HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – We’re staying here in Huntsville for Episode 17 of On the Road with Olivia and Claudia, checking in with the JPII Falcons and Whitesburg Christian Warriors.

JPII has its fifth head coach in as many seasons, as Chad Omelia is now leading the Falcons program. He said he’s very excited to be here in Huntsville and give this program some stability.

“There’s been a lot of transience with the coaching situation so I think for them to feel some stability is the first thing and then once they trusts you, then they’ll do whatever you ask them to do because they go this guy’s bought in, he’s here, he wants to be here, he genuinely enjoys being around us,” Omelia said. “We were one bad half of football away from being a playoff team so when a team that is essentially a playoff team calls and says hey do you want to be the head coach you say yes so I made the right decision and I’m having a blast.”.

JPII went 4-6 overall last year but it is an improvement from the previous two years where the Falcons had just one total win. Omelia said his players have bought in and been showing up and they have more participation than they’ve ever had, and that makes him excited to officially get started.

“You walk in and you don’t necessarily know who’s there and you’re like OK hopefully we have some kids that can play,” Omelia said. “You walk in and you see kids that can play football and you go to 7 on 7s and play really good teams and you realize our talent level stacks up so from there once you have playoff talent you can mold them into a good team. Building hurdles for them, a mountain where you know they can climb it but they don’t quite realize they can climb it, you use those hurdles and those achievements and now they trust you because they see OK you told me to do something, it worked now I’m all in.”

Over at Whitesburg Christian where Jimmy Nave enters his third season as head coach. This is just the fourth year of the program and Nave said they’re still trying to build it up but they’ve added some numbers and they’ve all put in good work during the summer.

“We’ve gotten a few more kids, now this year we have five more than we had last year. So we’re starting to get the kids get some interest and we’re playing 7 on 7s and that’s helped us a lot, these guys have enjoyed it,” Nave said. “They really work hard, they really do and I know that every coach says the same thing but these guys have put in the time in the weight room,” Nave said.

The Warriors are coming off of their first-ever non-losing season, finishing at 5-5. Now this team is hungry for even more success.

“We let a game slip away from us, we played a couple of games that we knew that we could have played better. I think that’s going to carry us a long way. this is our fourth year and we’ve had some success early and all it did, it just lit a fire under them to enjoy it because there’s nothing like winning on a Friday night.”

It will be a tough start for the Warriors as they have four straight road games, beginning with Woodville on Friday. Meanwhile, JPII will also open on the road, facing Westbrook Christian.