BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Blacksburg Bruins football team has quite the motivation this season. They ended the 2018 season undefeated but fell to Woodgrove in the state semifinal game.Â
"Of course it was hard and disappointing at the end when we lost," receiver Joshua Gholston said. "So during the whole offseason, we took that and used it as motivation coming into this year."
The hard work starts at the top with second-year head coach Eddie Sloss.Â
"They want to go a step further than what we did last year, and truth be known I think if they play disciplined, they play physical," Sloss said. "We have a brutal schedule. If some things go in our favor this year, I think we have a pretty good chance to get back to where we were last year. "
10 Sports caught up with seniors Joshua Gholston (WR/CB) and Brian Mitchell (RB/Safety) during camp.
"We all come together. We practice well, I think that's a thing people don't think we can do. We're going to show them," Gholston added.
One unit that continues to improve year to year is the running back corps.Â
"What's helped me the most was being behind people like Cole Beck and Tyquest Terry, learning from them, having them teach me how to run the ball, find the holes, have elusiveness," running back Brian Mitchell said. "I think that's something that's been helping."
"If things go the way I hope they go, I think they're going to hopefully see a very physical, very fast football team," Sloss said. "One of our coaches, Chris Lucas, says when we get off the bus ,we're running. Everything we do we want to be fast. We want to play fast, physical football on defense. Offensively, we want to mimic that same mentality and attitude and go from there."
Coach Sloss says his team used the end of their 2018 campaign to fuel them in the offeseason