As Aberdeen Roncalli celebrates 60 years of varsity football this fall, the Cavaliers will rely on a staple of the program from day one.
Roncalli has used a stellar defense as its calling card and that will not change this season.
“If you go in our locker room hanging on the bulletin board as soon as you walk in, going all the way back to 1965, year-by-year there’s every shutout we’ve ever had in program history,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young. “So, that’s the first thing the guys see when they walk in the locker room.”
Young said this year’s squad will be led by a trio of defensive players.
“In the secondary we’ve got Luke Kaiser and Will Haskell coming back. You’ve got Jean Anthony Thomas coming back at linebacker. He’s started since he was a freshman, so this will be his third year starting,” Young said. “I’m really excited about our skill group. … We’re going to rely on those guys pretty heavily.”
Austin Fisher will move into the starting quarterback spot this season after a successful campaign on the junior varsity squad last year.
“He’s going to be a good fit there,” Young said. “He will have to adjust to the speed of the game for varsity. He’s picked up the system really well.”
The offensive line will be on the young side, but Young likes what he sees out of that unit.
“Our offensive line I feel like is really good, but they’re young, inexperienced. Three of those guys will be coming up off of the JV,” Young said. “The offensive line will kind of be anchored by Gabe Eichler, who will also be a third-year starter, so he’s kind of the old man of the group.”
Last year the Cavaliers lost three games by a combined nine points: a 2-0 setback to open the season against Clark-Willow Lake, a double-overtime loss to Groton, and a 14-13 decision in the playoffs.
“We got outplayed in those games right at crunch time,” Young said. “We didn’t play particularly bad in any of them, but we came up on the short end of the stick.”
Roncalli will open it’s campaign by hosting Clark-Willow Lake on Friday at Dacotah Bank Stadium. The two have had some memorable matchups in recent years.
“They’re really well-coached. They also have some tradition and they take a lot of pride in their defense, too,” Young said. “They’re one of the more physical teams we see year in and year out.”
Roncalli’s schedule has undergone some major alterations. Gone is the original week two bye, with that idle week now set for week nine. When Sisseton decided to not field a team this year, it mean the Cavaliers had to find a replacement opponent. Chamberlain agreed to play the second week, but that game will take place in Chamberlain. As a result, Roncalli has just three home games this season.
“Losing the home game is really frustrating, just because of how it unfolded, how late we found out about it,” Young said.
However, Roncalli will now still have a full schedule.
“You play the games on your schedule,” Young said. “We’re grateful that Chamberlain agreed to pick up an extra game so we could have an eighth game.”
Young said the Cavaliers have two goals as they head into any season and those will remain the same this fall.
“We always want to try to win the conference and get the best possible seed that you can,” Young said. “Those are really the only things you can control.”
That and the defensive intensity which is never a question for the green and gold.
“That’s what we really try to preach is defense. Coach (Terry) Dosch used to say, ‘If they don’t score, they can’t win’ and that’s true,” Young said. “We do take a lot of pride in our defense. In the last three years we’ve had the number one scoring defense in 11B, as far as points given up.”
This year, in honor of 60 years of football at the school, Roncalli players will wear patches on their helmets with the words: tradition never graduates. It’s something that will be theme for the Cavaliers whenever they take the field as they look to add more shutouts to that bulletin board in the locker room.
“Not every game is going to be a shutout. You can play great on defense and not get a shut out, but we want that in the forefront of their mind, and thinking about that and taking pride in it,” Young said. “We tell them look, there’s guys that came before you that are looking to you to uphold that. This is our 60th year of having a varsity football program. We kind of preach the theme of tradition and upholding that, and upholding high standards, especially on the defensive side.”
Young said the current players recognize the efforts of those that came before them and hope to be held in the same esteem for future generations.
“At some point there will be a 75 and a 100 (anniversary),” Young said, “and we’re hoping those guys will look back at these guys with kind of the same reverence we look back at prior players.”
