Returning Players Set To Power Deer River Football

The Deer River Warriors went 4-5 last year and return multiple players on offense, including three year starting QB Noah Williams.

“That’s huge, it cuts down on practice time a lot,” said head coach Brent Schimek. “It’s just like having another coach on the field since he’s had that experience.”

“These are all my guys,” said Williams. “I’ve been playing with these guys for years, since pony league. It’s just a lot of familiar stuff that we got going.”

Maybe even more important than returning your QB is returning three offensive linemen up front.

“Those three guys make things work up front,” said Schimek. “They know each other really well, they know the blocking schemes and the different defensive fronts.”

“The past couple of years we’ve always had to train people in, but this year we can kind of get right on it instead of waiting so long,” said returning senior all-district left tackle Francesco Villeneuve.   

The Warriors attended a team camp for the first time in recent years, so that extra work in the offseason, plus a little determination, should lead to a successful year.

“It’s really just about heart,” said Villeneuve. “Last year, we didn’t really build that teamwork right away. But then we started to build it later on, so once we start getting that heart in, we’ll start doing better I think.”