Brainerd Football Ready To Make Mark In 2019

The Brainerd Warrior football team finished last year with a 6-4 record and made it to the second round of the playoffs. This year the Warriors look to go a few steps further and aren’t listening to anyone from the outside.

“There’s lots of doubts about us this year, losing a lot of guys and I think we’re amped up to prove a lot of people wrong,” said Brainers Senior Wide Reciever Owen Davis.

The offensive side of the ball will have some holes to fill, while the defense returns some key starters from last year and looks to stay consistent.

“This year we want to play a little more physically, Coach Freed’s favorite thing to say is eleven men arriving to the ball in bad humor, so he wants us all to be at the ball, all to make a play, hit hard, just know what we have to do,” said Brainerd Senior Linebacker Jacob Drietz.

Entering his 45th season as the Brainerd Head Football Coach is Ron Stolski, who you can bet isn’t going to change the way his Warriors play.

“First of all, we want to be an aggressive team in every way and we want to be able to establish and control tempo, we want to be a well-conditioned team, we want to be a team that’s ready to play in the 4th quarter,” said Brainerd Head Football Coach Ron Stolski.

For Warrior football players, it’s a blessing to be able to play for the Minnesota coaching legend.

“He’s just a great coach to talk to about not only football, but life too,” said Brainerd Senior Running Back Ben Staehling.

“As you grow older you gain a lot more respect for him I’d say,” said Davis.

“I don’t think Ron’s won a state championship yet, so that would be pretty cool to win the first one for him,” said Staehling.

Brainerd football is a big deal to the community and for the Warrior seniors, this has been a long time coming.

“Brainerd has always been a big football town, I remember when I use to come to the games when I was a kid it would always seem like the whole town came to games on Friday nights, so it’s really special,” said Staehling

“The comments that they were having was I remember when I was a BYA kid you know years ago,” said Brainerd Offensive Line Coach Chet Stevenson.

The Brainerd Football team wants to be successful on the field, but also knows the importance of leaving a lasting legacy off the field.

“We have a guiding principle called the Warrior way and it’s a lot of stuff we believe in and I think it’s handed down, you help your community, you commit to things, you do things the right way and that’s kind of our Warrior way, if we’re not teaching life lessons, we’re not doing the right thing,” said Stolski.

“I’m just excited to lead the sophomores and down and show them what Warrior football is all about,” said Drietz.

The Warriors will open up this Thursday at Elk River.