By Paul Brubaker
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The goal this season for the Columbia High School Cougars football team comes down to a single word: redemption.
“I want you to call yourselves ‘the redemption team,’ ” said head coach Gary Mobley, projecting from the middle of the refurbished Lynn V. Profeta Field/Underhill Sports Complex to the dozens of players who had just put on their gear after running sprints.
“How about this year, we try more energy?” Mobley barked as his players darted to different drill stations set up on the field. “How about this year, we try to focus more?”
Mobley, who is entering his seventh year as head coach, knows it will take more than energy and focus to put the Cougars on the road to redemption from last season, when injuries and illnesses plagued the team.
The new football field’s construction had the team playing all of their games everywhere but their home turf at the Underhill Sports Complex. The Cougars finished the season with a 2-7 record. But Mobley has reasons to be optimistic this year. “This group of seniors that we got, they’re really focused. And we’re very experienced in our skilled positions,” he said, referring to the quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers.
The Cougars’ season opener will be against the Livingston Lancers at home at the Underhill Sports Complex on Thursday, Aug. 31, at 6:30 p.m.
Hopes are high that the team will match or surpass its 5-5 record for the 2019 and 2021 seasons.
What will make the biggest difference this year is how the linemen perform, Mobley said.
It was a merciful 72 degrees at 8:30 a.m. on a recent Thursday as Mobley’s players lined up in squads of five. They slammed into the sled of padded dummies, digging their feet into the turf and driving their legs to push the sled back 10 yards at a time – sometimes with Mobley himself riding on the sled.
“We’re hoping these guys can grow up and give us some blocking up front,” he said. “Football games are hard to win without an offensive line being productive.”
Photos Courtesy of Paul Brubaker
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