With the retirement of Nate Harrington, the Lions welcome Derek Asche as the new head football coach.
Although this is Asche’s first year as head coach, he is not new to the Providence football community. From 2006-2011, he served as the Quarterback Coach and last season was promoted to Offensive Coordinator.
Additionally, Asche has his own experience with football, playing under the late coach Roger Lipelt.
“I grew up playing Quarterback for Wayzata starting in 4th Grade all the way through high school,” says Asche.
Translating his personal skills into coaching, Asche is working with an extremely young team, with only three senior representatives.
Coach Asche explained how he will develop the team.
“We always start at the beginning with the basics,” he said. “We create a strong foundation from which we will build and take each day one at a time.”
Knowing that their young age will be a challenge during the season, the players worked to improve their skills and relationships with each other.
“We have had the most participation in off season training this past year than any other year. But this team is really special in that they always want to do right by each other, that they are close to each other like brothers (and some are!),” said Asche.
The team is currently 1-1, with a win against St. Agnes, and a loss to Concordia. As the season progresses, Asche said practices will be more focused on strategics.
“Before our first game and during two a days practices, we focus on technique, football fundamentals, and our offense, defense, and special teams systems. Once games begin, we focus on how those systems apply to the upcoming opponent. Each week we work on offense, defense, and special teams and run our opponents offensive and defensive schemes against ourselves,” said Asche.
A new coach means that players have to adjust to a new coaching style. The team is learning how Coach Asche and Harrington differ from one another.
“Coach Harrington is a strong leader who was always dedicated to the team, both players and coaches alike. I hope I am just like him in those ways. I think I am more likely to use sarcasm and humor to get my point across though,” said Asche.
Aside from improvement in the sport of football, Coach Asche says his goal is to have the students represent God, their family and Providence the best they can.
“Of course, a part of athletics and competition is playing to win, and we want to win as many games as possible. High school athletics is also a journey that lasts a short time and I hope each player grows in faith, maturity, and responsibility and eventually leaves the high school “athletic arena” with tools that will assist them in life such as teamwork, dedication, and perseverance,” said Asche.