Getting to know Ryan Pearson

BCR Sports Editor Kevin Hieronymus interviewed new Princeton coach Ryan Pearson in the preseason. Here is their one on one interview:

What attracted you most to Princeton? I loved the school district and the community. I thought it was a great place to raise my family.

Is this a place you can see yourself staying for awhile? I plan on making Princeton my home and staying for a long time.

How has the offseason gone for you and your team? What kind of things have you been doing to prepare for the new season? I think the off-season has gone extremely well. Our kids have worked extremely hard and have done everything that I have asked. As a coach, I am trying to create a family atmosphere and the kids have really bought in to this mantra. We strength train 3 days a week, have had multiple mini-camps, attended multiple 7 on 7's and lineman challenges and have concluded our summer with our annual football camp for seven days.

What have you learned about your team/players that you didn't know before? This summer has really been spent building relationships with our kids and getting to know them on a personal level. They are fantastic kids and I have truly enjoyed my time spent with them.

As a new coach, what's the biggest obstacle/task of hitting the ground running when practices start up: The biggest obstacle is developing the team culture that I want established here in Princeton. We are extremely up tempo in everything we do. It took some time for the kids to get adjusted to the pace we want to train as well as play the game. Now that they have adjusted nicely, were ready to start building towards one of our goals and that is a TRAC championship.

What kind of team can the Tiger fans look for this season: I base everything we do on unselfish, physical play. Those are attributes I expect from our Princeton teams. When you get a group of young men willing to buy in to playing as a unit and not as a bunch of individuals, you give yourself a chance every Friday night. We are going to take a lot of pride in the Princeton name on the front of our jersey and not the name on the back. I want to make sure we put a product on the field that our school, our parents and our community can be extremely proud of.

Can you share a little insight on the kind of offenses/defense you like to run: Offensively, we are going to hang our hat on a physical downhill run game, a vertical passing game as well as incorporate a ton of misdirection. To me, misdirection in H.S. football is a great talent equalizer. Defensively, our main emphasis is stopping the run and making sure we rally to the ball as a unit. Special Teams is a huge emphasis for us. I believe in being very aggressive and taking calculated risks in trying to steal possessions from the other team.

You’ve come from one tough football conference, the Mid Illini, to another in the TRAC Mississippi. How do you see the Tigers stacking up in conference: I think my experience in coming from a 5A-7A conference is definitely going to be an advantage. My goal is to get Princeton to consistently play at that kind of level. If we can raise our level of play in all facets of the game, it will truly help us in the TRAC. Ultimately, our goal is to compete for TRAC championships every year.”