By Bryan Bloodworth
For starters, Normal Community High School football team has a lot of starters back from last year’s 8-3 playoff team.
The Ironmen return eight starters on offense and four on defense, which has NCHS’ fans excited about a possible third straight Big 12 Conference title and a 19th consecutive playoff berth.
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“We have awfully good kids, who have worked very hard,” said coach Wes Temples, whose team has won 18 straight Big 12 Conference games. “The neat thing about a new year is that it’s a new group of kids, who get to run out on that field. We’re excited to see what this year brings for us.”
The offense will be centered around four-year starting running back Alec Bozarth, who gained 754 yards and scored six touchdowns last year despite being slowed by a broken foot during the summer. As a sophomore Bozarth averaged 7.5 yards while rushing for 1.065 yards and scoring 16 touchdowns.
“Alec will be the focal part of the offense,” added Temples. “But nothing is going to change. We just kind of do what we do. For us to be successful, though, we have to take care of the ball.
“As we look back on last year, we lost those first two games because we turned the ball over six times. You have to take care of the ball. We are who we are and we’re going to do what we do. It’s just a different group of young men getting the opportunity to do it.”
Junior Grant Price will replace the graduated Josh Kirshenbaum at quarterback and will have the services of J.D. Villafuerte and Dakota Cremeens at running back. His receiving targets should include all-conference tight end Riley Rahuba and Christian Wey.
The offensive line consists of veteran returnees Sean Kennedy (an all-conferernce center), Isaiah Johnson and James Coleman.
NCHS returns four starters on defense, but Temples admits that number is a little misleading.
“On paper we have four back, but we have a lot of kids who played a ton of downs last year, just not as starters,” added Temples. “It’s just a matter of bringing them along, so they get comfortable.”
Leading the defense will be all-conference performers Garrett Hirsch at nose guard, and Andrew Gregory at free safety where he earned all-league honors.
“I would like to think we’re going to have pretty good leadership,” said Temples. “A lot of the seniors have been three-year starters and a lot of the juniors played a lot of football last year as sophomores. We’re somewhat of a veteran team, but until you step on the field and you’ve been there and don’t that, we’ll see what it means. I do think we’ll be a fun group to watch.”
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at lefty@wjbc.com
