BYRON CENTER, Mich. — “We’ve made it, lost both years. If we could finally win that regional it would be a really big deal for the seniors on this team,” said senior outside linebacker Cam Post.
For two straight seasons, South Christians season ended in week 12. In 2021, it was Edwardsburg who knocked off the Sailors.
“We drove the ball a lot, could’t punch it in a couple times and we had a chance to drive down and score but we just didn’t do it. But it just didn’t come down to making the right plays at the right time,” said senior quarterback Jake DeHaan.
A game they think about often.
“You hate losing. Nobody likes to lose. Especially our team, we’re such a competitive group. And so when you lose it fuels everybody. And makes me especially want to push my other teammates to be better,” said DeHaan.
South finished third in the OK Gold behind Division 5 state champs Catholic Central and Cedar Springs. Head Coach Danny Brown says their experienced players will help push them through.
“We’re in a unique position because it’s maybe not as many of the seniors that have played but we have a lot of guys that maybe this is their third year being on varsity. So there’s a lot of guys with a lot of experience and now it’s kinda filling the holes because we did lose a fair amount of seniors from last years team,” said Brown.
“All our seniors we know what to expect from coaches and from games. Like going into games we know what to expect, but we also need to help the juniors come with us and I think they’re ready to step up,” said DeHaan.
With the level of competition they face in conference, there is no easy week. But senior Cam Post knows it makes them better.
“We always go in confident. We’re not intimidated by them. But in the end it makes us all better for the playoffs going against better teams. Knowing that if we’re playing better teams in the regular season we’ll be playing that same caliber throughout the playoffs. So I think it’s nice that we play teams like catholic central and cedar springs which are really good teams. Two totally different teams but they’re both really solid, really athletic and really strong but I think it’s a good thing that we play those teams,” said Post.
Coach Brown says they’re sticking to the same offense they’ve had in years past. A few tweaks here and there but their goal is to keep it simple.
“We try not to be me, it might look flashy and crazy and all that stuff but we try to be as simple as we can because obviously football comes down to the basics and if we can’t do that right then scheme is really irrelevant,” said Brown.
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