City’s Blue Bishops Ready And Focused
By TOM CARDINALE
Focus on the ball. Focus on the play. Focus on the coach. Focus on the tackle. Focus on the endzone. Focus on the championship. Focus. Focus. Focus. For all the hitting and running and intricate play calling, success on the football field all boils down to one word: Focus.
As the Asbury Park Blue Bishops approach what is most likely the biggest game any of them have ever played in their young careers this is the theme.
For some it may go down as the biggest game of their lives, a monumental event to be remembered by not only they and their families but by an entire community who has rallied behind them.
The players, uniquely aware of the history of Asbury Park football that was written by their fathers and uncles and brothers, hope to add their own chapter to the annals of the Blue Bishops. With the weight of a town’s expectations resting on their teenage shoulders it would come as no surprise, then, to find the players anxious and nervous about Friday’s game.
Somehow, though, if you look closely, it comes as even less of a surprise to find that’s not the case at all.
“We’ve got the same focus we’ve had all season: play hard ball,” senior captain Knowryl Hammary said. “Since we started the season it’s been the same, not a change.”
“We’re just going to practice hard and drink our fluids so we don’t cramp up,” running back Rashawn Roberts said. “We talk to people who have been through the same experience and played for the school.”
“We talk to the community and family for inspiration,” quarterback Will Johnson said.
“We’re preparing like it’s the Super Bowl,” Coach Don Sofilkanich said. “But you don’t want to blow the kids out of the water with preparation. We try to keep everything as focused and on task as possible.”
Focus.
Hammary, Roberts, and Johnson were all members of last season’s 1-9 team, as was most of the Bishops roster, and yet the only thing anyone may find in common between last year and this year would be the names on the roster.
While this season has proven that the team’s talent far surpassed their record last season, it has been their attitude, and their focus that created the turnaround.
“The players were willing to change,” McMillan said. “Coach [Sofilkanich] brought discipline and we’re staying in shape and avoiding mistakes.”
“We knew we were going to have a positive season but we never knew we’d get this far,” Roberts said. “But we had a vision of it.”
“You’ve got to set goals,” Sofilkanich said. “We had some, like winning on opening day, that we didn’t achieve but we got a winning season and we got to the playoffs.”
“Even after we lost the first game we kept our heads high,” McMillan continued.
Following that season opening loss few would’ve blamed the Bishops for wondering if this season was destined to be more of the same.
“There were some questions,” Sofilkanich said of the opening day loss to Rumson-Fairhaven. “But we moved on.”
Focus.
The inspiration and support of the town has also been a catalyst to the team’s incredible season and the players are well aware of the towns impact on them and vice versa.
“We’ve come a long way and they’re on our side, cheering us on where ever we go,” Roberts said.
“They motivate us to do a lot of things,” senior Kaeshon McMillan said.
“It’s great,” Sofilkanich said. “It’s a good thing for the community and reflects positively on Asbury Park and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Focus.
Despite all of the positives, however, the team is still all about football, no one more so than their coach.
“If we don’t close this out it’s not a successful season,” Sofilkanich said. “The goal is to win it all and now we have the chance. We’ve got to come prepared and bring our A-game.”
And while Sofilkanich and his coaching staff and the players may share this all-or-nothing sentiment you’d be hard-pressed to find another person in Asbury Park who wouldn’t consider this season a rousing success, win or lose Friday night. But, I suppose, that’s only because most of us lack what the Bishops exude: Focus
Contact Tom Cardinale at tom@thecoaster.net.
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