Experienced youth leading the way for Trojans Triton,

BOURBON — Young at key spots a year ago, Triton’s Trojans still had a solid 4-6 year, but if just two or three plays in that entire season had gone differently, it would have been considerably better.

“It was one of those seasons that you really enjoy because of the progress,” said head coach Rodney Younis. “Our kids improved each week and jelled together and I credit a lot of that to our seniors. We didn’t have a lot of them but they were good quality kids that led by example.”

With last year’s seniors gone on, it’s time for the younger players to take their place in those leadership roles.

“Our kids that return have really picked it up,” said Younis. “I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve seen so far this off-season.

“We are still going to be young, but at least our young kids have some experience now. We had great numbers through the off-season and the summer.”

“We had a camp this year, we didn’t go anywhere but we brought them in three straight days and had a nice camp,” he said. “We feel like we made a lot of progress. We like where we are at.”

On the offensive side, a young quarterback will be back for his second year.

“It starts with our quarterback,” said Younis. “Cole Shively returns. He played last year as a freshman and we stuck with him and let him learn from his mistakes. He’s still young and he still makes some young mistakes, but you can see the confidence he has in himself in knowing the offense so much better.”

Also in the backfield will be the Schuh boys, Trace and Anthony.

“Trace will be our fullback and Anthony will be our tailback,” said Younis. “Anthony split time with Hunter McIntire last year, now it’s his show. Our backfield has some young kids but they are very talented.

Even at that, the most important part of any offense is upfront.

“It all stems from the line,” said Younis. “We do have three returners. Josh Lemler ended up starting for us at center as a sophomore. At strong guard, we have Cam Fairchild who will be our lone senior. Everybody else will be an underclassman but we have some experience. For example, Cam Shively will be a junior but he’s been a starter since his freshman year.”

On defense, there are a lot of the same names, but some different ones as well.

“Tyler Amsden and Dominic Smith are two guys that saw significant time at linebacker but we feel the secondary is where we are really talented,” said Younis. “Cole Shively and Amari Snyder return at corner and we feel like they really came on at the end of the year.”

Happy with his team’s progress in the off-season, there still remains the final test.

“You want to see guys compete and see that they can handle the pressure,” said Younis. “It’s one thing doing things in practice it is totally different against another squad.”

“This may be the best year our conference has had and our conference has been strong for a lot of years,” he said. “I just see from top to bottom everybody improving from last year. It’s going to be one of those years where you better bring it every night or you could get tripped up.”

“Bottom line is for us we really just want to see our guys play as a unit and each week work to improve, playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played. If we can do those things I feel like we will be successful.”