EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — East Grand Rapids made the playoffs at 4-5 last fall, that was head coach Josh Shattuck's first season leading the Pioneers, now with a year under his belt and an off season, he and his team are feeling much better.
"In year two, just having the kids pretty comfortable," Shattuck said. "They know what position they play, they know what body types they are looking for, what skill sets we are looking for at all the various positions on both sides of the ball."
"A year ago it was a whole new system we had to learn new names, new coaches, everything," EGR senior slot reciever and safety Ian MacKeigan said. "This year all summer we got to practice instead of learn and that made a big, big difference this year."
The Pioneers graduated a good number of starters from last season.
Scotty Millman did get a good deal of experience at quarterback last season after Preston Bergstrom was injured, and that was valuable.
"Varsity games obviously move faster than JV games so that was huge for me to learn," Millman said. "That is definitely a really big help."
While East does expect to use Millman at quarterback, it also plans to play him at running back because they also really like junior quarterback Carson Thornton, both are expected to play.
"I told both of them, this isn't the NFL, we are not going to hold a press conference to name a starting quarterback," Shattuck said. "We are going to sub you guys in and out, we are going to play to our strengths. They are two very, very good football players, they're also very selfless and they are good friends so they just want to win and we are not super worried about who's out there on the first snap or who plays more downs. I think that is difficult for other teams to defend when you have a two-headed monster at quarterback."
"I think it's a great option," MacKeigan said. "Both guys are very versatile in different areas. We got a guy that can sling it, a guy that can run it and it is going to make a big impact for our team."
EGR made the playoffs last year, but did finish below .500 for the second straight season, that had not happened in more than fifty years.
It's looking for a good start to this year to help end that streak.
"It is definitely the biggest win of the regular season because starting the year off 1-0," Millman said. "It gets confidence in your guys and it's definitely the biggest game in the regular season."
Thursday nights game Memorial Field has been pushed back to an 8 p.m. due to the forecasted heat.
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