KENTWOOD, Mich. — East kentwood finished 5-5 last season, ending 4th in the ok red but made quite the jump from the year before when they went just 2-7. They say depth is on their side this year.
"We've got a ton of offensive and defensive linemen, skill guys. It's the next man up mentality. Hopefully nobody goes down, injuries do happen, football is a collision sport and injuries do occur. So that next guy has to be ready to go," said Tony Kimbrough.
"You see sometimes when a team has one player with multiple division one offers that they ride on that guy, we don't do that here at EK. Not one bit. We ride on the team," said senior linebacker Stellan Bowan.
Senior linebacker and Ohio University commits Stellan Bowman will lead the defense this year. He's also making sure his younger teammates know the expectation of EK football.
"It's more so about passing the torch down because I've spent my time here. I've been on varsity for the past four years. We have a sophomore that got pulled up and we have two juniors so I'm just giving them the information that I've accumulated over the years," said Bowman.
The Falcons always schedule a tough non conference opener in week one. This year is no different.
"Our first game against Hartland, I feel like it's going to be a tone-setter for our year. It's going to be me and Stellan with our team. He's going to be stopping their offense and letting me score some points. It's going to be a really good game I feel like. Especially on the new turf, top tier," said Casey Joppie.
Last years season opener was against Muskegon. EK lead going into the 4th quarter before the Big Reds scored 14 unanswered. They say that it was a good measuring stick for them to start the year.
"If we do the work that we need to do, prepare the right way, we can compete with anybody. And that gave us some confidence. Going into that season and the off season as well," said Kimbrough.
"Muskegon got away with one last year but it kind of woke the OK red up and they were like 'oh shoot, they came to play'. With Joppie at quarterback we're looking to do some good things this year," said Bowman.
Per usual their conference will bring a challenge each week. TK says they want to climb to the top of the ranks but also focus on their week one opponent before getting into the thick of the OK red.
"We just want to win them all. I'm serious. We just take it one game at a time. It's a gauntlet. The OK red is by far one of the hardest conferences in the state, I'll argue that every year. But it's really just about taking that one game approach. Our opponent is Hartland, we'll worry about Hartland and then go from there," said Kimbrough.
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