Coming off a 5-5 regular season that saw the Tecumseh Arrows finish in the middle of the pack in the Central Buckeye Conference, coach Chris Cory has put together a summer schedule he hopes can get the Arrows back on track toward a winning record, and another run at not only a league title, but another playoff contention.

The Arrows have begun their summer work toward what they expect to be improvement, and Cory has been impressed with what he has seen so far in the month of June.

“We played ok last year, the defense played very well and we had a couple of games where we our offense let the defense down,” Cory said. “We led Bellefontaine at halftime and lost the game late in the year, and if we win that game a lot of things change in the league.

Bellefontaine went on to win the league, and now Cory is preparing to bring the championship back to New Carlisle, a place it laded several times in the past.

“Things are going well, we have had 60 kids at workouts,” he said. “We are changing some things up. The athletic boosters donated money and the Tecumseh football fund came together and bought a lot of new equipment for the weight room.”

“Everyone likes shiny new toys, our kids think they are working at Ohio State right now,” he joked. “The kids are fired up and they are there every morning. Change is good, it has helped us, the kids are gaining a lot of on their core lifts, they are happy to be there.”

As the summer progresses, Cory knows there is a lot to do to prepare for the grind ahead, but feels confident of what’s ahead.

“Our focus this winter was we need to play faster and be tough,” he said. “That’s the approach in the weight room. They are keeping a good pace. The pace of practice before needed to be better, that is what we focusing on now.”

“I want the kids to focus on work faster and harder. We are trying to change our culture and need to be on the same page as the teams we are playing.”

July will be another busy month for the Arrows, as they will not only have several camp days, but also participate in 7-on-7 competitions, including hosting one at Spitzer Stadium.

The high school camp will be July 10-20, and July 11 will be their 7-on-7 event with Milton Union, Greeneview and Greenon beginning at 6 p.m. Also on July 20 they will go to Wittenberg.

“We are only doing two of them,” Cory said. “We have a lot of adjusting to do so we want to use our camp days for that. Our senior class isn’t large so we will need the young kids to step up. There are no spots set in stone.”

July 12-13 will be the junior high camp 6-8:30 where both the middle and high school teams will practice together. July 17-18 is Pee Wee Camp from 6-8.

“We talked to the seniors about leadership and this summer is big for them,” Cory said. “We have had meetings since December. Our big thing is response=success. We are trying to change the culture, they need to respond the right way.”

The Arrows are hungry to get back to the top, and they know what it will take for them to compete for a league title starting this season.

“It always starts with defense,” Cory said. “Every year we made runs, it has been our defense. They win championships.”

“We need to put our kids in the right position. Everyone likes to score 40 points, but I am happy win 14-7. Offensively, we need to get back to running ball and not turning the ball over.”

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