He came here as a freshman and took his lumps, but the significant thing is that he's hung in there and believed in himself. Now he's reaping the benefits of his hard work early on.

I think these younger guys see Tony, what he accomplished, and know as a freshman he took his lumps, too. If they continue to follow his lead, we're going to be where we want to be.

That's what they saw, and we took our lumps, came in and went back out. I mean, it is what it is. They warned us, they did it to other people, so it's not a big deal. As long as they stay consistent and keep doing it that way, I'm all right with it.

We'd like to have a couple of those early ones back. We took our lumps early to figure out some things, but we're right where we want to be at the start of the conference season.

We took a few lumps varsity-wise, but it paid off when Ian went to state. Now, we're at the point where we have multiple state qualifiers, which is really exciting for us.

To start three freshmen is a scary thing. They took their lumps, made some plays and got better.