different this year, the Discoverers will have to play all four quarters with the intense and athletic style that they possess.

"Last year, our kids just ran out of gas, and that's something we talked about towards the end of summer, and we worked on conditioning," Williams said. "These kids asked the coaching staff to push them this year, and I don't know if they were expecting what they got, but they've really been pushed this preseason. We're trying to build that conditioning up so that we can last the full four quarters and finish that football game."

Columbus begins the 2019 season on August 30th at home against Norfolk.