Last November, the Faith Lutheran football team watched as their season ended at the hands of the Desert Pines Jaguars in the Nevada state playoffs. The team graduated a number of seniors who played roles in Faith’s winning of the 2013 Division 1-A state championship. It marked the end of an era for Faith Lutheran football, a championship era. But with endings, always comes a new beginning. That is how the 2015 Faith Football team see’s it. This team recognizes it’s opportunity to write their own history at Faith Lutheran.

“I won’t allow them to feel the pressure of the past success. Every year is a new team and we approach it that way. It’s not about the past or the future, we focus on the now,” said Head Coach Vernon Fox on the teams mindset going into the season.

One of the new players thrown into the starting rotation will be senior quarterback, Brenden Joyce.  “The mindset of the team is to get back to the state championship and I believe in this team. I know we have a shot at winning a state title,” said Joyce.

But Joyce will not be alone as the team looks to take home the second state championship in school history, Faith returns it’s starting running back from last year, junior, Christian Marshall. Last year Marshall led the team in scoring and rushing, running for 838 yards and putting up over 80 points for the team, he will be extremely instrumental in the teams success. Faith also returns senior All-City kicker, Ryan Callan who will add another dimension to the teams ability to put points on the board. Finally, for the defensive side of the ball, senior, Cole Thomas, who led the team in tackles last year(89) is back for another season.

Nobody is questioning the talent level of the 2015 Faith Football team, the only raising concern is the level of the experience these young players will have. The team is hungry, with a desire for a championship and a reluctance to settle for anything less. Every player on the team wants to leave their own legacy.

“To me, legacy means, if I left this earth tomorrow, how would people remember me? I think about my family, my teammates. You don’t want to be someone who always took the easy way out. Constantly having that in mind will allow you to make better decisions in life and have success,” said Brenden Joyce.

Expectations are high, and it will be an exciting year for Faith Football. Check out the Crusaders as they take on Yuma Catholic (AZ) on Friday, August 28^th.