Football season begins Friday at home

There's a lot of optimism in pre-season football camp this year, even though the Ipswich-Edmunds Central Tigers are coming off a 1-7 season a year ago. The lone team they managed to beat last season was Tiospaye Zina and the Tigers will kick off their 2018 schedule at home on August 17 against Tiospaye Zina at the IHS sports complex.

With 38 9-12 names on the roster the Tigers should have adequate depth for a change, including no fewer than 18 uppperclassmen. Indeed there are 10 seniors and eight juniors on the 2018 I-EC roster.

"We are very excited for our season," says head coach Brian Hogie. "Great senior leadership will help us throughout the season."

Those seniors are, alphabetically: Jared Bjordal, Daniel Braun, Thomas Goetz, Ben Kulesa, Kyle Larson, Trevin Maurer, Reece Moehlenbrink, Riley Nehlich, Sheldon Neitzel and Jacob Nierman. The eleventh-grade continingent consists of Tyrone Braun, Dylan Bukaske, Derrick Dobberpuhl, Ethan Gilbert, Carter Heinz, Lucas Metzinger, Jordan Richardt and Dillon Weig.

The additional depth and the foundations for future success lie with a balance of players in each class so you can reload and not have to rebuild. Ten sophomores should help assure that. They include Carlson Calderon-West, Jacob Davies, Matthew Hettich, Kaden Hix, Josh McQuarie, Cameron Richardt, Austin Russell, Eric Severson, Tyler Tran and Logan Weig.

And there are an impressive number of freshmen newcomers, as well. They include Trevor Beyers, Zach Geditz, Carson Gohl, Matthew Jaenisch, Whyatt Kessler, Colton Mohr, Jordan Nierman, Luke Peterson, Christian Reynolds and Jayden VanMatre.

But every regular-season game is a play-off game of sorts to assure seeding points towards the post-season playoffs and the Lake Region Conference will furnish the majority of the Tigers' opponents. Yes, the schedule will indeed feature five conference appearances, starting with an away game at Northwestern Area on August 24. The other Tiger LRC match-ups are Langford Area there on August 31, Faulkton Area at home on September 7, Warner at home for Ipswich's homecoming activities on September 21 and an away game vs. North Border on October 5. The Tigers' remaining non-conference clashes, in addition to Tiospaye Zina, involve Miller/Highmore-Harrold, a road game on September 14 and finally Kimball/White Lake for the Edmunds Central homecoming celebration on September 28 in Ipswich.

That pretty much all translates into a rather competitive schedule to say the least. "It's a very tough schedule again this year," says Hogie. "But we want to get better every week and look for a berth in the playoffs."

The first round of the 9A playoffs is scheduled for October 18 and the 9A state championship game will be in Vermillion on November 8.