HSFT Stop #30: Heritage Academy Patriots
Heritage Academy has a recent history of excellence, winning two out of the last three state championships. Even though there is a new coach for the Patriots, he is looking to keep the changes to a minimum.
“You don’t come in and change the way things have been done, you keep that base going and if there is some things you can add to it and help that’s what I’m there for,” head coach Lance Pogue said.
Pogue has had success at all of his coaching stops prior to Heritage, his one common theme has been developing strong defenses.
“As an inside linebacker I work really close with the defensive coordinator and he’s just a great mind,” linebacker Luke Fisher said. “He’s got so many good ideas and so many schemes. It’s definitely going to be different and a bit of an adjustment but when it all comes together we are going to be really good.”
The off season has been rocky with turnover from the top down but the senior leadership is making sure that patriots stay focused.
“Once we lost a couple of people on our team we just said next man up and we are just going to keep on going 110% nothing changes,” wide receiver Trey Naugher said.
The biggest loss is four star quarterback Mack Howard who led the Pats to the state title last year. The Utah commit will play his final year at Oxford high school. Replacing Howard won’t be easy but the team has the utmost confidence in it’s new signal caller.
“Anytime you have a change in a key player like a quarterback it’s going to be different but Jack he puts in the work and he’s going to get us where we need to be,” Fisher said.
A key for the season will be helping out the new quarterbacks in the other phases of the game.
“We got to do a good job as an offense to help those guys,” Pogue said. “Our offensive line, we got a lot of those guys back and you got to play good defense, it takes it all. You got to be good in the kicking game. We have got to be a team that plays good in all three areas.”
If the Patriots can do that they’ll have a good chance to get right back to the state championship.
