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RANDOLPH – Two straight years of missing the playoffs and a combined 1-15 record means nothing in 2023 for the Randolph Cardinals football team.
Last fall, Randolph won its opening game and then dropped its last seven as injuries crushed any hope of a return to the postseason, the last such trip coming in 2020.
Those injuries led to a number of players playing out of position and making many adjustments as the challenge of handling adversity was in full force.
The hope for head coach Mark Lech is that it carries over to more wins this year, which begins with Friday’s contest at Boyd County in Spencer.
“(Last year) also gave a lot of underclassmen a lot of playing time,” Lech said. “We were able to field a team by the end of the year that is mostly intact coming into the current season.”
A good core of seniors left the program so overall numbers could be a bit of a liability this season.
“The key for us to have success is going to be staying healthy,” Lech said. “The group has a great group of seniors to lead on and off the field and they are supported by some strong (underclassman) athletes, but the team is thin in numbers and can't afford to lose any to injuries.”
The three seniors on the squad are Aiden Gubbels, Bryson Eledge and Joe Miller, who bring valuable experience after being a part of the Cardinals program for the past three years.
“The skill positions are filled with juniors around Bryson,” Lech said.“Dayton Winkelbauer will be our starting quarterback to start the season, with Shaw Backer and Gage Jensen being complements in the backfield. There will also be contributing sophomores with Lucas Bartels starting on both sides of the ball and Luke Harder being a big contributor.”
Lech said he expects a competitive team, especially with the athletes on board and the schedule they will face.
“We have a change in our schedule this year, picking up an early game against Boyd County,” Lech said. “We will have to be ready to go as three of our first four games are on the road and all lengthy road trips.
“The coaches and kids are excited about picking up a game and would rather play than taking a forfeit later in the year. We won a coin flip to qualify for the game and are excited for the chance to travel to Spencer to take on Boyd County.”
Lech said the schedule is more favorable early on while the district promises to be “stacked” once again.
“We will have to get better as the season goes on as the opponents will get stronger as we enter the latter half of our schedule,” Lech said. “The team is working hard in the preseason and is eagerly waiting for our first game.”
Eledge feels optimistic that the roster will have learned from its past challenges and make the most of it when they kick off Friday.
“(Boyd County) will be a pretty fun game,” he said. “Then we have Walthill. Hopefully, we are 2-0 after that. And that just leads us to a little better season than we've had in the past couple of years.
“We had our first three-day camp since COVID, so it would have been my first. I think it went pretty good. I honestly just think we have a lot more athleticism than the past couple of years.”
Eledge is impressed with the ability of the team’s junior class to play with a high level of intelligence.
“They just look a lot better and they’ve grown a lot,” Eledge said. “Last year, I feel like we had that first win, and the next game we get blown out 60-6. I don't think we went into that game like we should have. I mean, we beat a very beatable team that's honestly not very good. And it went to our heads.”
More speed and aggression are considered an upgrade this year and the players want desperately to see improvement on the field and in the win column.
“I know last year we had a couple of close games, but there's a couple of them we could have won that we blew,” Eledge said. “I don't know. I think this year everyone just wants to do it a little bit better. We'll get there eventually, I guess.
“I think this year we can be a lot better passing team. We have a couple sophomores that have good hands. I think our backfield will be pretty good. We do have (a) new starting quarterback, but me and our other running back have a lot of experience and I honestly think our line is going to be way better.”
Eledge said the team’s defense and finishing tackles will need to improve.
“I think we have a lot of strength on the team,” he said. “We just don't use it a lot of the time.”
