LA's Head Coach Sully Richardson walked out of a morning meeting with his coaching staff on Monday morning with a smile on his face. "It's another chance to get things right," said Richardson. "If you cannot get excited about that? You don't need to be here." There is no time for moping around at The Imperial Point Athletic Center. Although the team is once again 0-2 (0-1 Pacific), the SFL season is still young. "It's way too early to just throw our hands up and go home," Captain and Defensive End Ace Blackwell said while at his locker. "We're down right now but the exciting thing is finding a way to get back up."
Laying the Foundation
The Lycans lost a heart-breaking Week One loss to their Pacific Division rival Nemesis of Seattle (23-22) and a blowout loss to the Scorpions in Arizona (41-27) the next week. Seated in his office, we catch up with Head Coach Richardson to get his thoughts on the season so far.
LAL: "Coach, give us your thoughts on the recent losses of the team."
Richardson: "I'll place the Week One loss squarely on my shoulders. We had a chance to pull out a victory over a very good Seattle team but we let it slip through our fingers. As the Head Coach, I have to better prepare our team for any obstacle that presents itself to us. I can promise you that we'll do better with our time management from now on. Arizona just wanted it more than us. We had opportunities to better ourselves and we didn't. I've stressed in the off-season that we have to minimize our mistakes and capitalize on our oppositions'. It's all about repetitions."
LAL: "What are some positives you can take away from the past two weeks?"
Richardson: "I'm happy with our different personnel packages. We want to move like water and that's been happening on both sides of the ball. Bubba Tree got his first kickoff return for 6, Logan Jack wowed me with his catch-and-run TD, Brandon Brenenstahl scored his first rushing TD as a Lycan, Rachelle Colston and Tazzy Blackwell grabbed INTs (so did TD Jack). Kicker Zashtl Black is doing one hell of a job putting us on the board. Both sides of the football are performing well. Is it enough? No, it most certainly is not. It starts with me."
LAL: "On the 28th of January, your team travels to The Hive in Atlanta to play a 1-1 Swarm team. What have you all done to prepare?"
Richardson: "We've gone back to the basics. Sometimes, you have to reevaluate yourself. We asked questions like 'What can I do to get better,' and 'Did I give it my all?' We have to find a way to win and there are plenty of avenues to do so. Dynasty, BDG, Chislom, and the entire Swarm team knows what it's like to be SFL Champions. They also know how to be at the bottom. That team never gives up! And that's the type of mindset we need for the rest of the season. We cannot give up."
Can LA finally find their winning ways? Find out this Sunday (28th). The Lycans-Swarm game starts at 9:15pm ET/6:15 PT on SFL' s YouTube channel. Tune into Lycans News for more news and notes!