New coach, new attitude, new season for Cardinal

With just a single win to its credit in 2008, the Cardinal football team is now looking to the future.

New head coach Darren Hill has taken over and is prepared to take them there. Hill has already brought a tough attitude to the Comet practice field in first days of practice that he hopes will transfer to the field.

?We talk about discipline and what you do off the field is what carries on to the field,? he said. ?Anything and everything that they?re asked of, I want these kids to be disciplined enough to be the best that they can be at it.?

What will be on the field for Cardinal is a big group of upperclassmen that brings back plenty of varsity experience including junior quarterback Brandon Warren and senior running back Jake Scherer. Scherer and Warren combined for seven of the Comets? eight touchdowns (five rushing, two passing) and will lead the backfield of the run-first offense.

?I?m excited with the crew we have back. I know they were 1-8 last year, but we?re pretty heavy with upperclassmen ? eight are seniors and nine are juniors out of the 25,? Hill said. ?We have some team speed so we should be able to get outside and then utilize some of that leadership to bring along some of the younger guys so we can use them in the games as well.?

Running mostly out of the ?I? formation, three senior linemen ? Cody Ross, Chris Giles and Austin O?Brien ? along with fullback Joel Ramos will lead the way for Scherer. On the outside, speedy receivers Justin Peters and Connor Schlegel will hope to stretch the field.

?If we can maintain our blocks and do what we need to on the inside, then we can get to the outside and hopefully that?s where we?re going to gain some yards,? said Hill.

Defensively, a lot of familiar names will make their way to the other side of the ball with several of the speedsters filling in at linebacker, including Warren, who led the team with 55 tackles last year, and playing behind four of the linemen switching sides.

The Comets will open up their season Friday on the road against Class 1A opponent Van Buren.

?I didn?t get the opportunity to see how they were last year, which is fine because we?re moving forward now. We?re probably better now than they were at the end of last year,? Hill said. ?Offensively, if we can hold onto the ball, we?re going to be fine.?