Football team looks to reset this spring after losing its last four games last year.

Junior Malcolm Ervin lifts weights on Feb. 7 in the weight room. Ervin has been practicing five days a week along with the rest of the football team to get ready for the fall football season. -- DANIELLE GADDDY | SNN

By LYNDON FITZGIBBON
SNN Staff Writer

The 2012 Lakewood Spartans football team ended the fall season losing its last four games. The team’s record was 6-4, which was not good enough to get into the playoffs.
The spring football game, however, will change everything, team members say. The big game will be at 7 p.m. at Lakeland High School on May 31.

“Lakeland is a nationally ranked team,” said football coach Cory Moore. Moore and the Lakewood football team have been working to make sure that the boys are ready for this game. They’ve been practicing five days a week since winter break ended.

“We are working hard as a team and getting stronger by eating weights,” said Moore. “(This game is) like a measuring of where we are at.”
He wants to go into all games being optimistic, including this one.

“I love my team like my sons. Sometimes they’re on my good side and sometimes they’re on my bad side, but I am happy to see them mature and see that they have someone that can be there to help them,” said Moore.

Junior Robert Winfield, whose nickname is Polamalu, is a defensive end for the Lakewood Spartans. He says his team is capable of beating Lakeland.
“I am very confident we will beat Lakeland, because everyone works hard and pushes each other to the end,” said Winfield.

Freshman Trevon Kelly, who started playing football because he loved watching it on TV, is a center for Lakewood. He said he is very amped about playing because not a lot of freshmen get to play in the spring game. He plans on continuing the Lakewood-Lakeland rivalry.

“A rivalry will always be a rivalry, ” said Kelly.