It Takes a Village

They were standing in line, babes in arms, Thursday night, May 11, waiting to enter Trojan Stadium. It wasn’t a playoff game. In fact, it wasn’t even a regular season game. It was more like a huge family reunion.

New Lely Head Coach Ben Hammer brings a solid playoff resume from Rock Island, Illinois. He also brings organization, team building, family involvement and accountability to the football program. The event, Hammer’s brainchild, is an Orange vs. Black intersquad scrimmage with an alumni flag game at halftime. A $3 admission fee includes a hot dog, chips, and a drink. And the community came out in droves. Players, coaches, students, parents, eighth-grade players, and alumni came together as one to support Lely football.

Hammer is quick to point out that he’s getting a lot of help and cooperation from everyone at Lely, from Principal Jennifer Bledsoe to the athletic director.

"The community came out in support of the kids,” Hammer said. "The alumni had a lot of fun playing in that game. Our administration helped a ton with putting it on. My athletic director, Bill Mottola, helped out a lot. The Booster Club donated a team meal. It was a tremendous event. We advertised it and told the kids to make sure that they invited their parents or their families. And a lot of the faculty was there, which I thought was great. The incoming ninth graders as well as the younger kids and the alumni. It was a great community event. It went really well.”

Of course, Hammer and his staff are busy molding their new team. The coaches are getting used to the players, and the players are getting used to a new coaching staff. 

"I do think we definitely have to continue to work better,” Hammer said. “The kids are working hard and have great attitude, great enthusiasm. We've just got to continue to keep working hard and working on the fundamentals and continuing to install offensively and defensively. And we've got a long way to go, but we are headed in the right direction. We’ve just got to keep continuing to pursue our best versions of ourselves every single day and continue to improve every single day. We've got a program. We've got very lofty goals, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done if we're going to achieve those goals. We've got a lot of work to do as coaches and the players have a lot of work to do. Everybody’s a part of it. But everybody's willing to do the work that it takes to get there.”

A number of players caught Hammer’s eye in the scrimmage.

"Jayce Cora played pretty well,” Hammer said. "Jayvian Tanelus, I thought, played well in terms of people kind of passing expectations. Richmyer Celiferme is a first-year player that has been a wrestler, and he actually did a really nice job. Joshua Philogene. Most of the other players that made a lot of plays are the guys that you would expect to make a lot of plays."

Hammer will be replacing a very productive quarterback-running back duo in Guerschom Guerrier and Jakeem Tanelus, who led the team to a surprise playoff appearance last season.

"I would say it's too soon to tell,” Hammer said. "But right now at the head of the running back depth chart is Jayvian Tanelus. He kind of stood out a little bit, I thought. He's got great burst and tremendous vision. As of right now, the leader for the quarterback job is Colin Raymond.”

Lely hosts Estero Friday night, May 19. 

"We're looking forward to competing against a team that's not orange and black,” Hammer said, “that's not the Lely Trojans. The kids have done a nice job working hard and competing. They're ready to get on the field and put it on the line against another team. Estero has returned quite a bit off of a really successful team last year. They're going to be well-coached. They're going to be big. They're very physical.”

Hammer is hoping to build on the momentum from the Orange vs. Black game.

“I encourage the community to come out and support the kids Friday,” Hammer said. "They've been working hard and they deserve to have a packed Trojan Stadium."