Are You Ready for Some Football?! The Cody Broncs make both their season and home debuts Friday as they host the Riverton Wolverines to begin the regular season. The Bronc charge will be led by their group of seniors who look to leave their mark at Spike Vannoy Stadium. To say they are excited to get the season underway is an understatement.
Prior to the start of the season Nic Talich told me “I’m just ready to kick some butt, Cole.”
From camp battles, to playing in a scrimmage last week and now gearing up for game action, the motto behind this year’s team is 86.400 and Nic Talich explains that meaning.
“86,400 is our team motto this year. We’ve done no regrets, no retreat, no reserve in the past. And so this year it means just that 86,400 seconds in a day. So think about it as money. You want to spend every single dollar in a day if it gets taken away at the end of the day. So that’s what we’re trying to do every single day.”
Looking at some of the position battles going on this year. There is depth at every skill position, holes to fill on both lines and who’s going to be the starting quarterback? Caleb Pryor looks to be in the mix and talks about his camp mindset.
Just whatever I can do to help the team. I’m going to do that every day. And then we just gotta improve every week as a team at each position. We’re going to have a lot of young guys filling in a lot of places. So it doesn’t matter how we start, it’s just how we grow as a team and get those young guys developed.”
Ethan Little will be looked upon to help lead the offensive line and says it’s all about the basics when it comes to meeting their goals.
“We really just need to get down our fundamentals and get down just the basics of everything we need. That’s the kind of team we are. We just pound in the basics until we know them by heart and once we know them by heart we let our pads do the talking. Yeah, you’re right, the State Championship is the goal but we’ve got to win every single practice until we get to that point.”
This year’s squad may be experienced but they’re also young. After filling in at Tight End and Linebacker a year ago Keaton Stone looks to step into a larger leadership role and talks about that and bringing the young guys along.
“I’m ready to just be able to play and just help our team hopefully win and help the younger class-men get into football and just enjoy it. Only got 11 guys but a lot of starting, bringing a lot of talent from last year. We’ll just be good leaders to help the underclassmen help us.”
Cody Phillips, another multi-sport athlete at Cody High School will take on a larger role, echoes Keaton’s statement and adds some of the early season expectations.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of challenges but I think our senior group can lead really well and set a good example for these younger guys. I think some of our goals right now, this early in the season, are just to get us rolling. We’re a really young team and I think we have some hurdles to jump over but I think we should get over those pretty soon.”
Speed will be a definitive strength for the Broncs this season and adding Devyn Engdahl back to the roster provides not only speed but more depth.
“We have a lot of athleticism and speed this year that we’re going to use. Beat our opponents using our speed rather than size.”
While speed is a great asset to utilize, the Broncs success all begins at practice. Karsten Stone on how this team wins in the dark.
“Just focus on getting better every practice. Make sure that they all count. Putting 100 percent effort, following all the rules and stuff.”
James Brittain agrees and says they must leave their blood, sweat and tears on the field.
“Just making sure we go 100 percent on the field and we don’t leave anything behind.”
As was the case a year ago the camaraderie amongst this year’s team is huge. Not a day goes by that the bond between these players doesn’t grow, says Brice Stewart.
“Yeah it’s really nice to know everybody and we can count on everybody. We’re pretty much all friends off the field as well as on.”
Reese Ward adds if they take care of what they can control anything is possible.
“If we overcome it all as a group and as a family it’s going to be better for all of us. It’s going to give us a season to play and it’s going to be tough but we’ll all make it through it.”
The Cody Broncs officially kick-off the 2020 season at home, at Spike Vannoy Stadium Friday at 5pm. Join me for the live play-by-play action all season long on the voice of Cody sports KODI AM 1400 AND 96.7 FM.
