Southeastern wraps up spring football practice

HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University football team completed spring practice with Saturday’s Spring Showcase at Strawberry Stadium.

SLU fifth-year head coach Frank Scelfo has been pleased with the progress he’s seen from his team throughout the spring.

“We’ve come together as a team and developed some camaraderie quicker than we have in previous seasons,” Scelfo commented. “We’ve had some leadership emerge and the competition this spring has really productive for us. Our effort and passion we’ve played with has been the aspect I’ve been happiest with and we have a lot of positive energy fueling our program. We’ve found that when we, as coaches, set the expectations for our program, the guys who are passionate about our culture will meet or surpass those standards.”

Scelfo touted numerous players who have stepped up into leadership roles this spring.

“It’s hard to single out just one of two guys, because we’ve seen a lot of guys take bigger roles as leaders for our team,” Scelfo said. “Cephus (Johnson III), Taron Jones, Jalen Bell, Donniel Ward-Magee, Ferlando (Jordan), Jack (Henderson), Bryce Cage and John Graves are all guys feeding the positivity within our program with their leadership.”

Scelfo has seen improvement in all three phases as the spring has progressed.

“Defensively, we’ve done a much better job running to the ball and playing with passion this spring,” Scelfo stated. “We’ve spent a lot of time on special teams and our punter Austin Dunlap and our long snapper Korey Karbowsky have both had outstanding springs. Our center Dom Serapiglia III is a physical player who can really move some people and he’s setting the tone for the physicality we’re playing with up front on offense.

“Playing with physicality is a mindset,” Scelfo added. “We’ve had our taste of the playoffs in the past couple of seasons and our team recognizes to win consistently, we have to be more physical on each side of the ball.”

Scelfo wants to see the team to continue to grow over the months leading into fall camp.

“We’ve done a nice job this spring becoming more situationally aware and want that to continue,” Scelfo said. “We’ll be getting some players back that missed spring due to injury and we’re looking to forward to seeing how some of those guys fit in. Summer is when we can see how mentally tough we are as guys go through the grind of conditioning and lifting.”

The Lions report back in the fall on Aug. 4 with the team’s first practice set for Aug. 5. Southeastern, one of six teams to be ranked in the final national FCS polls in each of the past three seasons, will open the 2022 season Sept. 3 at UL Lafayette. The five-game home schedule begins with a Sept. 17 contest versus Central Connecticut State and includes visits from Murray State (Oct. 1), Southland newcomer Texas A&M-Commerce (Oct. 8 – Homecoming), HBU (Nov. 5) and Northwestern State (Nov. 12).

“We have a winning program and we’re being recognized on a national level by being one of six teams ranked in the top 25 at the end of the past three seasons,” Scelfo said. “Our fans should come out to fill up Strawberry Stadium and have the expectation that we’re going to win. We don’t plan on disappointing them.”

TICKETS
For ticket information, contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit www.LionSports.net. Southeastern will continue offering mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets for the 2021-22 season. All tickets will be available via e-mail or text message in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.

SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Football, follow @LionUpFootball and @Coach_Scelfo on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.

TOUCHDOWN CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the football program are encouraged to join the Touchdown Club. Lion football alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.

All membership fees and donations to both the Touchdown Club and S Club (football) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern football program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.

CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events, effective with the start of the 2018 football season. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit www.LionSports.net/clear.