Fourth year Head Coach Mike Johnson is optimistic about the 2022 season, “We graduated a small senior class of only five players, however, those five were very good football players and will be tough to replace.  The positive is that we have a lot of kids who got valuable varsity experience last year.  We return a majority of our offensive and defensive groups.”

Returning starters include seniors Bennet Arceneau (WR/FS), Caden DeBoer (OL/DL), Gus Johnson (TE/DL), Ryder Ashbaugh (RB/LB), Blake Adickes (OL/DL), Hunter Holte (FB/DE), Jacob Sweedal (OL/LB), Ben Harrington (TE/DE) and RJ Reigstad (DB/WR), juniors Cohen Noska (QB/DE), David Revering (RB/DB), Devin Eggert (OL/DL) and Zach Mrnak (OL/DL), and sophomore Mason Boesl (RB/LB).

Others expected to make an impact at the varsity level are seniors Tyler Carstensen (RB/DB), Mason Mittag (WR/DE) and Brady Blackstone (WR/DB), juniors Kayden Leninger (OL/DL), Seth Sansness (OL/LB) and Holden Truax (TE/LB), and sophomores Joe Johnson (FB/LB), Riley Looker (OL/DL) and Nolan Steidl (TE/LB).

“Our players put in a lot of hard work in the off-season and contributed to other varsity sports throughout the past year, which gave them a lot of good experience to develop of athletes and leaders,” noted Coach Johnson.  “We will have a lot of talented underclassmen who will help make practices more competitive, which will help us out on Friday nights.”

Johnson, who will be assisted by Eli Gesell, Darby Carlson, Jeremiah Burnham and Brady Yrjo, says the District race will be very competitive with Pelican Rapids, Breckenridge, OTC, Underwood, Frazee and Roseau all in the mix.  As for the Section 4A race, Johnson sees BBE, USA, Browerville-Eagle Valley, KMS, LPGE and Benson all competing for the title.