With four junior-varsity games under their belt from last year, the Bayshore Christian Eagles will play a full varsity schedule in just the second year of the football program.

The newest team in Class 2A Region 1 will be led once again by Hall of Fame head coach Phil Lazenby who says that while the football IQ is increasing every day, the athletes are coming in well-conditioned from the offseason.

“I’d say we’ve got a lot to do but as far as the conditioning and the strength, we feel good about that,” Lazenby said at Gulf Coast Media Day. “Now we’re working on where to lineup, what your job is, how this is executed, the kicking game and all of that so we’ve got a lot to do but I feel good about the kids, they’re good kids.”

Senior classmates Cyrus Dorsey (tight end and linebacker) and Aidan August (right guard and nose tackle) confirmed they hadn’t played organized football before last year but couldn’t resist the opportunity to strap on the pads.

“We had been talking about a football team forever at Bayshore and then Coach Laz had a meeting and all of the boys were going crazy for it,” Dorsey said. “I think every single boy that was interested in a sport was playing JV last year because we were all so excited about it and that excitement is going into this year too with our first varsity year.”

“The year before our football team became official, I went to one wrestling practice because our principal wanted me to go really bad and I said, ‘I really wish there was a football team, I would love to play football but I’m just not really interested in the wrestling thing,’” August recalled. “And then football came along and I said this is my chance.”

Lazenby said the Eagles' coaching staff has been emphasizing the athletes knowing their responsibilities and everybody pursuing the ball carrier.

“Know what to do, know your assignments and go full speed. Everybody run to the ball, gang tackle,” Lazenby said. “We’re not very experienced in a lot of things, but if you get four or five people around the ball we can get some people down.”

The athletes themselves have been soaking up all the knowledge they can from Lazenby and his experienced staff.

“I’ve learned that you definitely have to show up and you have to put in the work to be successful,” August said. “You can’t just come to one or two practices a week and expect to play the teams we’re going to face, you have to show up and be responsible.”

“(Defensive coordinator David) Stapleton has been talking about at every single practice, to have carryover to the next practice,” Dorsey said. “Because we don’t have that long left before we start games and we have to show up every single day and learn everything the day we learn it so we can carry it over to tomorrow and grow as fast as we can.”

Until then, Lazenby said Bayshore Christian leaves every workout with the same message.

“We break every one of our sessions when we get ready to go home, we have one of the kids give us a safe journey home prayer and then they all break it down with …” Lazenby started.

“1-2-3, State Champs,” Dorsey chimed in.

“As long as we’re in the hunt, that’s what we’ll break it down with,” Lazenby said. “If I don’t believe it, they can’t believe it, so that’s what we work toward.”

For Dorsey and August, their goals for senior year are simple: do their jobs well.

“My goal is to not leave anything on the field because I think a worse feeling than losing is feeling that you didn’t do all you could,” Dorsey said. “I’m going to do my job, make blocks, go get tackles and just do my job as best I can. Whatever happens at the end of the season, I know I did my job and that’s my goal.”

“Playing half-speed is not how you play football, so you have to give everything you have on the field, no matter how tired you are,” August said. “I think that’s going to be a huge part of this season.”

Check out the Eagles' full interview as part of the third-annual Gulf Coast Media Day here.