Leon Boulware said his Lewisville Lions have had some “very competitive” practices so far. He thinks that will equate to a very competitive team when the season starts on August 19.
The first-year head man of the Lions had his team on the field on the first day practice was allowed (Friday) and said it represented a continuation of the development he saw during the off-season.
“Luckily, I was able to come in back in December and start laying the groundwork,” he said. “The energy is high, the numbers are right where we want them to be and we are where we thought we would be.”
When he was introduced as head coach, Boulware talked a lot about the offense he planned to install, one that would produce big plays in bunches. That hasn’t changed as he said he’s seen every indication that his team has athletes that can provide a big scoring punch. However, he thinks one of the real strengths of his team is going to be the defense. Everyone wants to see big point totals, but Boulware believes championships are won on the other side of the ball. He wants Lewisville to be a physically tough team and thinks his defense can be the tone-setter in that regard.
“Coming in as a coaching staff, we want to be known for rugged defense that can run sideline to sideline. The most experienced group we have is the defensive line,” he said.
That showed itself in the team’s spring game. The defense always tends to be a bit ahead of the offense in those contests, particularly when an entirely new offensive system is being installed, and that looked to be the case for Lewisville. However, it wasn’t just a matter of that side of the ball being a bit further along, the defense just flat out made plays. Pressuring the passer, plays on the ball and everyone surging to the ball were all on display that day. Boulware believes his defense is not only good, but still has room to get better.
Offensively, Lewisville has progressed a great deal since that spring game. A busy summer of 7-on-7 work helped a great deal but so has getting “bigger, stronger and faster” in the weight room and lots of learning.
“We’ve got 100% of the playbook installed. We have wristbands but we don’t have to rely on them at this point. The kids understand what we’re doing and we have athletes who can make plays in space,” Boulware said.
The Lions will get a pretty good idea of how far they have come pretty quickly.
The team will host a scrimmage on Thursday at 6 p.m. that features Pageland Central, Keenan and Trinity. Pageland, of course, has a long reputation of being an extremely physical program, Keenan typically spreads things out and scores a lot of points and Trinity is a defending SCISA state champion. Boulware’s primary desire is to see his team come out of the day healthy, but he wants to see his team compete and wants to get film for his team to learn from.
Boulware said he knows the community is engaged and excited about the Lewisville program and he embraces the idea of the team competing for titles again and also excelling the classroom.
“Nobody can put more pressure on us than we are putting on ourselves,” he said.
To that end, he said his team just needs to keep doing what’s it’s been doing. A team that is competitive on the practice field will also be competitive on Friday nights.
