On Monday, July 18, APSU was represented at the Ohio Valley Conference Football Media Day by Head Coach Will Healy, senior Rashaan Coleman and sophomore Gunnar Scholato.
This was Healy’s first Media Day as a head coach, and for the OVC.
The Govs have won only one game in the past three seasons, going two seasons without a win. Healy and his team are looking to change it by embracing the underdog role.
“I think at some point in time we’re going to come out here and be the front runner, and we’ll have to have a different way of handling things,” Healy said. “But as of right now, we’re going to go out as the underdog role and go make a name for ourself.”
Coleman, a senior says this year is going to be a lot different than the past three. Despite only winning one game, Coleman said the rest of the Govs’ always comes into games and practice with a positive attitude and ready to take the next game for what it is.
“It’s been three long years, and we’ve learned a lot,” Coleman said. “We’ve failed, but we’ve learned a lot from those failures.”
Scholato earned a full ride scholarship at the end of last year and was told in the middle of a huddle with all of his teammates’ support around him. Scholato was will be a starting linebacker under Healy’s first year.
“Our team is very excited,” Scholato said. “We’re just going to take it one week at a time and one game at a time. We’re not going to look ahead or look to a certain team. We’re going to go in every week knowing we can win.”
With a completely new turnaround, many players did not make it past winter workouts, but Scholato says the players that stayed are completely bought in with the new coaching staff.
Another key component for this Govs team is the teamwork and coming together as one, close-knit team. “It’s either everyone does it right or everyone does it wrong,” Scholato said. “That’s how it is in a game. If someone doesn’t do their assignment up front, it can mess up everyone.”
This 2016 Governors team is closer and more dedicated than in the past, and the entire group is looking forward to a hopeful season as the underdogs and intend to leave it all on the field.
“We all have to be behind Healy and trust what he’s doing for us to be successful,” Scholato said.
