Team of the Week: Lincoln Southwest Football
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – As the fall football season approaches, teams from around the capital city are hitting the field for summer workouts.
For the Lincoln Southwest Silverhawks, competition is in full swing on and off the field.
Last season, the first-year head coach Grant Traynowicz created a leadership council.
After the season, the team picks a few select players to lead a small team that they drafted to compete against each other in a non-traditional way.
“We compete in a lot of different stuff, and part of that is going out in the community and helping out,” Traynowicz said. “They’re learning how to be servant leaders, which is the highest form of leadership.”
Each team bonding exercise is worth a certain number of points.
At the end of summer, points are tallied, and the winning team gets bragging rights for the year.
Coach Traynowicz says the program helps to build a strong team bond.
“The hope and the dream is that when we strap it up on Friday nights, that that bond is solid, and when adversity hits, we can weather that adversity and come together as a team.” Traynowicz said.
Senior wide receiver and second-year leadership council captain Landon Kelley leads Team 709179623.
He says his team has a few new faces on it and deciding on a name helped bond the group.
“I said, everyone just put in a random number,” Kelley said. “So then everyone just started typing in numbers. We just randomly put them together. And that’s our team, pretty unique, I would say.”
Kelley says this competition has helped him get closer to teammates he usually wouldn’t hang out with.
“We just talk in the group chat, just have regular conversations with people you may not know as well as the people you hang out with every day,” Kelley explained.
Fellow senior wide receiver Griffin Semrad leads Team Blur, which is currently on top of the leader board.
“I love my guys,” Semrad said. “We got a Southeast transfer, we got Lincoln High transfer. I didn’t know him at the start season, and I’m really glad I saw their performance hasbeen great.”
He says this just gets him even more fired up for the football season.
“It’s just fun seeing how everybody’s working together really hard, and it gives me a lot of hope for the season,” Semrad said. “The weight room has been awesome. Everybody’s been working hard, connected.”
Tags: athlete of the week, football team, Grant Traynowicz, griffin semrad, High School, High school football, Landon Kelley, Lincoln Southwest, LPS football, LSW, LSW football, Southwest Football, Team, Team 709179623, Team Blur
