JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Spring football is in full swing and the News4Jax sports team is making stops at high schools across the area in its annual Spring Swing tour.
It was the best season in more than a decade followed by one of the worst.
Not what Wolfson football coach Dennis Bettinger envisioned.
The Wolfpack went 7-3 in 2019, its best regular season since turning in that same record in 2004 when it last reached the state playoffs under the traditional format.
Then the pandemic hit, wiped out spring football and sapped any momentum left from that season. Wolfson played just two close games, losing 19-7 to Hilliard and 15-6 to Christ’s Church, in an 0-8 season. They reached the state playoffs — every team that wanted to compete in the postseason was eligible to — and lost their opener to Episcopal, 42-7.
Bettinger said that it was disappointing for players and coaches to have that type of dropoff after the best season in 15 years, but it wasn’t a normal season for anyone. That’s why Wolfson is looking at 2020 as a learning experience and not the expectation of sliding backwards.
“What really hurt us, like everybody else, we didn’t have a spring, didn’t have an offseason and a very short summer,” Bettinger said.
“A school like us, we don’t have a whole bunch of D1 athletes so we need to have this, what we have now [spring practice], to get back to where we want to be. That’s 6-4 of better every year. That’s our standard, 6-4 or better.”
A sense of normalcy is a welcome sight at Wolfson.
On Monday afternoon, the Wolfpack had roughly 50 players at their afternoon practice. Bettinger said that he expects probably 30 more players joining the program by the fall as middle school students move up into high school.
Players took part in a modified scrimmage on a breezy afternoon. There were big running plays by the offense. A few big hits by the defense.
But more than any play or two, it felt normal.
Bettinger said that he was proud of how Wolfson responded to a disappointing 2020 season.
“They never gave up, they kept their attitude going and we kept fighting and that’s what we do,” he said. “No matter win or lose or draw, we’re going to keep fighting and keep representing Wolfson High School.”