FFE Preview: Pulaski County

PULASKI COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - With a change from Class 4 to Class 3, the Pulaski County Cougars are looking at a new path to the playoffs this year.

As head coach Cam Akers enters his second season at the helm, he believes the competitive River Ridge District will help push his players as they continue to develop throughout the year.

“There’s a lot of good coaching in our district. A lot of good football coaches,” he says. “I think we always have to be on. We’re not in a position as a program now to say ‘hey there’s a week where we can back off the gas’. It’s just about us taking that day-by-day progression. I feel like I say that to everybody, but it’s true. It’s a day by day, week by week progression with our football program.”

The Cougars return starters on both sides of the ball and say that their relationships and trust in one another is one of the biggest ways they’ve improved since last season where they finished the year in the bottom half of the district standings.

“Last year’s group was a great group. I enjoyed those young men, but I came into it late,” he begins. “I wasn’t around those guys as much. Having 12 months with these guys, them getting to know me, me getting to know them, and watching our senior leadership develop, these guys care about each other. They play hard for each other.”

“We’re physical, we play as a team, and we like to get at it. We like to hit people. That’s just what we’re going to do,” says senior linebacker Tyler Underwood.

Pulaski County travels to Northside for their first game of the season this Friday.

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