Sports

Young Braves ready to put in the work

By Matthew Semisch

08/12/2014

The famous line about how hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard might be overused in sporting contexts, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Bottineau High’s 2014 football team appears to be making that saying its mantra. Head coach Rob Bedlion is leading a young bunch this year in a tough Class A region, but he’s pleased with his group’s eagerness ahead of Wednesday’s first official day of fall camp.

“What I like right now is that we’ve got a really committed group,” Bedlion said. “We’re a little bit young and we’re really only going to have five returning seniors, but the kids have been working really hard over the summer and I think that’ll help us make up for some inexperience.”

The youth is evenly distributed, though, and Bedlion feels that there will be a healthy amount of versatility in the squad.

“Across the front lines we’re going to be all over the place in terms of age,” Bedlion said.

“I look at what we like to do in terms of our game and you’d always want to have five senior linemen, but we only have one returning senior there. It’s rare that that works out that way and even rarer at small schools, but it’s nice that we’re going to have a bunch of kids that can contribute at all positions and be available to fill in in whichever roles we need someone at.”

The Braves’ full group, coaches and all, will hold their first official practice of the 2014 season on Wednesday morning. Ahead of that, though, BHS’s playing personnel have been working together on their own in what are known as captains’ practices.

The hope in the Bottineau High camp is that all the hard work the team has been putting in over the summer and during the upcoming fall camp will pay off. BHS has finished 2-6 in both of the past two seasons, and the desire is there to improve upon those marks.

The 2013 season was a tough one for the Braves, which moved down from Class AA to Class A but struggled in a very difficult region. Bottineau finished 2-5 in Region 3, which boasted three state quarterfinalists a year ago.

One of those teams, the Lakers of Des Lacs-Burlington, hosted a state semifinal game last November but lost 34-8 to eventual Class A champion Hazen.

Looking back on his Braves’ maiden voyage in Class A football, Bedlion said the team had a rougher time adjusting than he thought it would.

Injuries were a big problem for the Braves a year ago, too. Senior receiver Harrison Aide broke a wrist in the first game of the season at home against North Prairie, and sophomore wideouts Ethan Jensen (broken arm) and Parker Engelhard (concussion) also missed considerable time.

On top of health issues, Bottineau’s football team lacked height a year ago. Thrown all together, these issues made for tough sledding for the Braves in their first foray in their new classification.

“It’s a little crazy because you would think that, by dropping down a class, you might do a little better,” Bedlion said, “But we had a tough time of it.

“We lost a few kids to injuries early in the year and that forced us to change the ways we were doing some things, and we were very young up front and small. When those sorts of problems team up against you, they can get very difficult to overcome.”

Last year’s Braves were a relatively inexperienced group, too, and that was another reason for Bottineau’s woes. Bedlion’s 2014 team is bigger - especially on the offensive and defensive lines - and older by comparison, and he’s enthusiastic to see how those changes translate on the field.

“We’re a fair bit bigger this year and what were those younger kids are another year older and that much more experienced and confident,” Bedlion said. “I actually think we can compete with anybody up front this year on our schedule, and that’s exciting because if you can do that, you can play with anybody, and I think that’s going to be the strength of our team.”

Taking over for departed senior quarterback Andrew Hill will be junior Brody Moum. Moum spent the 2013 season on the Braves’ junior varsity squad, but Bedlion is confident that the junior will be able to pick up quickly in his new role as Bottineau’s No. 1 signal-caller.

“Even though it’s going to be his first year as a varsity quarterback, I think he’s going to do a good job with it,” Bedlion said. “He needs to get a few snaps under his belt and that confidence you want from being in there, but that’ll all come naturally just through practices and game situations.

“He was the JV quarterback last year, and I think he’s going to be ready to step up. He’s worked really hard over the summer and was really committed to getting into the weight room and doing the work we’ve needed him to do, and that was nice to see.”

Bedlion and the rest of his coaching staff are installing an offense that will be largely ground-based. It will be more of a running game than the air-attack system Bottineau had in 2013 that had catered to some of its better players’ abilities.

“The running game is kind of back to what I’d like to do,” Bedlion said. “Last year, we changed our offense a little to cater to the types of athletes we had and then we lost two of those athletes in the first game of the season and ended up having to backtrack a bit.

“This year, we’ll be going back to what’s worked for us, and that’s power football. The kids understand that and they understand that there’s a lot of pride in being able to move the ball and control the clock and make both those things work for you.”

Behind Moum in the offensive backfield will be senior running back Ethan Kerslake. Bedlion is expecting a big 2014 season out of the tailback who ran for 657 yards in seven games last year.

“Ethan Kerslake is back as a running back, and I’m expecting him to have a huge year for us,” Bedlion said. “He’s got good speed and confidence out there, and I think he’s primed to have a really good senior year for us and be someone that (opposing defenses) are going to have to watch out for.”

Bedlion expects Region 3 to be tough again this season, and perhaps the best of the four Class A regions from top to bottom. Lessons have been learned from the Braves’ first season in the division, though, and Bottineau’s coach is looking for his team to be more competitive on the field this time around.

“Our region’s an extremely good region, so you never know how the scores are going to end up,” Bedlion said, “But I think we’re going to be able to compete every week, and that’s what we want most of all.

“You want to be able to line up and compete with whoever you’re playing, and we’re going to do that every week.”