METRO ATHLETIC CONFERENCE After long wait, Quakers happy to talk playoffs

Salem coach Doug Phillips carries high expectations into his third season.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
SALEM -- The apology was made at last year's postseason banquet, of all places. Not exactly the most rewarding going-away present for graduates of the Salem High football program.
But coach Doug Phillips wanted to be honest with his players. So he admitted a mistake had been made, one of the biggest in his coaching career.
"We're going to make sure it never happens again," he told players following a 4-6 season, 2-3 in the Metro Athletic Conference.
That mistake is now the fuel that drives Salem into the 2003 season, one with high expectations and hopes of the school's first playoff berth.
Dissecting the problem
"The whole thing was, we didn't quite believe that we could be a winning football team," said Phillips, the third-year coach. "All of a sudden, we were pretty darn good."
And the Quakers weren't prepared for that. They were 1-9 the previous season -- Phillips' first after arriving from Springfield -- and coaches still wanted to ease their team along.
"We didn't set high enough expectations last year," Phillips said. "That first year, we're coming out after halftime, and games were over for us. Going into the second year, we said that we had to get back to being able to compete."
The Quakers did more than that. They bordered on winning a lot of their games, but instead lost four by eight points or fewer.
"Kids rise up to the expectations you set sometimes," Phillips said. "I don't know if we thought we should win, and we ended up losing a lot of games in the fourth quarter."
In losing three of its first five games, Salem wasted leads that totaled a 52-0 score, said Phillips, who believes he and his coaches didn't put their team in the proper mindset to finish the job.
"It starts at the top. As coaches, we didn't get it done," Phillips admitted. "You don't forget those things as a coach. They don't sit well. It's something we can't give back to our seniors, but hopefully we've learned from it."
All year, coaches have been drilling players with positive thoughts so they can come to realize their potential to win the school's first MAC title since tying Poland in 1994.
"We know what our young men can do now. The evaluation part is done," Phillips said. "Right now, we're focusing on how we're going to deal with having high expectations. Now we have to go back, break it down and know that it's a process."
Processing the material
The winning process at Salem begins with its offense, led by senior quarterback Landon Heath, who threw for 2,000 yards and accounted for 200 total yards per game last season.
"The thing about Landon, he has great character and leadership, and he makes great decisions," Phillips said. "We have to trust that he's not going to put our team in a bad position."
Senior wide receivers Zac Grey and Zach Bennett give Heath two top targets. Grey, who had nearly 600 receiving yards and six touchdowns last season, is one of the smartest students in his class.
Senior running back Lance Buckley, meanwhile, should give the Quakers a ground threat, something they've needed to help manage the clock.
"The offense did a great job of making plays," said Phillips, whose team averaged 28 points per game last season. "We showed last year that we can score touchdowns."
Providing Heath, Grey, Bennett and Buckley with time to make plays will be three-year starting linemen Lucas Conrad and Sam Duckworth.
Highlighting the defense is senior linebacker Travis Milliron, a three-year starter who moved from the defensive line, and three-year tackle Richie Forrester. They will play in front of the experienced secondary of Bennett, Buckley and Grey.
"We need to improve dramatically on the defensive side. We gave up too many points last year [277]," Phillips said. "We're going to be stronger, faster and in better condition."
Building a foundation
The Quakers already are learning from their mistakes, but there's something positive on which they can build -- a 34-30 victory last season over perennial MAC power Poland. It came in the seventh week, after a fourth-quarter rally, in a driving rainstorm.
That game provided much-needed confidence to a program wrestling for its true identity, and its effect may carry into this season.
"Now, when our kids take the practice field, or they're in the weight room or conditioning, they understand they're doing this so they can be champions," said Phillips of the program's new mindset. "That's a huge improvement from where we've come from."
richesson@vindy.com