Metamora Prepares For Week 9 Contest

METAMORA, Ill.- A local Highschool football program, who has a familiar mascot, has been in the process of building a positive culture around the sport and their community for years now. This program is Metamora High School.

The Redbirds started out hot this season with five consecutive wins, three of which were won by more than thirty points. The next three weeks resulted in losses; however, the Metamora squad has a great opportunity to show what they are made of this Friday.

The Metamora roster has been led by Head Coach Jared Grebner since March 2020.

Grebner is excited about the opportunity and said, “I feel very fortunate to be around a great group of kids and coaches”.

The Redbirds seem to be a very high-energy team, but it is hard to stay at that level over the course of a long and grueling season.

Often times a team will adopt a motto or slogan to keep them motivated for the remainder of the contests, and for the Redbirds that saying is “bring the juice”.

Grebner said that the phrase was coined when “it seemed like one day we were lacking energy and needed a little bit of juice”. This has ultimately worked thus far for the Redbirds because they are working with a winning record.

However, like any high school program, there is always going to be turnover. For many high school coaches, this means they have quite a few players who have little to no varsity experience.

This was thought to be a problem with the team but Grebner has seen tremendous growth.

Not all teams show significant improvement early on in the season and for that reason, Grebner stated, “those guys continue to grow and are able to rotate in, and we have complete confidence in the players”. This sense of confidence is what will be needed to get the Redbirds back on track.

Metamora will play at Canton High School Friday night at 7:30 pm. For scores and updates visit WZND.com.