A new era has started on the football field. Colin McCullough, a 2005 Bishop Noll grad, has taken over as the Warriors head coach to lead them in a new direction.

In the recent years the Warriors haven’t exactly been the team to cheer for with their last win coming in 2014, and the last time they had a winning season was 2006. Although the Warriors had put in all of the work the last couple seasons, wins just haven’t come along with that. Coach Mac wants to change that.

One thing McCullough has noticed about the team as a spectator that is different from recent years is that they don’t give up. In the last years, he felt that when the going got tough, the team gave up. Now, he notices, they are fighters.

“I watched the game film from the last two seasons and I saw players give up when things got tough. The body language on the field and the sidelines was awful. The first two games of this season I witnessed my players  fight back in the second half and do some great things along the way,” said McCullough.

The team is being led by senior quarterback Alejandro Garcia, who has played football all four years of his high school career.

Garcia knows that just because Noll has a new coach and a new mentality on the field, this isn’t exactly the plot of Hoosiers. But he wants to leave knowing that the team is working towards improvement.

“I want to personally get my team better. My time here at Noll is slowly winding down so I want to help set the underclassmen on a path towards success. When we have success in the coming years, I’ll be able to say I helped start that.”

Although there are nine seniors on the football team, there are also plenty of talented underclassmen that will help the team for years to come. One freshman that is contributing lots of time on varsity is Anthony “Chase” Aguirre as the starting center and defensive end.

Coach Mac believes that by the time the current freshman and sophomores are juniors and seniors, the team will have a lot more visible talent and a better record to boot. .

“At this point, we’re emphasizing the fundamentals and developing their football intelligence so they can all be competitive in the future. We’re planting trees, not flowers,” McCullough said.

Newly acquired senior transfer Jason Barker has led the Warriors these first couple weeks of the season. Barker plays wide receiver and free safety for the Warriors and also returns kicks.

Barker is a big fan of Coach Mac, and coming from a former Mount Carmel football player, that says a lot.

“He’s really good coach, in my opinion. He’s trying to develop a winning culture around the younger guys. He doesn’t accept mediocrity and expects every player to give a 110% in practice and in games,”, Barker said.

Everything from the coaching staff, the playbook, and the locker room is changed this season, but fans from the glory days of Bishop Noll football have to be patient to see big results

“We’re hungry to get better. We hold each other accountable and we try to push each other to fulfill our limits and go past them,” said Garcia.