Bacon Academy Football
For the past couple of years, the head coach for Bacon Academy football was Coach Larka. However, after last year, he received an offer to coach at his alma mater, Jonathan Law. Larka took the offer, leaving Bacon Academy in the capable hands of his assistant coach, Coach Mason.
Mason began playing football in his freshman year of high school, having played soccer for his entire middle school career. When he went off to college at Ohio Northern University, a small school located “in the middle of cornfields in northwest Ohio”, he continued to play throughout his four years while he studied to become a teacher. Mason says that coaching was something that he wanted to do to stay involved with athletics after he was done playing. “When I was done playing sports all together...it kinda takes a part away from you when you’ve been involved with something your whole life. So coaching was able to fill that void.” Along with this, he enjoys that coaching allows him to get to know kids in a different setting, outside of the classroom.
After 5 years of being an assistant coach, Mason saw the opening for head coach and took advantage of it. Towards the end of the 2015-2016 school year, it was announced that he would be taking over for Larka. Though it was something he wanted to do, it’s different from being the assistant. “A lot more time commitment, big time. As an assistant coach, I could leave practice and just go home and I’d be done for the day. As a head coach, I’m always the first one here, always the last one to leave.” Not only does Coach Mason put in the time, there is also a lot that he does behind the scenes that many don’t know about to ensure that everything is functioning properly and going according to plan. “It’s a learning process just like everything else, I got a first year under my belt...each year will hopefully be easier than the previous one.”
Bacon Academy football fans have much to look forward to in upcoming years, as Coach Mason said with a laugh, “I’d like to win more games, that would be cool.” With more focus on the team, Mason said that it all depends on the players and seeing that he has a good group coming back, he’s optimistic for the next season. He also has plans to change up some things, possibly including “how things are organized on the team and things like that...I’d also like to do some new off-season fundraisers, or more exciting things to get the guys more involved year-round.”
Under the leadership of Coach Mason, Bacon Academy football is only going to improve in the years to come, so make sure to keep a look out for the team in their 2017 season next fall.
Photos from: rachelblakley.smugmug.com
