Cornwell’s leadership hoping to lead Bees to success

Heading into his senior season with the Bethel Bees, the multi-positional Landen Cornwell is ready for a breakout football season that everyone on the squad has been waiting for during their career. Cornwell, who can play many different spots on the field on Friday nights, still has images of last year’s 3-7 Bees team going through his head as his squad prepares for the start of two-a-days next week. He is ready for a change. 

“At the start of the season, we started off really well with a very good first game, winning 41-14 over National Trail. Then we had two pretty bad games,” Cornwell said. “We went into the TRC games and against Riverside, we lost by one touchdown with a minute left, and I think it tore us down.” “We were never able to bounce back from that and it was definitely a turning point for us. But I think now that I am coming back and have seen that, I know what it will take for us to finish those games.” Cornwell knows that it will take total commitment from his team to work together. He believes things can turn around heading into his final season suiting up for the Bees. “Everyone has to work together. We can’t have people on different pages, and it has to be a team sport,” he said. “We have to be together and stick together through hard times.”

Heading into the Three Rivers Conference, a league that was dominated by Northridge last year, Cornwell wants that feeling of playing for a league title before his career ends at Bethel. “At the end of the day, we just have to compete every play,” he said. “We started off really good in some games and didn’t finish in the fourth quarter. Or, we started out slow, and it was too late to come back.” He admitted it was about putting together four quarters to be able to challenge every night for the league title.  Cornwell has used the summer to prepare himself for his last ride, and along with his teammates, is putting in the work not only on the field, but as leaders. 

“It comes down to pushing the younger guys to be better, and them pushing us to be leaders,” he said. “Workouts have definitely tested us because they are going to make them as hard as they can to see who wants to compete.” “I think we are good at competing and pushing ourselves.”