Good athletic teams don’t rebuild.
They reload.
Case in point: The Montezuma football Braves, who graduated 3,000 yards of receiving yardage (Cole Watts and Trey Shearer) from last year’s Class 8 semifinals team.
But returning is the quarterback (Eddie Burgess), who threw most of those passes – and a ton of other talent – bigger, stronger and faster – ready to step into their established, or up to new or revised roles.
“We are looking to have a great year and continue to build off of the success we had last season,” said new head Coach John Beck.
“The boys worked very hard during the summer and are determined to compete for a district championship and a playoff spot,” he said.
The Braves have 34 players on the roster – eight each in the senior and junior classes and nine each in the senior and junior classes.
Beck said, “Thirty-four is a very healthy number for an eight-man program. Having the balance between the grades will help us compete at both the varsity and JV levels this year.”
Beck said 16 upperclassmen and “a couple of sophomores contributed last year. I think that really shows how strong we will be with our leadership.”
“We have a very experienced team coming back,” Beck said. “We lost some great seniors as both athletes and leaders, but our upperclassmen have really stepped up and taken the reins of the team.”
Off-season work was great
“We have some great athletes to help fill our skill spots that we lost,” Beck said. “I look for Connor Van Zee, Eli Bustamante, Masin Shearer and Owen Cook to help Eddie Burgess in carrying the load on both offense and defense,” Beck said.
“Our guys did a great job this off-season,” Beck said. “We have a lot of guys that we can put out there and be very confident when it comes to our skill spots.”
“Most of our guys have been in the system and have a good understanding of our offense,” the coach said.
As Braves fans know, Burgess, now a 6-4, 230-pound quarterback and linebacker, has numbers that would scare sharks out of the water.
Last year alone, he threw for 3,803 yards and 59 touchdowns, on 207-for-323 (.641 completion average).
The Braves didn’t earn a lot of rushing yardage early in the season, but Burgess solved that one with his quick first step, which got him rolling into secondaries.
Burgess finished with 1,148 yards, a 7.9 per carry average, and 28 touchdowns.
“We look for Eddie to be a great leader on both sides of the ball this year,” Beck said. “He has a great understanding of our offense and defense. Having his presence on the field is like having a coach out there.”
Van Zee rushed 12 times for 88 yards, a 7.3 average.
Masin Shearer caught five passes for 81 yards and two scores. Van Zee snagged seven for 75 yards and one score.
Burgess led the Braves with 91 tackles, while Van Zee had 65.
Owen Cook kicked off 111 times and had 59 touchbacks.
Cook was 50-for-67 on extra point kicks and three-for-six on field goals.
The big eaters abound
The Braves have other eye-popping numbers – as in size.
They’re big where big is helpful.
Kennen Roadcap, already a two-year starter at center, was 5-10 and 260 pounds last season. Now, he’s 6-3 and 233.
Defensive end Tod Geiger, who was 6-0 and 205, now measures 6-2 and 250.
They are far from being alone.
“We had a lot of kids working hard this summer and helped us develop some size, and they got better as athletes,” Beck said. “Our size on both the offensive and defensive lines will be a strength for us.”
“It’s always great to return five of the six starters at those two spots. Kennen and Tod both had great summers, as well as the rest of our linemen. They really worked on getting faster and being more explosive,” Beck said.
The Braves have some new players who should impact the opposition. One is 5-11, 188-pound junior Marty Knox, who was a defensive end for the Oskaloosa varsity as a sophomore.
“Marty is explosive and has a knack for finding the ball on defense,” Beck said. “He has looked really good and I expect him to be a big part of the team.”
“We also have Zach Bennett (senior, 5-11, 180) move into the community and he will be a big contributor on both sides of the ball,” said the coach. “He is a high-motor kid who has the ability to play both guard spots and help us at defensive end.”
Beck said freshman Brett Plants, “Has looked good. He has great size (5-10, 190) and tackles well in space. Look for him to contribute early on, especially on special teams.”
The new coach said, “We’ll play our style of football, but I do think we will have the ability to have consistent drives that will eat up more clock when we want to slow down the game.”
“Defensively, we will look to build off of last season. Take out that last game (108 points by Remsen St. Mary’s) and we had a defense that gave up less than 20 points a game,” Beck said.
Beck said Defensive Coordinator Tim Burgess, “Has the guys taking great pride in improving on that side of the ball. We will be swarming all over the field, looking to make plays.”
“Overall,” Beck said, “we are going to play the style that we think will win us a ball game on any Friday.”