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Fall Football Preview • Thursday , August 29 , 2024 |
sailor . mnsun . com |
Cooper |
Hopkins |
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core leader for the team last season and coordinated the attack as QB , but graduated last Spring and leaves the team with decisions to make .
Patterson is positive about the team ’ s journey to deciding its next starter and noted that two players have already been highlighted as contenders for varsity minutes .
“ We have two guys competing for that starting spot at quarterback . Both are very talented , so it ’ s going to be a great race to see who ’ s at QB , but we ’ re going to be ready to go either way .”
Expectations remain high at Cooper football and Patterson is confident that the message of toughness and focus is clear to his players .
“ Ultimately , I want to build a tough football team mentally and physically ,” Patterson said . “ We ’ ve had some great teams at Cooper . I keep the same motto as always moving forward , which is that we ’ re always going for 1-0 . Don ’ t worry about the schedule , focus on being 1-0 every week . ... I believe in discipline and I see that these guys are buying into that .”
With a roster full of both high-profile and hidden talents and consistency this season in several key spots , Cooper is without a doubt a Class AAAAA team to watch this fall .
Other teams on the schedule are against Eastview , Burnsville , Park of Cottage Grove , Roseville , Wayzata and Edina . The most challenging of those games are the two at the end - Wayzata on Oct . 10 at Wayzata and Edina on Oct .
16 at Hopkins .
While they do their best to lead the Royals on the path to wins , Dobbs and Gonzales are thinking about college football .
“ I have a couple of Division II scholarship offers ,” Dobbs said . “ My goal is to play [ Division I ] for the University of St . Thomas .”
Gonzales said , “ I just started the recruitment process .”
Armstrong
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Wayzata
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to prep . We ’ ll go into every game this season with an idea of what we ’ re up against .”
Despite any new challenges or changes , Armstrong will remain focused on meeting the standards that have become norms in Negen ’ s era as head coach . The Falcons will look to win their conference , their section and make a run at state . They won the Section ball , Ley went against Minnetonka teams , so playing the Skippers this year is nothing new . However , Ley wants to put a new twist on this year ’ s game .
“ No . 1 , we have to get the Bay Bell back ,” he said . “ I have friends on the Minnetonka team - but not that week .”
Ley is also anxious for the home opener against Lakeville South just before Labor Day . “ We had a chance to win at Lakeville South last season ,” he said . “ But they had a kick return for a touchdown and another touchdown on a scoop-and-score .”
Wayzata has to replace
5AAAAA championship over Cooper and lost their state opener against Andover . Their final overall record was 8-3 .
“ Our expectations aren ’ t changing . When I came here years ago , expectations were different , but
some graduated seniors in the offensive line and at linebacker . The strongest area of the 2024 edition might be the defensive backfield .
Cooper Cleaveland , one of the key veterans on the defensive unit , is part of that secondary . He tied for the lead in solo tackles with 29 and had two tackles for losses last season now the kids don ’ t even know about the struggles from 11 years ago when the question was about winning a game . The kids now know that Armstrong wins football games . That helps and it ’ s the expectation . We have a new defensive
while adding an interception to his stats .
“ We have three other guys with experience in the secondary - Adam Deselich , Tyler Schuman and Bennett Brown ,” Cleaveland noted .
Many of the Trojan football players are all-around athletes . Deselich made the All-Lake Conference baseball team and batted . 600 coordinator Jake Leitch , the first change at that position since I joined , so we have things to learn at that position but he ’ s awesome and I feel good about the progress we ’ re making .”
While some personnel losses could raise alarms ,
Armstrong is determined to be better than ever this fall . With a new senior class , many would envy on the fronts of both ability and varsity experience , there is a good chance the Falcons are on to something . in the State Class AAAA Tournament . Brown was among the scoring leaders in Lake Conference lacrosse last spring .
Cleaveland is confident Wayzata can be an improved team in football . One reason for that confidence is his faith in coach Landon Brown .
“ He is a great coach ,” Cleaveland said . “ The lessons he teaches don ’ t just relate to football . They also relate to life .”
Football is Cleaveland ’ s favorite sport , and he looks forward to every part of the game . Even the twoa-day practices early in the year .
“ I love this time of year ,” he said . “ Practicing with the guys , spending time with my friends .”
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only introduce elements of the passing game but also help the defense learn the various coverages they will utilize .
He found the level of support for multisport students is strong . “ That ’ s a real positive because I think players learn different things from different coaches , and we have players who played in state championship games , lacrosse , or basketball kids who played in the section final – some high-pressure situations ,” he said . “ The other side of that is having to share them around , and having them all around at one time this summer was not an option for us .”
Fans will see a more balanced football team on both sides .“ We aren ’ t going to overpower people with size , yet we are still going to be a physical football club ,” he said . “ We aren ’ t going to dazzle you with an elaborate passing game , yet we will throw the ball .
“ For us , it ’ s about doing a little bit of both on offense . On defense , it ’ s about getting our athletes in position to make plays . Get as many athletes on the field as possible and be as sound as possible . There ’ s not a lot of trickery , but try to be good at what we hang our hat on instead .
“ Some of us are going to the next level , so the coaches do a great job preparing us to take that next step .”
Fellow senior receiver Khalif Brown plans to join linebacker Chase Brixius at North Dakota State in 2025 .
“ It was pretty sweet to do what we did to win the section at our rivals , Holy Angels ,” Guggenberger said . “ But one of the reasons I wanted to be captain was to get us to where we needed to go .
“ Being a good guy in the classroom or helping the freshmen on the team all helps build the program .”
Guggenberger looked up to captains like Yogaraja , Slatter Crandall , Andrew Wolters and Eddie Wolfe to set the tone for last season , and Guggenberger hopes to build off that .
“ They brought that October / November push to get us over the hump ,” he said . “ Our goal this year is to get to the Bank .”