By Bella Coulter

After years of watching the Cavaliers face devastating losses week after week, they’ve finally done it: we’re officially a football school.

The PA football team pulled out a historic win on Friday night by beating Kellam for the first time in 19 years. This closely followed another record set against Ocean Lakes Dolphins with the team beating them for the first time in 16 years, with a two-point conversion to end the game.

These monumental achievements and the Cavaliers’ stellar 4-1 record are due to multiple new strategies being implemented on and off the field. One of the new additions is Coach James Yeagar, who has completely changed the attitude toward PA football.

“We’ve come out to a pretty hot start,” said Yeagar. “We’re just trying to keep everyone focused and keep the momentum going.”

Yeagar’s main focus has been changing the team’s mindset and turning around the morale. Instead of focusing on past years, he tries to get them focused on what’s ahead.

“When you look back at the overall record this school has had for varsity football, it’s probably the worst school historically in the beach,” said Yeagar. “That’s in the past. We know we got studs, we know we can score points, we know we can stop them on defense.”

“He keeps us in the right state of mind,” said junior Tony Grimes, the top-ranked cornerback in the state.

In addition to the change in coaching style, the players have all stepped up this year, creating a really well-rounded team.

“We can name players here and there, but when you go look at our film, everyone makes plays on defense. Everyone’s making plays on defense and even on offense,” said Yeagar. 

Going forward, the team is trying hard to focus on winning each individual game.

“We’re 4-1 in the first half of the season, we could go 1-4 the second half,” said Yeagar. “If we don’t show up, we could get beat.”

“We’re trying to practice hard. Everybody’s got to make it to practice. And we’ve got to execute,” said quarterback Mike Newell. 

Ultimately, the team is proud of their accomplishments, but still aims at working hard to continue to have a strong season.

“We want to establish a dominant team, so we need to dominate every game,” said Yeagar.