Football

With a new coach at the helm, the varsity football team looks to recover from a 2-7 record last season. After previous head coaching experience and a 3A state title a game appearance  under his belt at Hesston High School, Clint Rider said he aims to create a winning atmosphere to build the future of BVNW football.

“I think the important thing for us this year is establishing a culture, and how we want to approach practice and how we want to approach our development as a team and individually,” Rider said.

Senior receiver and captain, Jackson Heath said Rider has pushed them harder than ever before in the offseason and believes the work they’ve put in to get stronger and faster could earn them a winning record.

“Everybody wants a winning season and I think that’s very achievable for us,” Heath said. “I know we’ve put in the work to become a better team and I think we deserve to be a better team that we have been in the past few years.”

However, Heath said one thing that could hold them back from accomplishing this goal is the little mistakes they make because over the course of a game, they can add up really quick. He added that Rider introduced a new offense to the team and learning it is one of the things that has been causing mental errors.

Rider said he has been working hard to help the players through these early-season difficulties during practice and through film.

“[As coaches] we have to identify things that lose,” Rider said. “Whether that be how physically we play, our toughness level, finishing plays, finishing blocks and tackles, we’ve got to be able to identify those things to our players at practice so we can correct them going forward.”

Although the football program has less players than in previous years, Heath said he thinks this comes with multiple benefits.

“I’d say unity [is our biggest strength,]” Heath said. “We don’t have the biggest team, but within that, we know each other, we’ve worked together, we’ve had to work harder just to get things done; we do more reps than most teams just because we don’t have the people to be there, but that also means we’re potentially the [most] in-shape team and we’re ready for the fast pace offense that we play.”