The Grand Rapids Catholic Central football program has been the most successful in the state of Michigan the last six seasons winning 76 games and five state championships.
The Cougars began practice on Monday knowing they have several holes to fill after 21 seniors graduated after last season.
"I think it's just knowing what you're doing because we have the skill," Cougars senior tight end and defensive end Nate VanTimmeren said. "A lot of newer kids that just got to figure out what football is to them and what they can do for the team. We shouldn't be good, just as good as we were last year."
VanTimmeren leads the returners from Catholic Central after starting at both tight end and defensive end last fall, he committed to Central Michigan to play football in June.
The Cougars will be replacing all of their skill players from a year ago, but do return several offensive lineman that started in 2021 as sophomores.
"We're excited," 11th-year Catholic Central head coach Todd Kolster said. "They need to lead our team. There's no question we have several question marks, like probably every team does. The one thing I'm really excited about this group, we've got a good mixture of old and young and inexperienced, but they don't really know yet and sometimes that's also a good thing and so it's exciting as a coach because we know we're gonna have to coach our guys really, really hard and get them ready."
The Cougars are scheduled to play Port Huron on August 26th at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
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