Wynot looking to improve on last year’s 3-6 campaign

WYNOT — It’s time for Wynot to get back to what it knows very well — winning football games.

It’s year 11 of the Steve Heimes era as the Blue Devil head coach and he will hope to see his troops improve from last season’s 3-6 mark, which included a oneand-done appearance in the D2 playoffs.

This from a program that made the state semifinals in both 2012 and 2017 going a combined 21-5 during those two campaigns.

Heimes’ run includes six district titles in his decade in charge and his hope is to make another dent in D2-3 this fall.

That can certainly be possible when Heimes has to replace only three seniors – DT Mitch Leise, TE/DE Hunter Heimes and C/DE Cody Osbahr and returns five starters on both sides of the ball.

Anthony Haberman will be expected to excel at receiver and linebacker, Peyton Wieseler will again play quarterback and linebacker and Garrett Lange will lead the lines as a guard and defensive end.

“We run a power spread offense based on spread formations that runs the ball up the middle,” Heimes said. “We have a lot of returning skill players that got a ton of experience last year.

Heimes said there is a lot of work to be done on the trenches, if the team is to succeed.

“Our weakness will be our offensive and defensive line due to graduation. We will get much better on the line as the season progresses and so does our knowledge and ability,” he said.

Wieseler said the players are grateful to be playing right now especially as major colleges have announced they were shutting down their fall sports seasons including football.

“We are happy we get to play so far and hope we can keep playing,” he said. “We need to play like it’s our last down and last snap. You never know when it could change. Especially for the seniors.

“(When the colleges closed)I was worried and nervous because even the bigger schools like Omaha are starting to shut down. I’d like to have another year of sports with football and basketball. We kind of pretend that we play like it’s a normal year.”

Wynot will battle it out in District 3 with Allen, Randolph, Winside, Wausa and Osmond and that promises to be quite the race.

“The best teams will be between Randolph, Osmond and Wynot who are all very similar teams,” Heimes said. “If we progress, this year to our greatest extent we could be a top five team in state.”

The season starts Aug. 29 against defending D2 state champions St. Francis in Humphrey.

“That’s a big game for us so we are

focusing on getting better and working hard,” Wieseler said. We are just focusing on what we need to do to get better. We’ve been playing them for the last five, six, seven years and we always fall short to them, but this being our first game and maybe getting a win under our belts and fuel the fire to keep pushing.

“We have potential, we just need to get it all together.”

A year ago, St. Francis beat Wynot 50-6 in the season opener for both teams so a good game if anything will be a positive for a season full of promise.

“We are practicing to win this game, but if we do fall short and we play a good game, I guess it kind of gives us positive vibes we played with the defending champs and we can play with anyone now,” Wieseler said. “That would also give us some inspiration and motivation that we played with one of the best.”

Heimes is also very optimistic that the football season could live out its shelf life despite the presence of the coronavirus.

“We are in an area that is very rural and small in population,” Heimes said. “We do not have as much interaction as in big cities like Omaha, so I am not as worried about it, at the same time we have protocols in place in case a situation arises. I feel we have the best chance to play football this year out of anybody in the country.”

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