SHERBURN – The Martin County West Mavericks are looking to overcome some hard times this season after the team finished the season with a 3-6 record.
This year, the Mavericks will look to build on moments of strong play seen last season and test a new offensive style in the South and West Divisions.
“On the offensive side, we’re trying to move more to a spread.
“It looks great,” Martin County West football head coach Tom Elliott said, “I’ve always been a ball-control coach. … We have some guys that I think can get the ball in their hands and do something on the edge.”
Heading into the season, consistency is the team’s biggest focus, which according to Elliott was what affected the team’s performance last year and caused them to struggle to get out of an 0-3 start.
“We’re hoping that we can get going a little quicker, quicker and more quickly than we did last year because of the learning curve. We just need to figure things out first,” Elliott said. “We graduated four of our five starting offensive linemen from last year, so that’s going to be a big hole to fill, but we have some young guys stepping up and stepping up to the role, so that’s great.”
The team has made some adjustments since last year, switching from starting quarterback to receiver, and Maddex Faber has been promoted from junior varsity to take over the offense this season, replacing Lucas Larson.
“now [Faber is] “The transition to varsity will be a little more 50-50, which we hope will balance the team a little bit and make the box a little lighter, which is something we’re not as used to at Martin County West from previous games.
It’s the same attack we had a few years ago.”
Injuries were also a factor for the team last year, but with Bear Kosbab returning healthy this year, it shouldn’t be as much of an issue.
“He was one of our guys that got injured early last season,” Elliott said. “His return gave us another opportunity. Defenses weren’t expecting him, they didn’t see him on the film, so they didn’t know about him, so when he came back we were able to give him a lot of touches on the ball.”
The Mavericks are scheduled to open their season on Friday at 7 p.m. against Canby High School at Martin County West Football Field.
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