The parents of Manitowoc Lincoln football players got the opportunity to meet the coaching staff over the weekend, and one name may be familiar to Packer fans.
Evan Smith has signed on to run the offensive line. Smith spent nine years in the NFL, including three with the Green Bay Packers.
He also blocked for Aaron Rodgers during Super Bowl XLV.
We asked Smith how he ended up in Manitowoc.
“I met my wife when I played for the Packers. Turns out she was from Manitowoc,” he explained. “Over the years I have been visiting and learning to love this place more and more. Now we have decided to build a house down here and live here, and my kids go to school in the area.”
He ended up joining the coaching staff for the Ships when one of the coaches, who he happened to be neighbors with knocked on his door.
As for his coaching style, Smith said he plans on not getting too complex while also focusing on hard work.
“My biggest thing for teaching these kids is to keep it very simple,” he said. “Teach them things in a way that they can understand it. They aren’t professional football players, and I don’t need to talk to them that way.”
While he hasn’t met or practiced with all of the players and hasn’t seen any of the other schools in the area play, Smith had a pretty optimistic outlook for the season.
“The leadership I’ve seen, the kids putting in the work off the field, putting in the work in the weight room, I think we are going to have a better year than most people are going to predict us to have,” the former NFL center said. “I think a lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised at what we do out there.”
The Ships players have been doing a lot of work off the field so far with the receivers running routes on Rubick Field, and the incoming freshman class has been playing 7 on 7 games in Green Bay to great success.
During the parent meeting, Head Coach Greg Enz noted that they played so well on Sunday, the other team’s coaches were penalized for yelling at their players because they couldn’t stop the Ships team.
