ZEELAND, Mich. — “It’s a night and day difference from last year for what we’re seeing,” said Head Coach Joe Woodruff.
Head Coach Joe Woodruff enters his second year with more confidence, knowing what to expect from his team. The Chix were 5-5 last season, losing their last three games.
“Were returning seven starters on offense and defense this year so that’s a huge part of our team and that’s really gonna help us out this year,” said senior outside linebacker Evan Berghorst.
The Chix were a little light on numbers last year, forcing a lot of young guys to step and play varsity. They’re now seeing that pay off, like for junior quarterback Austin Keur.
“It was something, coming in second string I felt a lot of pressure on me if the first string didn’t do well. So I always went out there without a lot of confidence hoping that I could trust my upperclassmen. All the playing time last year really helped me coming into this year. This year we’re just working on offensive schemes and which is going to help us a little bit and make sure we can win more games than we did last year and make more of a playoff push,” said Keur.
“Quarterback is back, Austin Keur, he split time with a senior last year so Austin has a ton of experience coming back and he’s a gritty guy and he’s going to be a leader for us on offense,” said Woodruff.
Playing in the OK Green each week isn’t easy. Especially when you have perennial powerhouse Mona Shores and district rival Zeeland West to face.
“When you look at a schedule like that you don’t really try to focus on wins and losses because you just don’t know where they’re going to happen. I know it sounds like a coach-ism but there’s no way In the world we’ll say we’ll be happy with 6-2 or 7-2 we’re just gonna try to constantly get better each week because we know each week is going to be a challenge for us,” said Woodruff.
Last years playoff appearance with the 5th straight time they’ve made it to the post season. Something East would like to continue for many more years to come.
‘Zeeland East has always been pretty good at football so going into this year I’d like to make the playoffs. Make a district push at least. Last year was a heart breaker for us, losing in overtime for the seniors but hopefully this year we can go to the district championship and bring home that trophy,” said Keur.
“Of course there’s always that pressure but we all feel really confident that we’re going to make it and hopefully make it to the district championship this year and bring home the trophy,” said Berghorst.
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