By Jacob Vanderford – |Sports|

Heads or Tails? The referee flips the coin as Jefferson faces the sky and the white house faces the ground, spinning like a whirling continuum. Cedric Case, Zion Perry, Ed Crouse and Jack Buchanan, captains and leaders of the team, make the call. Heads. The Links have won the toss!

Although this is a very small, miniscule part of the game and the atmosphere itself, the coin almost relies all upon luck. This is not what the Links are all about. Maybe the first few games people would say, “The Links got lucky on that one. We’ll see how they play the rest of the year against bigger, better, faster teams.” Well, this year, they are that team.

The Links Varsity Football team is a combination of speed and strength, and not a bit of luck. All skill. Lincoln High School is becoming a force to be reckoned with, and they want to leave a legacy now, and for years to come. Everyone is watching them, and they have something to prove. The Links are going for a District Championship and a state championship. However, it wasn’t that long ago that the Links’ record wasn’t as strong as it is today, and it has taken a lot of work to get to this point.

“Turning around a program is never overnight,” Head Varsity Football Coach Mark Macke said. “It started with the weight room, we’ve gotten better there than we ever used to be. Our summer commitment is much greater than it ever used to be. We work out harder, we train harder. We’ve just gradually raised the bar of expectation, and the kids are buying into it.”

The Links are on track for a historic season, averaging close to forty, fifty points a game. Coach Mark Macke says that the success is not only due to hard work and dedication, but also because of the commitment from the players and the coaching staff to give their best. Their strongest goal set in mind? To bring some  hardware back home to the Lincoln High hallways.

“Our goal, of course, is always a state championship,” said Junior Wide Receiver CJ Jones of his team’s aspirations. “But in order to get there, we have to take it one game at a time, we can’t think ahead, we have to play strong in every area, and have that endurance to stay in every game.”

Last year, the Links had a steady record, reaching the first round of the playoffs for the first time in years, only on the cusp of their untapped potential. This year, many of the starters from last year have returned and have set out to prove something. They are trying to represent their school, their city, and their state to the best of their ability. Their chain is simply unbreakable. And the chains are not  just a metaphor pre-game for the players and the fans, it’s a reality.

“Everyone loves the chains,” said Cedric Case, junior quarterback and captain of the team. “When Coach Beckmann brought them to the captains pre-game, we were all excited. It’s something that no one else in the city can do, we get our own field, and our own entrance, so it’s nice to have a little fun with it, and get the crowd involved.” It strengthens the team’s bond on and off the field, and gives the crowd some excitement before the game began.

Even before a high school team even thinks about getting started and being successful, it starts within the grades before high school begins. In other words, the midget football league. The Silverbacks were a very successful, hard-nosed midget football team, becoming one of the best in the country, and the root of this football team at Lincoln High School. They practiced every year, prepared, and worked hard to be the best. They kept their nose to the grindstone, and that’s their mentality this year going forward. Many of the players have a firm belief that this is where it all began, and it uprooted from there.

“A lot of us have been playing football together for the past 8+ years, so over that time naturally you’re going to get to know your teammates very well. And with that, it has created a ‘brotherhood’ if you will, that goes deeper than football. We’re all very close, and I know when I walk on the field, that the team will have my back in any situation.” Case said of his experience with his childhood team, memories that will last him a lifetime.

To be a strong, fast, and tough-minded team, you need to be conditioned. And that’s what this Links team has been working on since late July, early August. It’s been a routine and a mentality that they’ve had since day one. They stick together, and leave no man behind, from the weight room, all the way out to what is shown on the field. It’s not just a team, it’s a family.

“This season we’ve been spot on so far,” Case said. “If you’re asking why we’ve started so much better this year, it all started right after last year’s game. We started working. This summer we pushed every day. We sweat together every day, because we know what we want to accomplish, and I think it just brought everyone even closer together.”

The Links are truly on a mission, and they are still building for future success. Next man up. That’s everyone’s mentality. Everyone’s prepared, from second string to third string players. Be prepared for what’s in store for the future, with State Playoffs and State Championships coming up. You’ll be excited to know that they’re prepared for success, and you should be, too.