Sports

Braves revamp offense to utilize their speed

By Tyler Ohmann

08/27/2013

After losing their entire offensive line and their top rusher, the Bottineau Braves look to change things up in 2013, and that means using their best attribute—speed.

“I think with Trevor (Wettlaufer) and our offensive line gone, it changes the plays we’re going to run,” said head coach Rob Bedlion. “We’re a much smaller and a quick team, and we need to utilize that.”

“We need to use our speed, because we’re not built for regular power football that I would prefer to run,” Rob Bedlion continued. “But we have to change with the kids we’ve got, and speed is what we have this year.”

That speed comes mainly from returning seniors Harrison Aide and Andrew Hill. Hill believes that it will be essential for the Braves to deviate from their smash and pound offense and try to do things outside of be the tackles.

“There is a lot of teams that are big and have size up front,” Hill said. “With us we’re moving around every play, and I think our outside game is going to most effective.”

Of course changing styles means learning new plays, which is what Bottineau has been working on in practice.

“We’ve been learning a new offense, and the kids have been working really hard to get it down,” Rob Bedlion said. “It’s gotten a lot better, and we’ve made a lot of progress. Now that we’ve gotten that offense down they can use that speed and not have to use their brains so much and just react.”

That also means learning new positions as is the case for senior Cody Bedlion, who after playing the past two seasons at tight end has moved onto the offensive line.

“It’s definitely tough to learn a new position, but I think it helps that we are all learning,” Cody Bedlion said. “There’s a lot of new guys coming on the line, and it helps that we learn together.”

The rest of the line is made up of underclassmen, which means Cody Bedlion is learning right along with his younger counterparts.

“If they get better, it makes us better and makes the whole team better,” Cody Bedlion said about the younger players.

Hill too expects the younger players on the team to work hard to make the team improve from a 3-6 finish in 2012.

“We just expect them to work hard, and help make us better in practice and make themselves better,” Hill said.

Another big change for the Braves will be moving down to Class A. Bottineau moves from Class AA’s West Region to Region 3 of Class A.

“As far as competition I think this region is just as competitive as any region that we’ve been in,” Rob Bedlion said of the change. “The big benefit for us is travel. We don’t have very many long trips anymore, in fact our longest trip this year is Harvey.”

“That’s going to be great for our kids, it’s going to keep them in school and is better all around,” Rob Bedlion added.

Bottineau won’t be in completely unfamiliar territory though as Rugby made the move down to Class A with them, and they’ll also play Williams County, who they’ve played the past few seasons.

The Braves have high aspirations for this team as they return five seniors: Hill, Cody Bedlion, Aide, receiver John Gohman, Cody Beaver and Tanner Bickford.

“Our main goal as a team is always to win a state championship,” Cody Bedlion said. “We definitely want to do well this year and make playoffs, but I think staying together as a team and working hard is probably going to be our main goal this year.”

Hill said making the playoffs would be a strong finish this season.

“Making the playoffs would be a big thing this year,” Hill said. “I think we’d be pretty happy making it that far, but going to state would be pretty awesome.”

Bottineau was selected to place sixth out of eight in Region 3 by both the coaches and pigskin poll.

The Braves open their season tonight at home against North Prairie.

Bedlion is glad to open the season in front of a home crowd.

“It’s always great to start at home,” Rob Bedlion said. “It’s the first day of school, so hopefully we can get a lot of the student body out to cheer us on.”

However, the Braves are in for a test against the Region 2 Cougars. They boast a strong running game and a sizable line, which is the opposite of Bottineau.

“I think it’s going to be a tough match up for us,” Rob Bedlion said. “I think North Prairie is sort of the opposite of what we have, they are going to be big up front and a very good running back. I think they’re going to try and use power football on us, and we’re going to be speedy and fast and hit the edges.”

“It will be an interesting match up because I think both teams have a lot of differences,” Rob Bedlion added.