(Audubon) Audubon gets an early start on the high school football season with a Week 0 matchup on Saturday against Winfield-Mount Union. We’ll have the game on KSOM with a live video stream at WesternIowaToday.com.
Audubon coach Sean Birks finds wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to play in Week 0, stating a live game is more beneficial than a scrimmage. “For us, this year especially, we are replacing a lot of guys. We just thought it would be the best situation for us to speed up our learning curve. Throw our guys to the fire and learn from it. In 8-Man the way the playoffs go you could lose all of your non-district games and it’s not going to penalize you one bit. For us to play quality teams and play as many games as possible we think it’s going to give us a leg up.”
The Wheelers must replace six starters on offense and five on defense. “The expectation is to still compete. We have a lot of new guys and a lot of new opportunities. You’re not going to hear same names this year in a lot of spots, but that doesn’t change change the expectation that we want to go out and be physical, explosive, and compete week in and week out.”
The players that bring back the most experience are Cooper Nielsen, Gavin Larsen, and Manny Beisswenger. “We are looking at Aaron Olsen stepping in at quarterback. He’s a quick kid. He was the fastest player on our roster last year as a freshman, so he’s going to get a chance to get the reins this year as a sophomore. Manny Beisswenger will take over that slot role for Braden Wessel. He’s a dynamic kid we can hand the jet sweep and throw the ball to. Evan Alt is a little bit undersized at running back, but he’s a physical kid. He’s been our JV running back the last two years.”
Wide receiver, tight end, and one spot on the offensive line have been up for grabs throughout the last couple of weeks of practice.
Audubon coach Sean Birks:
