Having accepted the position in February 2014, Trey Brown, Wilkes University’s head football coach, is making his mark within the football program foreseeing progress that can only become stronger.

“There is no reason why Wilkes University cannot be an elite football team in this specific league,” said head coach, Trey Brown.

Better acquainted with his staff and team, Brown’s plan of action for this football season requires a highly competitive attitude to conquer last year’s outcome of only two wins.

“To avoid that type of disappointment, we have been really practicing through certain bad habits that would previously cause mistakes to happen,” Brown said. “With hard work put forth and the competitiveness to win, those mistakes will not appear on game days which will pay off on the scoreboard.”

In order to assure this type of work ethic, preseason entails a lot more than just showing up to practices. Consisting of 25 on-field practices before the first game, players must perfect their schemes as their talents are evaluated. Aside from the physicality of preseason, meetings involving lots of positional review and online content are necessary to attend, study and learn from.

Preseason also brings the team together in terms of bonding and camaraderie.

“What people witness is a real closeness that the football team shares,” Brown said. “However, that closeness is between various guys from various backgrounds; not always because they play the same positions. I feel these guys really care about one another a great deal matter what grade level or position on the team.”

Though numbers are a bit lower in terms of players this year, Brown has found that other changes made from the previous season have been nothing but positive.

“What has changed from last year is that we definitely practice better,” Brown said. “The framework of our schedule and the overall effort from the team is better. We now dress the same in the weight room looking more like a team and we simply just carry ourselves better in my opinion.”

Aside from the team, Brown endured his own obstacles to overcome. Figuring out future expectations, it hit hard that his team just went two and eight. With so much going on throughout his first year, he felt he needed to pick his battles and put his beliefs into what he was doing.

“When I first got hired, I wanted to know my team and then I wanted to start being a team both on campus and on the field,” Brown admitted. “Some of that I had to tend to, and other goals I couldn’t get to right away. This year is different in the way that the things I fretted about kind of took care of themselves because now people know what they have to do and they are motivated to get it done.”

With evident progress made, Brown is expecting to come back strong and win every game in the fourth quarter.

“Its cliché to say, but I want to a great record,” Brown confessed. “In order to accomplish this, we need a good first half and especially strong first quarter. We want to be consistent from start to finish and really have that set opportunity.”

To best motivate his team towards the initial goal, the mindset Brown stresses is going into this year as being the underdog.

 “I realize that no team in this league are too fearful of Wilkes and for some reason, it has been established over time that way,” Brown shared. “This maybe sound odd, but we need to play with a chip on our shoulder and an underdog mentality, and that’s how I try to approach practice every day. We are not the biggest and fastest, but that does not mean we cannot win the ballgame and I emphasize that often.”

Looking ahead, Brown predicts a bright future for the football program benefitting Wilkes in more ways than one.

 “If we can keep recruiting both good students and football players, we can continue to buy in and really improve both on the field and in the classroom,” Brown stated. “We have great support in this administration, great facilities to utilize, and we have a lot of tangibility. Now, all we need is our players to move in the right direction with the right message.”