Lindbergh head coach Nathan Norman begins his second year at the helm of the football Flyers and is optimistic about the 2017 season. Photo by Bill Milligan.

By Robert Chalupny
For the Call

The Lindbergh High School varsity football team will be looking to improve in 2017, following a challenging 2-7 season last year that was no doubt frustrating to players and head coach Nathan Norman.

Norman, who replaced longtime Lind-bergh coach Tom Beauchamp, is optimistic about the new season as he begins his second year at the helm.

“We’ve got a big group of seniors and we expect big things from them,” Norman told the Call. “They’ve worked extremely hard in the offseason and are a good group of young men that we have high expectations of …

“We can’t wait to get started.”

Lindbergh returns several veteran starters from last year, and Norman hopes to take advantage of their experience.

Returning at wide receiver and defensive back are Rico Payton and David Grenia.

Theo Price also returns as linebacker and fullback, giving the Lindbergh team some size and speed.

Quarterback Parker Powell is returning, along with “a group of linemen who are seniors who we expect big things from this year,” Norman said.

Experience and familiarity look to be the strengths early on for the squad.

“I would say that I think our strength would be just that we have a pretty experienced group and, you know, the kids that we have are experienced. We’ve got a good core group of seniors,” the head coach said. “So our strengths right now would be just that we have a good experience level.

“They know what to expect as far as Friday-night expectations. That’s what I like, they are a veteran group.”

For Flyer fans to keep smiling all season, the players are going to have to win battles and inch their way to victory.

“For us to be successful we have to be consistent. We can’t turn the ball over. We have to win the turnover margin and we have to stay injury-free,” Norman said. “I think that’s a lot of high school teams. For us, we don’t have a lot of depth right now and it’s very crucial that we stay injury-free and take care of ourselves and stay consistent.”