The evening sun lowers over Allen Burrell Jr.’s cap, his eyes squinting against the falling amber light. The sour smell of hot plastic turf fills Burrell’s nostrils as his heart beats loudly, the student section’s countdown to the beginning of the match chanting in the back of his head.
The whistle screeches, declaring the start of a battle between two familiar foes: Millard North and Millard West. Both teams have something to prove, but Burrell and the new Mustang squad hold something different tonight.
They have a reputation to uphold, or rather to create.
Burrell, the new head football coach, joins the blue and green from Mount Michael Benedictine School, also becoming the first Black head football coach in Millard history. With 19 years of coaching experience and plenty of time on the field himself, Burrell isn’t here to mess around.
“I’ve always felt like Millard North was home. It was the first coaching job I got in Nebraska. Coach Petito took me under his wing… [and] he believed in me. So I kind of embraced the community and [want to show] the same kind of love likewise,” Burrell said.
As one of Burrell’s new changes, his coaching staff and he have developed a path-blazing new training agenda for the football program. Burrell explains that he plans to keep some of the conditioning techniques that have worked in the past and work them into something new.
“I’m a big track guy. I’m a firm believer in speed. Speed and making athletes more explosive: that’s my philosophy… I mean, we live to get fast and we run to get fast,” Burrell said. “So, I focus more so on the speed component and the whole movement thing. We do still enjoy the weight room, but yes, it is a little different.
The team does three days of strength training and two days of speed work during the week, compared to past seasons’ strength training four days a week and running once a week. Coupled with explosive lifts, throwing exercises, more Olympic-style training, and a new on-field setup, the team is looking sharper than ever.
“He’s [Burrell] changed up the offense and defense. This new thing is definitely going to help us a lot in the next games,” senior player Rocky Chavez said. “…He’s all about speed this year and he’s not taking no for an answer,”
Burrell hopes this new training regime will take the program back to its “glory days”, as they’re often referred to, from [2012-2017] when Millard North dominated Class A football. The players are in the same mindset, hoping to reclaim the school’s throne.
“This is a start… we’re definitely more confident this time around. We just have to take it week by week and try to get those wins every week. That’s our mindset,” senior player Caden Vermaas said.
Burrell, who isn’t afraid to try new tactics to achieve the goals at hand, holds a unique, in-depth style of coaching, centralized around some principles not many coaches highlight. First, Burell is cracking down on academics, tardies, and impressions.
“The team can’t have fours or fives or we have to run. He [Burrell] wants to make sure we’re on time to school and practice or he has the entire team running… it’s a team thing, so we all have to pay for it [poor grades and tardies],” Vermaas said. “It’s good because it helps the team and helps you grow as a person. We’re student-athletes first, you know what they say,”
This new plan of Burell’s has been successful, to say the least, with the team GPA rising with this recent directive.
At the same time, Burrell knows that football is more than recreation and school for many on his team. He wants to teach his players to develop off the field, to grow into kind, strong people.
“Coach Burrell is… there’s a lot of ways to describe Coach Burrell… He can get down into the nitty-gritty of football, he’s a great coach on the training side, but he’s even better on the relationship side,” football defensive coordinator Adam Mohning said. “Understanding the bigger picture, trying to make a way for all the kids, from the all-state level players to the kids who just want to be part of a high school football team, he’s good at including everyone,”
All together, the head coach’s pristine, holistic approach to the football field is appreciated by his players. The team got to see this new plan in action on Aug. 30 for the first game of the 2024 season against the rivals farther west, the Millard West Wildcats.
In a close game, the Mustangs held on for a 29-21 victory, clenching the first win against the Wildcats since the 2015 NSAA Football State Championship. The Mustang squad celebrates this win and holds it as a reflection of the progress they’ve made with the new training agenda and the coaches’ perpetual support.
“We were hungry to win. We had lost so many years in a row against them so we knew we had to get it done,” Vermaas said. “The coaches had us mentally prepared and were saying the right things and always believing in our abilities,” Vermaas said.
Burell, as Vermaas stated, cares about his players as more than just athletes, but as whole people, on and off the field. With Burell leading the way, MNFB should prepare to reach for the stars, or rather, the gold.
“I just try to lead them well and be inspiring, you know… I know it’s a game, but I try to use this game as a tool to teach life, as well as to guide young men,” Burell said. “I hope I can impact their life in some positive way.”