Fall sports: Cardinal once again begins the rebuilding process

Two years ago, Cardinal put together one of the best seasons in school history and played its way to the substate playoffs.

Spirits were high for the Comets until 2010 ended with a thud ? an 0-8 season with four of those losses coming by a margin less than a touchdown.

New head coach Adam Hadenfeldt now takes over and will try to push Cardinal into taking another step forward. He certainly has the pedigree as a 2001 graduate of Solon High School, a two-sport athlete in football and baseball at Cornell College and his coaching experience includes three years as an assistant football coach at HLV and the past two seasons as head baseball coach at Cornell. Hadenfeldt?s dad has been the defensive coordinator at Solon since 1979.

The first order of business will be getting more players on the roster after numbers took another dive following last season.

?It?s always tough coming off a winless season, but there?s two things you can do ?say it?s no fun and not play. Or you can set out to do some work to make sure it doesn?t happen again,? Hadenfeldt said. ? The 30 guys we have are busting their tails every day.?

The entire coaching staff will be looking to replace a total of eight seniors who carried much of the load both offensively and defensively in 2010. Leading that charge will be running backs Tanner Chance and Drew Ostrander.

The pair of runners will get the bulk of the carries coming out of the backfield in what figures to be a rush-heavy offense.

Dakota Showman and Ty Batterson ? both young as a junior and sophomore, respectively ? are currently duking out the quarterback position. No matter how it shakes out, each will see plenty of the field and help contribute to the offensive attack in their first year as starters.

?We?ll definitely be trying to spread the ball around and get some different guys some carries,? Hadenfeldt said. ?As far as the quarterback position goes, we won?t be asking either of them to make any plays on their own. They just need to stay within themselves, stay within the system and make good decisions.?

The biggest thing that will allow them to do that, is the line play up front, which is already a strength of the team. Andrew Hemm and Tonch Craver return for their senior seasons to anchor the trenches. Logan Thorne has the physical tools, and will be joined by Austin Davis in the middle.

?I feel we?re very good across the front five and am excited with what I?ve seen so far,? Hadenfeldt said. ?Everyone is doing a nice job of picking things up, and having a good base to build off up front only helps.?

The Comets are still looking for a few more to fill in the final holes, but Robert McLaughlin, Joel Ramos and Trenton Millard are in the mix.

Working against Cardinal will be a tough-as-nails district that includes traditional powers West Branch, Alburnett and Pekin along with 2010 substate qualifiers Wapello and North Cedar. But the Comets are just looking to take another step forward and lay the ground work to rebuild the program.

?It?s a ?want to? thing. You have to want to do the things that make a good football team, which means playing hard on every down. Five plays often decide the game, but you don?t know which ones, so it comes down to being ready for them at all times,? said Hadenfeldt.

?I Tell the kids you have to enjoy the ride, enjoy the challenge, enjoy knowing you have to play your butt off. That?s what you practice for. You play because you want to look your best on Friday.?

The Comets will hope some of the karma from last year?s close losses is returned and will begin looking for that in their season opener Friday at Danville.