After a disappointing season, Ocean Lakes varsity football is now forced to look back at their ups and downs. They finished with a record of 2-8, which ultimately caused them to miss the playoffs as the 9th seed in the region.
Regardless of the results of the 2025 season, many players appeared to show growth, such as sophomore standout wide receiver Brayden Allen, junior wide receiver Remi Lynch and freshman quarterback Kye English.
“Our toughest challenge this season was definitely commitment; a lot of people quit and didn’t take the game seriously,” Remi said. “For the new players looking to join our football team next year, my biggest advice is to find something to strive for.”
Commitment is one of the major keys that this promising team needs to work on moving forward. Not only does commitment affect individuals, but also a team.
“We had a lot of issues with inconsistency. Sickness, personal issues and other things made it hard to get any kind of continuity, so we struggled to gel at times. As those problems subsided, we played better but unfortunately it was too little too late against some of the best teams in the Beach on the back end of our schedule,” head coach James Yeager said.
The inconsistency sent a ripple effect throughout the whole team, costing them a chance to make a statement with a win streak.
“Our team was faced with the task of staying confident and connected after early losses,” sophomore Michael Reed said. “It would’ve been easy to point fingers or give less effort, but instead we focused on improving week by week.”
A common misconception is failing as an individual in football. In reality, this sport is a team sport, there is only failure as a team. As teammates, the importance is to pick up on mistakes during games, and use these mistakes as an opportunity for the whole team to improve.
“We are very young, [we] only had 6 seniors this past season. We have to really develop our young guys and get them ready to make an even bigger impact filling important roles within our team,” Yeager said. “There really isn’t any substitute for the importance of game reps. This is going to pay dividends for our team in the future.”
Now stressed is the importance of letting the young players see the field more often towards the beginning of their football career. This should also not take opportunities away from the more experienced players such as the seniors.
“Start working out with the team as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the summer because you will be very far behind physically and mentally,” Yeager said. “Also, don’t be afraid to come out and try something new and see it through to the end. There is a lot of quitting nowadays and I hate to see someone not finish something they started.”
Carter Denney • Dec 21, 2025 at 9:07 am
Nice analysis!