Last season the Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots football team finished the season with a 9-2 record and fell one game short of reaching the state tournament. The Patriots graduated four seniors from that team.
The Patriots return six starters on offense and seven starters on defense from last year’s team. This year’s team will be led by a group of nine seniors.
“We have a lot of experience coming back,” H=BC head coach Rex Metzger said. “A couple of them have been starting since they were freshmen. Quite a few of them played as sophomores and juniors. There is a lot of experience coming back with this group of guys.”
With so much experience returning, the Patriots had high hopes of breaking through and reaching the nine-man state tournament this season. Due to Covid-19 there will be no state tournament.
The key word for the year 2020 has been adapting. With no state tournament scheduled, the Patriots are simply adjusting their goals for the upcoming season.
“Just being able to play football this fall is going to be big for us,” Metzger said. “The goal every year is to play in a state tournament. That’s always everybody’s goal. That’s our goal every year. I know that our guys wanted to reach the state tournament. Obviously that’s not going to be in place this year. We are just going to take it game by game and see if we can make a push through our section tournament.”
In what will certainly be a strange season, the Patriots are going to lean heavily on their veteran leaders. That experience figures to be H-BC’s greatest strength in this shortened season.
“Our senior and junior classes have a lot of good athletes,” Metzger said. “A lot of those guys are multi-sport athletes. They love the game of football.”
A concern for many nine-man football teams is depth. If multiple injuries occur, will the next man up be ready? Metzger said his team doesn’t have many glaring holes as they head into the season. But the depth of his team is cause for concern.
“Our depth is always a big concern for us,” he said. “We don’t have a ton of weaknesses just because we have so much experience and older guys on the roster. You are always an injury away from being a different type of team.”
With Gavin Wysong under center and Tyson Bork at running back, the Patriots may have one of the best talented and experienced backfields in the area.
“Those are two skilled guys,” Metzger said. “They’ve been starting since they were freshmen.
We moved Gavin to quarterback. He’s a true running back, but we moved him to quarterback when he was a sophomore.
Tyson has been a running back for three years now. I think we have two of the top runners in our area.”
The Patriots have had limited practices due to Covid-19 restrictions. One thing that’s caught Metzger’s eye in that short period of time is the growth of the junior class, both in the weight room and on the field.
“I feel like our junior class grew up a little bit,” Metzger said. “We have some good athletes. I think we have some guys that got faster and stronger since last fall. They’ve committed to the weight room and our speed training.
“Cole Baker would be one of those guys. Oliver Deelstra and Ty Bundesen are other names that come to mind. Those are some skilled guys that didn’t contribute a ton, but they played some last year. I think we’ll look to expand their roles this year.”
The Patriots will open the season on Oct. 9 in Sleepy Eye against Sleepy Eye Saint Mary’s.