Francis Howell North has experienced a long journey with the school football team. From wins, to losses, to major changes in the system, next year they welcome a brand new head coach to help strengthen the crew. Erick Webster currently teaches at Harbor High school in Arkansas, but is moving back to St. Charles to start a full time job at FHN. He will be teaching the future AP human geography class and other social studies classes while also devoting time to maintaining the football team.
“When you’re done with college football, you kind of volunteer a little bit,” Webster said. “And so the spring of my student teaching, I was volunteering with the college, just helping out here and there. And then I got my first job at Stockton high school in Stockton, Missouri, and I think I started coaching immediately out of college. So I’ve been coaching, this one will be my 20th season.”
Webster has had lots of time to improve and come up with strategies for coaching. Over the next season he plans on using positive coaching, a strategy to reinforce growth mindset, effort and overall prioritizing a good environment where athletes can feel supported, but still competitive. Another important part of handling a team and pushing them to do their very best is making sure they are participating in off season training. Webster is implementing a new training schedule where students use the weight room multiple times a week in order to build strength and speed.
“What we’re gonna be going for next season is speed,” junior Tatem Chrismer said. “We’re going to be trying [to go] faster in between each whistle. We want to be ready. We want to be able to move the ball faster than the defense can be ready for it. And we want to stop the ball faster than the offense can do what they want to do with it.”
All together these talks of strategies and change have given the team a sense of excitement and determination that they plan to carry into the next season, and hopefully many more seasons after that. The investment of the coaches also with the young feeder teams will be important in heading towards a bright future.
“There’s many people who want the program to change [and] there’ll be an equal amount of people who think it can’t,” Webster said. “So for us, we don’t necessarily want to focus on wins and losses. What we want to focus on is what is the best version of this player, of this coach, of this team. Our goal will be to measure ourselves with our opponents and understand that competition is an opportunity to say, ‘Here’s who we want to be.’”
