Change is in the air at the Lake Oconee Academy campus. The Titans recently saw a great culture shift surrounding their athletics, with none more on the rise than the football program.
After starting its football program last season and playing six games, Lake Oconee Academy is now slated to play a full schedule of 10 games, all against non-region opponents.
Titans’ new head coach Patrick Stewart took over from last year’s Drew Anthony, who now is an assistant coach for Putnam County’s War Eagles.
Stewart has extensive knowledge of the sport, stemming from his time as a player at Middle Tennessee State and as a defensive assistant at the University of Georgia under head coach Kirby Smart. He also has experience at the high school level after being an assistant at George Walton Academy and head coach of Loganville Christian Academy a couple of years ago.
After working as the Titans’ defensive coordinator last year, Stewart came into this season ready to get to work. He explained the program has put more emphasis on conditioning this year and believes it’s already paying off.
“We’ve been up here from June 1 to now, every day from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., because we cranked it up a huge notch strength-and-conditioning wise,” Stewart said. “I think we’re going to be really prepared come season time.”
Specifically, several days a week the Titans’ have been getting stronger in the weight room, something that perhaps had been overlooked before this year, Stewart said.
“It’s made a huge difference. Everybody knows the weight room builds confidence, and so these guys got confidence,” Stewart said. “They didn’t have that last year because it was their first year, and they just didn’t have the confidence yet, but now they look in the mirror and see that they’re getting changes, and it makes them practice much better.”
Last season, the Titans finished with a 2-4 record, scoring wins over Notre Dame Academy and Community Christian.
The team averaged a little over 23 points per game on offense, but gave up around 42 points per game to opposing teams, so developing the defensive side of the ball has been a priority for the Titans in the offseason. Players have been able to learn and get comfortable with the systems in place, Stewart said, and he believes they’ll be able to limit big plays defensively and keep themselves in games.
“They’ve improved big time on football savviness, like how to play the game and how to not look like a robot out there,” he said. “They’re comfortable now. They’re confident and believing of the systems we have in place, whether that’s offensively, defensively or special teams.”
The seriousness surrounding the Titans’ program has resulted in higher player attendance. Stewart admitted a lot of players last year were out on vacation over the summer and didn’t know how serious to take the team. Now, he believes kids at both the middle and high-school levels have bought into what Titan football should look like.
“This year, we had 98-percent attendance for both middle school and high school. A few of those kids only missed a couple of days and the rest made them all,” Stewart said. “It was crazy to see that big of a change, and it really takes kids buying in to make it happen.”
Still, even with changes being made, it’s not all picture-perfect. Stewart acknowledged the team hasn’t yet run into any real adversity and he wonders how they’ll handle it when it comes.
“I think it’s just a generational thing, but when you face adversity, these kids seem to turn away from it quickly,” Stewart said. “We’ve just been teaching them to go into it full speed and if something bad happens, move on. And if something good happens, keep moving on.”
Ultimately, Stewart and the Titans understand they have a long season ahead of them, so for now they are just trying to take it week by week. Stewart said he wants to reevaluate the team at the midway point of the season, and then be able to show the kids their growth and potential to hopefully end the second half on a positive note.