The AGWSR football team will look to start its season on a high note when it travels to Lake Mills for Friday’s opener.
Coming off a 3-6 season, the Cougars will be bolstered by senior quarterback Collin Willems as they install a new offense, a variation of the Wing-T in the shotgun.
“It’s so important to win Week 1,” Head Coach James Koop says. “It gets the season started off on the right foot. You don’t have a bad taste in your mouth. That first year we were back in 11-man, we went to Belmond-Klemme and we got a win in Week 1. And that just, you know, the people that were questioning whether or not we should switch from eight-man back to 11, that just puts a little water on the dirt, so there’s no dust in the air. There’s no confusion. You know what I mean? And the new offense, if we can go up to Lake Mills and get a win against a good Lake Mills team, that’s critical because then everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah. The new offense, it works. Like the coaches said it was going to work.'”
Defensively, linebacker Carter Roder and lineman Clayton Van Loh are back after helping the team last year as some of the leading tacklers.
After falling to Lake Mills 14-7 at home last year, Koop says competing better in the close games will be a key to a turnaround season.
“If you look at our games last season, Lake Mills was one of those games that just kind of slipped through our fingers. I mean, we were ahead 7-6 late in the game, threw a pick six, lost 14-7 and Lake Mills only had two losses that entire regular season to St. Ansgar and West Hancock. So you know, that would have been one more win for us. And we had a couple other games that were decided within a touchdown or less that we just couldn’t finish those games and we let them slip through our fingers. So hopefully we can right the ship on that this season and finish those games.”
The kickoff will be at 7:00 p.m.
