Tri County Enters Second Season in Eight Man with Senior Heavy Roster

DEWITT - The Tri County Trojans can mark off playoff victory in their eight man football checklist. You could hear the excitement for this season out of all the players on the practice field. The captains are doing their best to spread that excitement throughout the team. "Be hyped up and positive, and try to get everybody else hyped up and positive," stated Senior Cooper Smith. Junior Creighton Niemeyer added, "Especially the underclassmen. They always have a tough time with that right off the bat." Last year was the Trojans' first year in Class D1, which led to several adjustments and learning opportunities. "One of the biggest things is that tackling in space is so important. That's going to be an emphasis for us defensively. Offensively, we're going to try within the rules and tinker with some things there, but more than anything, late in the year we realized that we needed to spread teams out a little bit more. We were still kind of a power team. To be able to spread teams horizontally as well as vertically is very important," said Head Coach Brett Scheiding. Tri County finished the year with a 6-4 record, and they don't have any reason to believe they can't be better this year. "Defensively we have experience now with a 3-3 that we ran last year versus a 3-5 in 11-man. I think that we're going to be competitive in every game. I always want us to shoot for a district title every year and I don't think that's an unrealistic expectation," declared Coach Sheiding. Tri County will open their season on the road, at Superior. Keep an eye on the Trojans all year long on News Channel Nebraska.