(Treynor) Treynor opens the season against St. Albert on Friday night.
Treynor coach Jeff Casey says the main goal for the team is to come out and play hard every night. “It’s a group that I usually don’t have to push them too much to do that. They are pretty self motivated. They like to play physical. They like the contact of football. We are just trying to focus on that right now. It’s been one of our big things the last few years is to play physical in everything we do. I’m pretty happy with where we are at so far.”
The Cardinals went 5-4 last year, posting an 83-18 first round playoff win before being ousted by Western Christian in the second round. They return their leading rusher Kaden Miller along with standout athletes Todd Pedersen and Jaxon Schumacher. “We have a couple of all-district players back. Kaden Miller our fullback was our leading rusher last year. He’s worked really hard in the offseason to get himself in great shape and we’re really excited for his senior year. Jaxon Schumacher was one of our all-purpose guys, he had a really, really good season last year for us as a sophomore and we are going to be counting on him even more. The one we are excited about is Todd Pedersen. Todd burst on the scene in the spring and was a state champion in the hurdles in track. Had just a really strong spring season. He’s dealt with some injuries the last couple of years in the fall and we just haven’t been able to unleash him, so we are excited about him.”
Coach Casey says the offensive line isn’t huge, but they are super athletic. “Our offensive line group as a whole has really worked hard to re-shape themselves and they committed in the offseason.”
And there’s no shortage of athletes on defense. Jaxon Schumacher and Kaden Miller return as the team’s leading tacklers. “We’ve got a pretty good size roster that’s pretty talented top to bottom. Adley Drake is going to be a key guy for us on defense, Thomas Schwartz, and Owen Mieska.”
St. Albert is typically a very strong outfit and is coming off of an 8-3 season. “It’s going to be an interesting game. They are coming off of a really, really strong season. Obviously they played in the dome last year. They’ve got some talented guys. Year in year out they are going to be probably one of the most well coached teams that we play. We know their kids regardless of who they have are going to play hard and they always have really strong athletes. It’s a good way to start the season, it’s a fun way.”
Casey looks for a depth advantage to be a big factor for his team. The Cardinals are in Class 1A District 8 where Underwood is a favorite with the rest of the league being made up of East Sac County, Kuemper Catholic, MVAOCOU, and West Monona.
Treynor coach Jeff Casey:
