Alcovy had its first winless season since 2007 this year, according to maxpreps.com. After their 27-0 loss to Lovejoy we spoke to Tigers’ head coach Kirk Hoffman. He breaks down the season and some of his players in this exclusive question and answer.

The Covington News: What is your overall evaluation of this season?

Kirk Hoffman: If you look at this last game from the first game, we got better. We didn’t drop as many balls. We didn’t fumble the ball tonight. The thing that hurt us all year was the ball on the ground. I thought my kids played hard and that’s all you can ask, just play hard. I think when it’s all said and done when you look at my schedule - eight playoff teams. We didn’t have an easy schedule and my seniors – the small number – had a hell of a year for me.  I take my hat off to D. Bell. The key for us, did we get better, did we get better? I think so. Realistically it could have been 14-7 at the half. We snapped it over the punter’s head and give up one. Those are things we got to get better at. Sometimes success is getting better and we got better.

CN: Coach as far as next season goes, what was your final message to your team?

Hoffman: We got to take a few days off and get ready. The biggest thing is each kids’ got to understand that there’s things that they gotta do, one to become a better athlete they gotta get in the weight room  and two they gotta do the right things in school.  Those grades are important. The academic standards are tougher now and I was raised we gotta push our kids up and meet those standards.

CN: Jazztin Jefferson, it seemed like he had a good game out there. He’s a defensive end/outside linebacker. Talk about his performance a little bit.

Hoffman: Well he’s starting to understand the game. I think when we first talked I said that, “We’re so young, we’re not understanding the game.” He knew where to beand where not to be. Coming in, we talked, we knew we were gonna struggle this year. But I saw some kids grow up. Jazztin Jefferson grew up. I can’t say enough about my offensive line. We probably had what 250/300 yards tonight. Throwing the ball around and catching it. And those are the things that we just gotta do.