This fall semester marks the second year of LASA’s football team as their own team independent from LBJ Early College High School (LBJ ECHS). Although their inaugural year was technically last year, some players thought of this as their first year as it offered more normal conditions for the players and more opportunities for students to watch games. The team’s season began with a scrimmage against St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in late August and finished on Nov. 4 with a win against Navarro High School. 

This season, senior William Jachimiak was a new member on the football team, having recently switched from soccer. Jachimiak really enjoyed his time on the team and says it’s been a very positive experience overall. 

“My experience this fall has been really good,” Jachimiak said. “I feel like I haven’t missed out on anything. I haven’t come in and they’ve already had their own group, it feels like I’ve been a part of it from day one, even though there was a lot of getting used to it. It was a very new experience for me, but a very welcoming team.”

Since the start of the season, many players have said that this semester has been successful in terms of organization and efficiency. Building a team almost from scratch and switching campuses made it a difficult adjustment, but according to the players, the team has adapted to the changes. 

“We’re a lot more coordinated, we run practice a lot better,” Jachimiak said. “At the start, our practices were really rough and it took forever to do. We do mock games, and that used to take forever, but now we’ve gotten really good at those too. I would say we’ve grown a lot, even in just this season.”

Senior Liam Green-Musselman, a returning player on LASA’s football team, says he’s pleased with how the team has progressed this fall. Like Jachimiak, he said the team’s fundamental organization has greatly improved, something influenced by the experience of the coaches. 

“This year we have coaches who are more comfortable coaching our positions,” Green-Musselman said. “Our head coach Bryan Crews used to have to coach defense as a whole, but now he just gets to coach linebackers, which is the position he played in college. There’s more people to help facilitate that growth and people to teach who know what they’re doing, instead of before where we just had one player who had played football before.”

Besides becoming more organized, Green-Musselman believes that the team has become much more comfortable with football. According to him, the higher involvement and interest from all players has developed their teamwork and game.

“We have more returning players and new players who are more athletic and more keen to actually play the sport instead of just playing to play their senior year,” Green-Musselman said. “At first, the biggest challenge was maturity, like actually taking the sport seriously. Now it’s just understanding your position because football is the ultimate team sport. You have to know what your job is. You can’t be a superhero. So if someone misses a tackle, I know it’s not my fault, and if I miss a tackle, he knows it’s not his fault.” 

As for next year’s season, there’s optimism but also worry from some players. Despite being nervous about the effect players leaving will have on the team, junior Adam Reisman can’t wait for LASA football’s success next season. 

 “Compared to last season we’ve definitely grown as a team,” Reisman said. “Next year, we’re losing a good amount of seniors, and so it’s going to be a little bit hard to rebuild our team. I think at the rate we’re going at now, we’re going to come back stronger than before and win more games.” 

On the whole, the team has a lot of hope for continuing their streak of positive improvement. This year is only the second season playing independent from LBJ ECHS, and the team is still getting into the swing of things. Many players, like Green-Musselman, have a lot of optimism about future seasons. 

“Now we have a sophomore quarterback who [will] have the chance to mature and get better in the weight room,” Green-Musselman said. “Because we have a lot more sophomores and freshmen, and because our team is about 50% underclassman, they’ll have time to get bigger and stronger and spend four whole years playing football.”