Satisfaction?
That comes at the end of the football season, right?
Great Bend High School is off to a 2-0 start, although Panthers head coach Bo Black says his team still has a long ways to go. GBHS entertains Garden City on Friday night at Memorial Stadium, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
“We’re glad to be at home and getting into our conference,” said Black of the Panthers’ first home game, along with it being their Western Athletic Conference opener. “We’re getting to the stride in the schedule where we’re more familiar with our opponents.
“We’re still working extremely hard to get better. Everyone involved is working hard, and I don’t think the attitude has changed since last Friday. We’re happy to be 2-0, but we’re not real satisfied with the way we’re playing on offense, defense and special teams.”
The Panthers beat Ulysses 28-20 last Friday. It came one week after beating Barton County foe Hoisington, 14-6, to open the season.
“We feel like we’ve made some big strides in practice this week and we’re excited to come out and play at home and play better against a good Garden City team,” Black said.
The GBHS coach says he’s still trying to get a read on his team.
“It really is exactly that,” Black said. “We’re trying to get a read on our team and having kids in the right spot. Even going into Week 3, there’s been a lot of movement at positions and we’re trying to find our niche.
“We want to get better at throwing the football, and be better up front to run the football. We feel like we’ve made big strides on that this week in practice.”
Panthers running back Josh Lopez returned to practice on Monday after missing drills all of last week. The 5-foot-8, 221-pound senior still played against Ulysses, totaling 67 yards in 13 carries in limited action.
“He’s doing better,” Black said of Lopez, the WAC’s fourth-leading rusher last season. “He’s a little sore at times. We’ve kept him out of some reps, but he’s practicing and doing a lot better than he was last week.
“He’ll be full-speed on Friday night and ready to go.”
