Some lessons you have to learn the hard way.
Calvert coach Todd Fox admitted his team had a bad week of practice, and it came back to haunt it under the Friday night lights when it lost to Woodmore.
It wasn't an issue of effort according to Fox, just the effects of a not being prepared.
"It was a hard lesson learned, but yeah I think they've learned their lesson and we'll press forward from here," he said. "I don't believe in the fact that when you go out and play your game, that you don't give your best effort. I think that was their best effort available to them with the way they practiced."
Fox says this week has been better. Calvert has spent the majority of practice time improving itself, as opposed to being concerned about what its opponent is doing - in this case, the Lakota Raiders.
"No disrespect to Lakota because they're a fine football team we're going to play against on Friday night, but this week we really focused on us," Fox said. "That last week's bad practice situation, it wasn't like it was the first time we had a bad practice or two, we strung together a few more last week than we had in the past. This week, it's been a new focus. We worked on us as much as we can and we're hoping it's going to pay off Friday night."
After winning just one game over the previous two seasons, Lakota is off to a 2-1 start under first-year coach David Vodika.
For Fox, he sees the same athletes on the Raiders' sideline, but also a new-found belief in themselves.
"The Lakota Raiders are much improved from last year," Fox said. "Their coach has done a great job getting them to believe in themselves. I think they've always had the athletes. I believe at this point, they just believe in themselves. We got a tough test. They're leading the league in rushing and have one of the top defenses, too. So we're going to have to be able to play the game.
"Overall i think they just believe in themselves. It's not an Xs-and-Os thing. I think this group, for whatever reason, has decided to come out and play the game and they've been doing a very good job of it. So we're going to have to be ready to go."
After opening the season with a loss to Arcadia, the Raiders responded with back-to-back wins over Gibsonburg and Cardinal Stritch, where they have outscored their opponents 39-7.
Lakota has picked up their two wins using a ground attack. While Lakota ranks last in the Midland Athletic League in rushing, the Raiders feature the league's leading rusher in Kody Brewer (Calvert quarterback Tyler Long ranks second).
Brewer's racked up 321 yards through the season's first three games on just 26 carries. Good enough for a 12.3 yards per carry average. Tiger Jaso has added 251 yards on 35 carries.
Kickoff is 7 p.m. in Kansas.
