ZEELAND, Mich. — “We’re working for now. We’re not worried about last year or the year before or ten years ago,” said Zeeland West Head Coach John Shilito.
Zeeland West Football is playing for today.
“We’ve got a lot of special talent on this team. We have guys up front that are doing the things they’re suppose to. With our offense, it’s everyone does their job and we score touchdowns. We have a lot of guys that can get a lot of jobs done and I’m just excited for that,” said senior quarterback Trevor Wallar.
Last season the Dux went 6-3. Finishing 2nd in the OK green, but did extend their playoff appearance streak to 12 straight years.
“We’ve always played against pretty good football teams and our schedule has consistently been challenging. And so for us, we’re a day to day program. But the challenge of our schedule has, we’re either going to grow or it’s not going to work out well,” said Shilito.
West's two regular season loses were to Muskegon and Mona Shores. Two games they’ve already got marked on the schedule.
“They got the best of us last year and they’re our conference, so it’d be great to take one or two of those. You know, we’ve got a few really big ones (games) right off the bat. Mostly trying to get as much out of those as we can and seeing how much those can help us later on in the playoffs,” said senior lineman Luke Hulsman.
The Dux return a core group of players from 2021, including quarterback Trevor Wallar, and Coach Shil-eh-toe says their speed will be huge for them.
“As for as things that can be a plus for us, you just talked to a second year quarterback. Anytime we start a second year quarterback, that’s a plus for us. And our other plus is that we do have a lot of speed. Our track team was Division 1 state champions last year, and all four of our backs were running on relays on that team. And so we do have a lot of speed and some speed on defense too,” said Shilito.
The guys say they’re trying not to get too focused on the playoffs but know how important it would be to continue their streak of making it to the post season.
“It would mean a ton, obviously. We’re still a little bit a ways from that, but we will be 100% focused on that when it comes around,” said Wallar.
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