As the festivities of Rider-Old High week come to a close, coach Marc Bindel is gearing up his team for the last game between the decades-long rivals. The Rider Chronicle sat down with Bindel to discuss the final hurrah of the Rider football team.
Q: What goals are your team looking to accomplish this year?
A: Every year, if you’re playing football at Rider, you want to go deep into the playoffs. And of course we hadn’t won a district title since I got here, so of course that’s one of our goals. Starting out the season in non-district we want to improve every single week, get better and then play for a district championship once we get there.
Q: How excited are you about Friday’s game? How do you feel about having the Old High game so early?
A: We’re excited about the game tomorrow, it’s going to be a big game, it’s different. We’re excited about the challenge of playing those guys in week one. The first game of the season is always kind of sloppy for both teams, and the fact that it’s a big rivalry game it will be sloppy, but we can’t wait to get out there.
Q: What players have especially impressed you so far?
A: Well the biggest thing that stood out to me in our scrimmage was our offensive line led by Cape Johnson, Norman Mendieta and Gideon Perez. It only got better as the scrimmage went on. We really rely on those guys offensively. On defense, just the way that they ran to the ball, Jailyn Gibbs, Elijah Jackson, Jre Donnell, our entire defensive line was really impressive. The trenches on both sides of the ball are impressive. If we play well, we’ll have a chance at every game we play.
Q: What is the most crucial thing you tell the team going into the game?
A: I think going into this game the biggest distraction is the size of the crowd, and they want to try to talk trash to their student section or their sideline. They really got to focus not on the stands, but what’s going on in the field. If they focus on the field, they’ll be fine.
Q: How has this being the final year of Rider affected you and the team? What do the high schools mean to you?
A: This being the final year, it’s a little bittersweet. I really think we need new high schools, but losing the traditions of all three of the high schools is a really hard pill to swallow. You can’t just create tradition out of thin air, so that will be tough. I haven’t really had a chance to process it yet. I think once the season is over and Rider High School football is over, I think it will hit me pretty hard.
Q: What are your expectations for this season?
A: They’re a hard-working team, they play hard and they’re so fun to coach. We want to go as far as we can in the playoffs and enjoy the ride while we’re doing it. You work hard, but you want to enjoy the process along the way so let’s have some fun and go win some games.
Q: What improvements do you feel you need to make from last season?
A: We’re really focused on needing to be more disciplined, less penalties. We want to be able to block our run game better, but more so just understanding the burden of this being the last season we want to make our ROHO nation proud.
