Friday night football is a lot more to players than just a ‘game.’ It is the night where after a long week of practice the players get to show everyone what they have to offer. Putting out your team’s best 11 players against an opposing teams best 11 players, and this year’s Chieftains are far different from the others. New and returning faces makeup this year’s varsity team. It is a unique group of boys that have come together.

“It’s my first season of varsity football,” sophomore Landon Cooke said. “I’m a starter, and it feels great.”

First season of varsity is always exciting but can also be very nerving.
“I feel accomplished,” sophomore Andrew Wiseman said. “It just feels great winning with this team.”

A great accomplishment for Wiseman, especially when the team is winning.

Never the less many changes to the team do not go unnoticed by the seniors.

“I think we have more depth on our team,” senior Dylan Kelley said. “A lot more players can backup the starters.”

More depth is important to Kelley, allowing better play for the Chieftains.

“Our energy and just the way we play has changed a lot,” senior Zach Conley said. “We have a lot better leadership, as well.”

Leadership and energy are big parts of football and that is what Conley sees to have changed the most. This years team’s main focus was to improve from last season.

“I feel like we’ve done better than last year,” Cooke said, “but we’re just pretty inconsistent, lost games we should have won.”

Both the ’22 and ’23 Chieftains had almost identical starts, showing up big against Rochester but falling short for the next 3 games.

“We could’ve started better instead of 1-3,” senior Kyle Jacob said, “but our team really came together and grew together.”

Other players agree there could have been a better start to their season.

“Not exactly how I wanted the season to start,” senior Andy Carlson said, “but we’ve done our best to make it this far.”

Carlson making the best out of the teams situation. The team soon set things straight, winning in week 5 against L’Anse Creuse to relight their playoff hopes.

“Before defeating L’Anse Creuse we had a few rough games,” senior Numehne Gwilly said, “but after the win, we started to turn things
around.”

One win can really impact a teams entire mindset, as little as it may seem.

“L’Anse Creuse had to be one of my favorite wins,” sophomore Adan Arabo said. “They were talking crazy about Numehne, so we had to back him up.”

Standing up for your team is what this game is about.

Now, whether the games has happened already or not, the teams has made to the playoffs and hope to accomplish great things.

“I always knew we’d make it to the playoffs,” Gwilly said. “Even in the preseason I was thinking we’d make it to the playoffs.”

The team is optimistic and looking forward to playoffs. They hope they can keep the teams moral high and work on going far in the playoffs.