Almira/Coulee-Hartline eyes deep playoff run in 2017
When Brandon Walsh sat three starters down last season after a violation of team rules, it wasn’t about laying down the law.
That’s as much as Almira/Coulee-Hartline football tradition as winning games. They work hard, they play hard and they answer to one another. It’s that team-first, taking care of business mindset they believe will take them back to 1B state championship form in 2017.
The Warriors are coming off a season that ended in last year’s state quarterfinals with a group of young guys that saw quite a bit of time.
“I’ve been really impressed with our work ethic so far,” Walsh said. “Throughout our offseason and early on in practice they have that go-to-work mentality. We’ve always tried to instill that whole team pride from the starters down to the guys coming off the bench.
“Everybody matters, for us to be successful we need great effort from everybody. It’s fun to see someone struggling and one of the other kids goes over and encourages him. It works both ways, maybe someone you wouldn’t expect throws the key block. So we’re all working together.”
Everybody matters is the focal point to the 2017 season.
The Warriors return junior quarterback Maguire Isaak, who had a solid season last year as a sophomore. He’ll be joined in the offensive backfield by running backs Hayden Loomis (jr.) and Parker Zappone (sr.). The Warriors have the best receiving corps Walsh has ever had with Payton Nielsen (sr.) and Gage Burchill (jr.).
“Historically, we’ve been a run-first team. For us to be successful, we have to be able to move the football on the ground,” Walsh said. “But this best receiving group I’ve ever had. We call them running backs, but we spread them out into slot receivers a lot. We have about six or seven kids that can run down the field and catch the football and a pretty good quarterback throwing it to them.”
Walsh will go with Kenny Hahn (sr.) at center and guards Chris Christopherson (jr.) and Jacob Mitchell (jr.).
Defensively, they have team speed all the way around and they expect to use it. Up front, they have Christopherson at the nose guard with Nielsen and Hahn as the defensive ends. Zappone and Anthony Giuliani (jr.) will be the linebackers and the defensive backfield will be Loomis and Burchill at the corners and Isaak at safety.
“Tradition matters here and all the kids were disappointed with how we finished last year. There was no shame in it, but they wanted to go farther than the quarterfinals,” Walsh said. “We have higher expectations. Our goal on defense is to not give up the big play. Everything hinges on tackling well whether it’s individually or as a team. There’s so much space and so many one-on-one situations, we have to focus on stopping the football, and that’s where our team speed is going to come into play for us this year defensively.”
The Warriors won the 2015 1B Gridiron Classic and the goal is to take another run at it this year with a predominantly underclass roster. They open the season on the road Aug. 31 with fifth-ranked Sunnyside Christian in Granger and host Cusick on Sept. 8 in Coulee City. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.