Triton,

back.

The fortunes of the offense will rest on the shoulders of another new face.

“We will have a freshman at quarterback this year. Cole Shively will be stepping in and we’ve been really pleased with his progress,” said Younis. “Originally I wasn’t sure about using him but he’s impressed us enough that we told him, ‘We are going to run with you’ and let him learn on the fly.”

The personnel on defense have the coach smiling as well.

“When you go to the defensive side we have our front four back, we have our linebackers that are pretty much back, and those guys are mostly the same names as we mentioned on the offensive side,” he said.

“We have some experience on that side that really made progress as the season went on last year,” said Younis. “We are anxious to see how they keep progressing. We have been pleased up to this point with what we’ve seen.”

Another hurdle provided by the pandemic is the shortening of the offseason presenting problems of its own.

“Having a short summer we felt like we’ve really been able to get a lot of stuff in here in July that has helped us start into the real season,” said Younis.

“It’s easy for me to say we’ll be better on the offensive side because traditionally we’ve had trouble stopping teams,” he said. “I really feel that with this group our defense could be the strength of our team. We have a number of kids back that really were able to gel at the end of last year. They are continuing to progress.”

“I think we will be balanced but our defense could possibly bypass our offense by the end of the year.”

The Trojans are in arguably one of the best football conferences in the state especially for small schools - 1A and 2A.

“That’s the beauty of our conference,” said Younis. “I know when we moved to this conference people thought we’d have it easier but that isn’t the case. Its smaller schools but they are good football schools. They are well-coached and you have to bring your A-game each and every week.”

“I feel like this year could be one of those years that each and every week one team could beat another team,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how that shakes out.”

The normal goals of a football season are there for the Trojans but there is also one related to the world we live in.

“Finishing the season,” said Younis. “I want these seniors to be able to have their senior year. Of course, we want to win as many games as we can, but ultimately after you go through something like this you just want the kids to be able to experience a full year. I just know how heartbreaking it would be for these seniors to lose their senior year. The ultimate goal is to get this season in.”