This weekend the Meeteetse Longhorn football team will look to continue their winning ways. The Longhorns are currently undefeated on the season at 4-0 and are coming off a huge win over the then ranked number 5 Burlington. Now the Longhorns after debuting at number 3 in the latest poll get set for a top five match-up with Encampment. Earlier this week I caught up with Head Coach of the Longhorns Zeb Hagen to talk about the match-up and he gives insight into their season as a whole. With over half their season in the books Coach Hagen breaks down the first few weeks of the season.
“The thing that sticks out to me for this team is their camaraderie. How they work well together through the ups and downs. They just enjoy being out there together and I think it’s just a true family. Like I said I think that’s kind of what sticks out to me the most, as far as being what’s been attributed to a lot of their success. Right now it’s just a pretty good package and I look forward to seeing this thing continue that way throughout the year.”
Going into this week’s contest coach Hagen says the team is relatively healthy and just needs to work on fine tuning the little things.
“We’re going to treat this week just like we’ve treated the previous four and hopefully the remainder of the season as well. We also know that our schedule’s been tough, towards the end it’s just going to keep getting tougher i think. We’re up for the challenge. We know encampment is really good. They got a lot of athletes. I think we should match-up pretty well with them.”
Now 6-Man football can be a little different than traditional 11-man. There’s only 12 total players on the field at one time but that doesn’t mean game-planning is any easier.
“The one big thing you have in 6-man is, the one big rule that the ball can’t cross the Line of Scrimmage before it passes possession. You see a lot of pitch backs right at the beginning of every play. It looks odd compared to 11-man football but in 6-man it’s pretty normal. Would love to run the ball all the time and short passes and things like that. You gotta use the whole length of the field and you gotta make sure you test the defense out in every phase of it. So we’re geared up to do that as well.”
Earlier this week WyoPreps released it’s latest look at the Coaches and Media Football poll and coach Hagen talks about blocking out the noise but also relishing being recognized.
“We preach all the time and we talk together as a group about, that is what it is on paper and anybody can win or lose. We have a responsibility to go out there and compete at a high level. I said anytime that you start getting more publicity, ranked higher or you start getting thrown out good stats, I think that responsibility only increases. So we try to just talk about it, make sure that our kids understand that, work harder and harder. With rewards comes more work sometimes.”
Coach Hagen goes on to say he hopes and expects this to be a good game and lists a couple of keys for this contest.
“Whoever’s the low end on the turnovers probably be the team that kind of comes out ahead. So that would be one x-factor I could think of and special teams is a big role in that. You can’t let your guard down in special teams in 6-man cause it can really come back and bite ya. Hopefully everybody stays healthy on both sides so we can actually have a true test of two really good teams. Kind of see where we’re at going for the rest of the year.”
The Meeteetse Longhorns look to remain undefeated on the road this weekend vs. Encampment. Kick-off is scheduled for Saturday at 12 noon.
