Brainerd Warrior Football Aims to Build Off 2023 Success

Football is back in session for Brainerd, as the Warriors kicked off training camp for the 2024 season Monday morning.

Brainerd is coming off an impressive campaign last year, finishing 8-2 while reaching the Section 8AAAAA championship game. Fresh off of graduating 32 seniors from last year’s roster, Brainerd football is starting training camp at square one and focusing on the little things.

“With as much as we have for new faces, you’ve got to sometimes slow things down a little bit,” explained Head Coach Jason Freed. “You know, when you got an experienced team, you can go a lot faster and you got things installed a lot quicker. But when you have teams where you know, guys are learning, you got to … slow things down. And so even for us coaches, I think that’s a good thing for us at times.”

The boys prepared for what road lies ahead, taking time in the summer for conditioning, speed work, and field work to ensure they collectively hit the ground running this year.

“It’s nice seeing how everything that you’ve prepared for in the offseason is paying out and seeing all the guys that put in work alongside you, seeing how it’s paying out for them as well,” said wide receiver Jordan Davis. “It’s going to be really nice to see the team come together and see what we can do this year.”

And that motivation will come in handy as the Warriors look to fill the gaps left after losing seven all-area team players.

“Jordan Davis and Dax Hastings got some reps last year on the offensive line, and Jayden Barnum even played some last year as a sophomore. And we’ve had some kids like Mav Badeaux work really hard this offseason, and so I’m really excited to see what kids really do, step up in their different roles,” added Freed. “They’ll be fun to see what the work that got put in the offseason now gets put on the field and then obviously gets put into a Friday night.”

Another change for Warriors football is their quarterback, as Ty Nelson is now taking over the reigns as field general. But Nelson is confident his upbringing, along with some good advice from last year’s QB Eli Hoelz, will help him settle into the new role.

“I’ve always been in Brainerd program. I was a ball boy for a while and just always hung around the quarterbacks and then Eli just was a great quarterback to watch and learn from,” Nelson said. “So I think we’re going to be in a good place this year, learning from Eli and just all the experience I have around the program. He played with a chip on his shoulder and that’s something that I got to take from him and just have confidence out there.”

Brainerd will open the 2024 football season on August 30th at home versus Mahtomedi. Last year, the Warriors beat Zephyrs 34-6 to open the season.