Experience. That is one thing the Yutan football team both struggled with and overcame this season. With having only a few starters from the past year, the team was able to persevere and end with a record of 5-4.
“This year, we had a bunch of guys stepping up a lot and filling positions because we lost so many starters from last year,” senior Bennett Ell said. “They stepped up big time for us and made a difference by handling the pressure and responsibilities with those positions.”
Especially since so many younger players had to step up, many upperclassmen helped promote beneficial bonding outside of practice.
“We hung out as a team like all the time, every weekend pretty much. We all got along really well,” senior Tannen Honke said. “My main goal was to be a good influence to the younger kids and have something positive for them to remember.”
Even though the team had great bonds, the season started out shaky due to their tough schedule, causing them to work harder and harder after each game.
“We started off with three top-five teams, and we didn’t end up winning those games, but we improved as a team off of those games,” senior AJ Arensberg said.
One of these games was against Bishop Neumann, who beat out Yutan 40-0 early on in the season, leading them to push harder to get some more wins.
“Our hardest game was Bishop Neumann because they had a lot bigger and faster guys,” senior Brock Schwarz said.
In order to overcome the first couple of losses in the season, the team focused on giving their full effort in practices every day.
“I think the intensity that we had at practice was good. You know, we had a different level of want compared to most teams in the state,” Arensberg said. “While it didn’t end up carrying us to the playoffs, I think it maximized our potential.”
The team also tried to maximize their potential with a high intensity level during games.
“I feel like we were one of the most physical teams out there. We wouldn’t really take anything from anybody, which helped us in games,” senior Max Egr said.
This high intensity level combined with their strong team bond helped the team to win games later on in the season. One of these games was the homecoming game, which the Chieftains won 54-0.
“Our best game was Tekamah Herman because we had the spirit from homecoming and we played well as a team,” Egr said.
Even though the team lost their first three games in the season, they went 5-1 in the last part of their season. This meant they narrowly missed the playoffs. While they were disappointed to end the season, there were still plenty of positives to look back on.
“Even though we might have lost some of those tougher games, there were a bunch of highlights of us playing really well,” head coach Dan Krajicek said.
This season also gives the underclassmen practice with adjusting to change, which will be needed again next year as another large group of seniors will graduate.
“We will adjust some plays here and there,” Krajicek said. “We lost a bunch of seniors this year, so we will have a bunch of underclassmen who will get to play a bunch.”
All in all, the players who will still be around are already looking forward to applying the lessons they learned this year to next season.
“We had a lot of people step up this year to overcome our setbacks, and we need to keep the mentality that we had this year for the future,” junior Tyler Keiser said.
