BINGHAMTON, NY (WBNG) — After winning the state championship in 2021 and 2022 with a 34-game win streak, the Maine-Endwell Spartans fell short of bringing home the title in the final game of the season last year. Failing to make it three in a row. They’re hoping that was their mulligan.
“A week after that state championship, we were right in the weight room,” senior, Landon Rollo said. “Just trying to better ourselves for this year.”
“Just got a bitter taste in our mouth.” senior, Tyler Mathews said. “I mean I want a championship.”
And the Spartans know they’re not going to get there from past success.
“This team hasn’t won anything, right,” Head Coach, Matt Gallagher said. “This is a brand new team, and we want that.”
This year’s team is out to prove they belong back at the top and they’ve adopted a new mentality to help get them there.
“We’re not the hunted anymore,” Rollo said. “We’re the hunters now.”
“We’re basically calling ourselves the hunters,” Gallagher said. “Because we’re no longer the hunted. We don’t have what we had before, right. Someone else has it, now we have to go and we have to go get it right. And these guys had that mentality they’ve had since December. And as a coaching staff we’re excited and proud of the way these guys have worked throughout the whole summer and even the first week.”
But what exactly does it mean to be a hunter?
“We have to go get what we want and that we think it ours,” Gallagher said. “And a hunter, you know, they make adjustments and they don’t stop until they get what they want.”
“To be a hunter means we got to work hard every day to be able to be the top dogs again,” Rollo said.
Hunting is about survival and to survive at the top, motivation can’t be hard to come by.
“Not with this group of guys,” Mathews said. “I mean everyone here, they want to come out everyday and give it their all.”
This Spartans team is under pressure to maintain the high standards that have been set from years past, but hunters don’t run from it.
“We want that pressure because if there isn’t any pressure then nothing really matters right,” Gallagher said. “So, you know, the games don’t mean anything. If you don’t have any pressure on you, then whatever you’re doing doesn’t really mean much. So we like the pressure.”
And it’s going to take the whole pack in order for this season to be deemed a success.
“We’re way more than just a football team,” Gallagher said. “We like to think that way. You know like I said, the community, the school, the entire district is a big part of what we are. And we try to represent them the best way we possibly can. So you know, of course we want to finish on top, but if we can leave the season representing Maine-Endwell the way that we want, the Spartan way. Then that’s a pretty successful year for us.”
Maine-Endwell’s hunt to get back to their Spartan ways begins Sept. 6 as they host Union-Endicott.
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Publish date : 2024-08-26 13:00:00
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