A few weeks ago Jeremy Wilson was enjoying his summer as usual, when a chance came up that he couldn’t turn down.

Wilson was asked if he wanted to take over as head coach for the Lyle-Pacelli football team and he was quick to put his name in the hat. After being hired two weeks ago, Wilson already has a week of practice under his belt as he is preparing the Athletics for their season and home opener against Spring Grove Aug. 22 in Lyle at 7 p.m.

Wilson, who coached youth football in Lyle for the past three years and played some college football at Winona State University, showed up to practice last week without knowing much about his new team and most of them didn’t know who he was either.

“I’m kind of learning on the fly. The returning players are doing really well,” Wilson said. “They’ve shown me where everything was and they helped me get equipment handed out.”

LP finished 1-8 overall last season, but it does bring back most of its top players from last season. The team returns senior quarterback Jordan Hart, who threw for 596 yards and ran for 448 yards, and junior Daniel Bollingberg, who ran for 1,159 yards and 17 TDs last season.

Wilson is looking to turn to a spread offense that features more passing this season. Hart embraces the passing game being featured, but he said it has been tough to pick up on everything so quickly.

“It’s hard to start fresh, especially for the seniors because we’ve done the same thing the last couple of years,” Hart said. “We’re putting in new plays, we’ll have a new defense and we’ll have new leaders. We’ll deal with it.”

LP wide receiver Brady Lester said he thinks LP, which featured the rushing attack last season, will be better off attacking through the air.

“I think it’ll be different, but it’ll work with a passing offense,” Lester said. “Because all we did was run last year.”

Wilson had to learn everything from where the equipment is located to the names of his players in his first week on the job. Now he has to prepare his squad for the season in a very short amount of time.

“I’m learning as I go. I didn’t have the whole summer to prepare like most of the football coaches,” Wilson said. “We’re just trying to improve on last year. Hopefully as the season goes a long we’ll get a little bit better each game.”

LP has had a young and inexperienced squad for the past few seasons and this year the team has some veterans with some solid varsity experience. Hart thinks the Athletics could show some improvement.

“We have good chemistry as a team and we have a lot of experience. We’re not young anymore, we’re getting older,” Hart said. “[Coach Wilson] knows what he’s doing. He’s a good coach and a good person. I’m happy to play for him.”