Vista football getting acquainted with new coach, systems

Mike Struebing is back in the saddle as head football coach at Vista del Lago and is busy getting his team ready for the start of football practice next month. Struebing utilized the 15 spring practices to install a bulk of the offense and defense and now in the summer workouts it's all about refining and getting better at doing what you do. "I think it's been really good," Struebing said of the spring and summer sessions. "The 15 practices in the spring the guys did a good job picking up on the new things. I know there is some carryover from last year but in many ways it's a new system offensively and defensively. The guys did a good job in the spring picking up on it. "In the summer, we're trying to find ways to refine what we did. That's always a harder push. The better you are at something, the finer the detail you have to focus on to improve. We've built on what we've established in the spring." Struebing said offensively how the unit gets to certain things is different than last year and the pass game is structured differently. "Defensively, it's a different philosophy," said Struebing. "Even though structurally it will look similar, it's different in what we ask the kids to do." Linebacker Lucas Garcia thinks the defense will be better than it was a year ago. "I feel like as a team we've been doing a lot of progressing," Garcia said. "We've got new formats where we did a lot more man stuff last year; we're switching it up, playing some zone this year. We're trying to see how it works I think we'll be a lot better, honestly. A lot more scheme helps; I'm excited to see what we can do." Running back Jack Cromwell is looking forward to offensive this season. "The offense is looking good," Cromwell said. "It's a new coaching staff and we've got a lot of young players. We've got some returning starters but not too many. We've got a new quarterback. We've got a lot of reps at it but we're actually looking pretty smooth. We're dialing everything in. I think we're doing pretty good."