Beyond the Field

The growth of the Polson High School football team this 2025 season has provided the team with opportunities to better their teamwork and establish a football program that encourages its players to develop leadership qualities that go beyond the field. So far the team has won two out of the seven games they’ve played in. Head Coach Carson Oakland said that, “When there is some adversity, we need to learn how to fight a little bit better, and it’s been something that we've kind of struggled with, and hope we can clean up throughout the rest of our season.” Despite these challenges, Oakland commends his players for staying focused in the heat of the moment, and taking the time to reflect on them after the game. He’s noticed how the culture amongst the team has gotten stronger in the past couple of years. Being his third year coaching the team, he’s seen more kids buying into what they’re trying to promote, primarily off-season training, than in the past. 

Talon Pablo, a senior on the team, started lifting with some of his friends during the summer, when the coaches asked him to join. He said that the most rewarding part of football is meeting new people, which are now some of his closest friends. As a senior, Pablo helps motivate his teammates by encouraging them to play the best they can in the moment, so they won’t have regrets later on. Although the season hasn’t gone how he was expecting, he’s hopeful for the future of the team, with all the young players continuing on.

One of these young players is Sophomore Case Cox, who became Quarterback at the start of the season. Since he was about seven years old, Cox was infatuated with becoming a quarterback because of his favorite Football Player Tom Brady. He shows his determination, by staying after practice and running extra routines or reps with his teammates. Cox highlights the importance of extra training, saying, “That's what makes great teams. Everyone practices during the season, but what you do during the off- season or after practice, sets you apart.” To help his game, Cox trains in the weight room and participates in seven on seven tournaments with some other teams in the area. 

Besides gameplay, for Cox, leadership has been one of his biggest rewards from being on the team. Cox said, “It helped me with the football camp I put on this summer and it helped me with being able to talk to my teachers a lot with grades and stuff. Coach Oakland comments that there is a lot of leadership present on the team, saying, “It's more of like I'm gonna show you, rather than yell at you.” 

Cox recognizes that while the season hasn’t been as great as they expected, the team still puts in a lot of effort. He said, “We do the things that we know we can do, but sometimes it just doesn't show in our games. His reasoning being that sometimes they may go into a game overconfident, or not confident at all, and finding a happy medium can be hard. Something Cox has tried to do is bring up the energy leading up to a game, so that his team can get their confidence back after one they lost. 

A memorable game this season for them, Oakland states, was when they played against Lockwood. Something he felt like the players struggled with is following through when the other team scores first. Usually it ended up in quitting or folding. Lockwood scored first, yet the team was able to battle back, and took a lead. At one point they were tied up, but able to close the game out on offense in the fourth quarter against them. He said, “Just being able to beat those guys in a game meant a lot to our program and it was kind of a stepping stone to know that, hey, we can do the stuff that we've talked about.”

To improve next year, like Coach Oakland, Cox said players will need to do more off-season training. Oakland said, “Our motto is bigger than me. And this is something, that if we're gonna work hard, it has to be 11 guys doing the same job. If you have two guys and one person not, then we're not doing a very good job of that, and you're letting teammates down.”