Railer football senior profiles

[October 21, 2009]  Roughly a third of the Railer varsity football team is comprised of seniors who will be playing in their last high school football game when the team hosts Waterloo in the Railers' season finale on Friday. While everyone associated with the team certainly would prefer that the team's season record show more victories for the year, the season record does not tell the entire story of the team.

Casual observers typically look at a team's won-lost record to measure how successful a team is. In many sports -- especially interscholastic sports, such as high school football -- there are other factors to consider when gauging the success of a program.

"There's other things besides wins and losses in building a program," Railer head coach Jared Shaner said. "I look back over the last few years, and I've felt like we've improved every year. Obviously this year, we're not going to improve wins-and-losses-wise, but hopefully we've improved in some other ways. It's having kids with character and quality kids. And we're definitely on the right track with those things."

It has been said that it takes more character to be on a losing team than a winning one. While it's doubtful that anyone associated with the Railer football team would complain if Lincoln comes away Friday with its first win of the season, players on this Railer team have helped plant the seeds in developing a football program at LCHS. With the recent development and popularity of youth football in Lincoln, and as those youth players channel up to the high school level, these current seniors could be viewed as the pioneers of this era in LCHS football.

This week, LDN will be profiling some of this year's Railer football seniors to recognize their dedication and hard work in helping to develop the Railer football program.

[By LOYD KIRBY]