Ada High School multi-sport athlete Caden Balthrop is gearing up for his junior football season, and he said this year that involves starting from scratch in a couple of areas.
“Less than three months ago our school hired a new head coach and defensive coordinator, so we had to learn a complete new playbook,” Balthrop said. “However, we started learning it very quickly. Our team is young compared to most, and we have two players on our offense starting who have never played football before. Personally, I have improved a lot over the summer with my knowledge of the game, and physically I am a completely different player than last year,” Balthrop continued. “We are a very close group, and we treat each other like family. We believe in each other and our coaching staff. We are currently 0-1, but we got progressively better through that grueling game.”
Balthrop said after an early playoff exit due to COVID-19 last season, he and his Cougars are out for blood this year.
“I believe we have unfinished business,” he said. “I want to see our team grow and learn while winning games. I want to be seen as a teammate who others love playing beside and a player other teams don’t want to line up against. I don’t value personal stats highly, but I want to be able to say at the end of the season I did everything to help our team win games.”
