Eagles kick off football season at home

Photo by ROGER LALONDE

Victoria Wright Eagle i Contributor Quarterback Austin Knoll looks like he lost his legs while being tackled in a Marco Eagles senior team practice. The seniors open the Eagles season at home at Winterberry Park on Thursday night against First Baptist of Naples.

Photo by ROGER LALONDE

Victoria Wright, Eagle i Contributor Members of the Marco Eagles Junior and Senior teams warm up before practice. The Senior team opens the season at Winterberry Park on Thursday night against First Baptist of Naples.

Photo by ROGER LALONDE

Victoria Wright, Eagle i Contributor Trevor Dye splits two blockers on a Marco Eagles Seniors practice.

The Marco Eagles kick off its football season with games on Sept. 11 against First Baptist of Naples at Winterberry Park.

The Pee Wee team kicks off the day at 8 a.m. At 9 a.m. two First Baptist Pee Wee teams will play each other. At 10 a.m. the Eagles Junior team will play First Baptist. At 11:15 a.m. the Eagles Senior team will play First Baptist.

With the numbers down from a year ago, the Eagles coaches decided to trim the number of teams from five to three.

Hector Diaz, Eagles president, said it made good sense to downsize, giving teams more depth.

There are 38 players on the Pee Wee Roster, 26 on the Junior squad and 18 on the Senior team.

“All the teams look good,” Diaz said. “The players and coaches are excited about having a good year.”

In the Eagles program every team member gets to play in the game. The teams also use some defensive and offensive strategies similar to Lely High.

“The Lely coaches are here at practices about once a week helping our kids,” Diaz said. “It is good for the kids because they learn a bit about the Lely terminology and what will be expected of them when they go to Lely.”

Diaz said last season’s games were well attended at home and on the road.

“It is great when the community gets behind the teams,” he said.

Only the Pee Wee roster was available at news deadline.

The team coaches are Eddie Webb, Tom Lang, Scott Cervin and Rick Endres.

Players include Cole Anders, Stuart Endres, Heidi and Keaton Ashby, Jay Cartwright, Tyler Cavalier, Sean Cervin, Joshia Choate, Jack Creedon, Cody Dean, John Edward Padgett-Wright, Bryce Ehlen, Mason Haire, Jimmy Gates, Will Glasser, Logan Gross, Charles Hamilton, Declan Keefe, Jason Lang, Mark Lopez, Andrew Lundquist, Joe and Kyle Moser, Johnny Nicholson, Jackson Ohsay, Cristian Pipitone, Jacob Prudhome, Connor Ragan, Andrew Sprankle, Joseph Steele, Tyler and Ryan Toth, Jonathan Waggoner, Ryan Wallace, Jacob Warren, Cody and Justin Webb.