(Exira) Only three seniors are gone from last year’s Exira-EHK football team.
It’s hard to know exactly what to expect after a season in which the Spartans had so many COVID-19 disruptions, but they do bring a lot back. “Obviously time will tell. We do have quite a few players that are coming back with experience, but you never know until you get out there and play against other competition. Our kids are really looking forward to that. I can’t fault them in any way as far as how they’ve been working in our practices. The kids are really getting after it.”
Exira-EHK coach Tom Petersen says it’ll take time for kids to understand their roles and they’ll learn through their mistakes, but he’s optimistic moving forward. One of the things he’s been happy about is having some good competition in practice. “We don’t have huge numbers, we have 24 kids out for football, but we have a lot of kids I feel that are equal in ability. It makes for better practices. The practices where kids are competing against each other for a few spots. One of the things I addressed to them was you’re going to have to be ready to go. In the game of football you’re going to get kids banged up at times and that next person is going to have to be ready to step in. I do feel that we’ve got that this year.”
Petersen says the younger players have come a long ways and they have some upperclassmen ready to shine. “Trey Petersen comes back at quarterback. He was kind of a quarterback/running back/receiver a year ago. This year he’ll be probably 99% at quarterback so we have to make sure we do things that benefit him as far as play calling.”
Some stability within the lineup should benefit the team. “I think that’ll be huge. Trey had to play a lot of positions last year, but I don’t see him having to change hardly at all. I feel pretty comfortable with him back there.” He has some weapons, “Cash Emgarten is coming back from a year ago. He’s been doing really, really well in practice so has Tyler Kingery. Derrek Kommes has been performing really, really well and Kayden Hansen and Aiden Flathers.
Other key personnel returning include Dane Paulsen, Aiden Potts, Jackson Schores, and Easton Nelson. The Spartans week one foe is Griswold.
Coach Tom Petersen:
