The West Fork football team, with experience returning, after a driven offseason between the weight room and team camps, is hungry to break through in the results column. Head Coach Dan Westhoff on areas of emphasis entering the new season.
“The consistency in terms of what we’ve been doing, we have really tried to hold them accountable and create that great sense of urgency with our structuring of practice. We’ve really put an emphasis on competition. We’ve worked hard to make sure that it’s not one unit that’s loaded with a bunch of our better players against scout team that can’t really give us good look. We’ve really tried to balance things out and have been relentlessly preached competition and handling adversity,” says Westhoff. “I think just that mental toughness, that discipline, that kind of raising the bar, I think that has been different than in years past. I think our players believe we’re right there and we’re at that turn the corner stage.”
Westhoff on how upperclassman returners Zander Hansen and Dax Suntken have continued to step up.
“Zander’s delivered in how he’s handled things. Running the huddle, his attention to detail, ownership, if he does make a mistake, no excuses, anything like that. I think he’s been really on point. There’s no doubt that when we need him to make a play with his feet, he’s capable of making plays, putting his head down, lowering his shoulder and getting the tough yards if we need him to. Dax Suntken, I think has done a really good job from a leadership standpoint, especially on the field here. He is really leading the younger kids. With some younger bodies there in the backfield, he’s done a good job of kind of directing traffic. We’ve got upperclassman that have been in the same system for going on three years now. They can be extensions of the coaching staff and really help us out there.”
Hansen led the team with 596 passing yards and five touchdowns last season. Suntken provided a spark on the ground with 588 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns and added one receiving touchdown. Jack Watters patrolled the defensive line with 53.5 total tackles last season.
West Fork will begin the season by hosting North Butler on Friday, August 29.
