Things will be different this year for the Wright City football team. The great thing for the Wildcats, coming off a 7-4 finish and a district playoff win a season ago, is that they won’t be that different.
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Things will be different this year for the Wright City football team.
The great thing for the Wildcats, coming off a 7-4 finish and a district playoff win a season ago, is that they won’t be that different.
After all, new coach John Klekamp – who was hired to lead the program after former coach Tyler Rickard was named the school’s athletics director – served on the staff last season after coming over from Montgomery County and already has a measure of familiarity with the returning players and coaches.
Senior linebacker Evan Baum (5-foot-11, 225 pounds) said that, while the familiarity exists, seeing Klekamp put his stamp on the team this season will assuredly help the team be ready to compete from the opening kickoff of Week one when Wright City travels to Warrenton for a 7 p.m. kickoff on August 28.
“Coach came in last year and adopted most of the same coaching styles,” Baum said. “The basics look a little different. We’re definitely dotting the Is this year. We’re getting our conditioning in, and there are some new coaches who work us really hard.”
One change will come on the offensive side of the ball.
While junior quarterback Kayden McCurdy, senior running back Benji Rodriguez, and senior receiver TJ Hamel (5-8, 165) lead a solid contingent of returning players on offense, the team will have plenty of options on offense.
Rodriguez rushed for 543 yards and six scores while Kaveon Schulte had 661 receiving yards and five scores.
Hamel said that Klekamp has made several changes to the playbook this season. Those changes could go a long way toward the Wildcats seeing success.
“We just changed the offense around, but we kept the defense the same,” Hamel said. “We want to go out and get better each day, each week. A conference championship is something that we want. A district championship, too. I really feel like our offense is good so we can outscore teams.”
One area that will look completely different for Wright City this season will be the offensive line.
Senior Brody Buttry (5-10, 245) is the only member of the unit returning from last year.
Still, Buttry said he’s excited to see how well the group has gelled and just what it can do leading the way up front.
“I’m the only returner, but the o-line is doing great right now,” Buttry said. “I really think we’ve had the chance to bond a bit and work together. I think we’re going to have a good season. As a team, our goal every year is to do better than the year before. That’s what we want to do.”
Klekamp said that the Warrenton game and then the home opener the following week will provide a pair of stiff tests.
“I think we feel good this year,” Klekamp said. “We start off with what we consider to be two tough opponents. We’ve got Warrenton at their place and they’ll be eyed up because it’s a rivalry game. Then, we welcome Westminster here.”
Wright City, which will return six players with some measure of starting experience from a year ago, is going to take things one week at a time.
“I’m not a big numbers guy,” said Klekamp of putting a goal on wins before the season. “I want to go out and win week one. We want to go out and (compete) each week. That’s the goal.”
