GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It's a huge day for football at the preps level here in Michigan as local high school teams held their first day of practice. This includes the defending Division 6 champs - West Catholic.
The Falcons return seven players on both offense and defense from last year's state title squad.
"I'm very confident," West Catholic senior wide receiver/cornerback Carter Perry said. "We put last year's team in the past. We are focusing on this year. With our coaching staff and the dudes we got back, I am really confident with what we can accomplish this year."
This year is certainly going to be different without Tim Kloska in the backfield.
The Falcons all-time leading rusher is off to West Point to play for the Army.
Head coach Landon Grove is proud of the pieces he has to replace one of the most decorated West Catholic football players ever, which includes senior Charlie DeBruyn, Northview senior transfer Mike Murphy, junior David Britenfeld and sophomore Connor Olszewski.
"You don't ever replace a guy like Tim Kloska," Grove said. "He is a Division 1 player. He has every record rushing wise. You don't ever replace him. But what we do have is a group of dudes at the running back position I feel really good about. We have four guys we feel like our quality varsity running backs that we feel we can replace Timmy with those four. It's going to be fun. I can tell you that."
However, a lot is the same. The entire coaching staff has returned in Grove's second season leading the charge, and the team is focused on what's ahead.
"Really our expectation is to worry about being the best version of ourselves," Grove said. "There's always going to be the comparative factor. Comparisons have always been the biggest evil that you can have. We can't compare ourselves to last year because we are not last year's team. There are a lot of new faces. We're similar in some facets but we are going to be a lot different in other facets. For us, we just want to be the best version of ourselves. The biggest goal we have right now is winning Week 1."
West Catholic opens the year on August 25 against state power Edwardsburg.
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