The 2016 football season was not easy for Rapid City Christian. The team's head coach left before the season started, and a team of mostly sophomores had to compete against a varsity schedule. Those ingredients led to a 0-8 record.

No one would know the Comets finished winless last season by watching them practice ahead of their Thursday night opener against Jones County/ White River.

"Were a heck of a lot better than we were last year. Weve got a lot more experience, were jelling as a team," senior running back/cornerback Carson Udager said after practice Tuesday. "Last year a lot of us were new and had never played before. We have a big junior class and they have a lot of experience, theyre going to do really well."

Udager is one of four seniors that, along with a large group of juniors, were promised by coach Ron McLaughlin that if they stuck with him, 2017 would be different than 2016.

"Im pretty honest with these kids as far as what we expect from them, but I also told them last year that we were going to get it handed to us a few times," he said. "I said hang with us, our sophomores are better than their sophomores. Now our sophomores are juniors, we have four seniors. I was promising them this year, last year.

"I believe we can win some football games this year. You can only go up from 0-8; you can only get out of a pit."

The pit of last season was deep. Mclaughlin had been coaching for the middle school team for seven seasons when he was asked to take over the varsity roster.

He admitted he had to do some on-the-job learning, but he said most of his players did to. This season he believes the Comets will benefit most from the experience they gained.

"I didnt discipline enough or condition hard enough because you dont condition middle-schoolers like you do high-schoolers," he said. "We had a lot of injuries, but we also had a lot of sophomores playing football last year, so experience is the main (improvement), and speed. With experience comes speed. Theyre much more comfortable getting to where they need to get to, which will be a huge asset for us this year."

Another huge asset will be junior quarterback Zane Schlabach. Most of the teams on Christian's schedule won't feature an air-dominant attack, but McLaughlin said with Schlabach's arm, that might not be the case for the Comets.

"I have a really good quarterback, and our kids are getting better at catching the ball. I think we can throw the ball," he said. "I would normally be a runner. As a coach, I like to run the football, but the ability to throw it is going to be huge for us this year; throw it and catch it."

McLaughlin said he hopes to make Christian a nightmare for defenses to prepare for. Although the Comets won't run many plays, they will run them out of roughly 11 different formations.

This is designed to not let the defense know exactly what they are going to be seeing based on one formation.

"Theyre a smart football team, with experience comes some smartness, theyve learned my language, our language," he said. "Theyre in the right spot. Were not doing plays over because the kids are in the wrong spot, they arent missing their assignments anymore, so they know where to go."

Defense was what has been stressed the most by McLaughlin and his staff during practice, because that was one of Christian's weakness last season.

Extended drives plagued the Comets and McLaughlin said he hopes more experience will lead to more stops.

"Last year we never had the football, and you cant score if you dont have the football," he said. "People scored a lot of points against us because we were on the field all the time, so we put our best kids on defense. We told them if they get a rest its going to be on offense not defense."

The Comets will run a 3-3 defense that will look more like a 3-5 against teams like Lyman, Philip and New Underwood that are expected to run a double-wing formation most of the time.

Christian doesn't have a lot of time to prepare for Jones County/White River, but McLaughlin said it seems like there never is enough time to prepare for an opponent.

That short amount of time could be offset by the work the Comets did in the offseason. They went to the Black Hills State University football camp and participated in a passing league with St. Thomas More.

Senior center and linebacker Jacob Schneller said he thinks Christian is ready.

"It works both ways. We have a short amount of time to practice, they also have a short amount of time to practice, so its just going to come down to who can do their jobs the best," he said. "Who can play with the most intensity and who can play the hardest."

Schneller and fellow senior right guard/ defensive end Zeb Palmer have played football together since fourth grade. Udager started in sixth grade.

All three have seen highs and lows in their football careers, and Palmer said he hopes to leave the Comet program with a good foundation. He hopes future players won't have to go through an 0-8 season like he did.

"After our sophomore year, our other coach left for another school and we hit an all-time low," he said. "As seniors, I think we want to leave the team at an all-time high. When you lose a coach, it can ruin a team, and thats kind of what happened last year. But us seniors want to start getting our records back."

Christian will be playing in Region 4 of Class 9AA this season. Kickoff between Christian and Jones County/ White River is set for 6 p.m. at Hart Ranch.

Excerpt from:

Comets optimistic despite last year's winless season - Rapid City Journal