The Cook County Vikings’ 9-man football team has been practicing hard in anticipation of their season. Last year the Vikings’ record was 9-2 and they were one game away from going to state. With most of the team back this year, expectations are high for another good season. The Vikings play at home against Onamia on Friday, August 31. The game starts at 6 p.m. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
New Viking head coach Bryan Carpenter has a lot of returning starters from last year’s 9-2 squad which finished runner-up in the 9-man section championship game, but he also knows that he lost some valuable players from that squad as well.
Replacing two-way all-conference lineman Billy Hackett won’t be easy, but Carpenter notes that he has kids that are working hard and with every practice, getting better at line play.
“We’ve had good practices. As coaches, we have been very happy with the kids’ efforts,” said Carpenter.
“We’re not as beefy in the line as we want to be, but we have a lot of good athletes. We are very rich in the skill positions, and we expect to be very competitive this year,” he said.
Returning from the 2017 team on offense is most of the starting backfield. The team will be led by quarterback/ linebacker Josh Prom, starting running back/linebacker Ethan Sporn, all-everything back Andrew Miller, speedy wide receivers Jack Hausner and Connor Somnis, who play safety on defense, and junior full-back/ linebacker Dillon Sjogren.
Joe Deschampe, Vaugn Swindlehurst, Case Bronakowski, and several other kids will play in the line on offense and defense.
“I expect to have seven or eight seniors on the playing field at any given time,” said Carpenter.
Assisting Carpenter, who was Mitch Dorr’s assistant coach for nine years, are coaches Mike Prom, Kyler Hawsen and Chris Rauzi.
The Vikings only have three home games this year, but two of those games are between the section’s best teams.
“We play Mountain Iron at home, and they are supposed to be one of the best teams this year,” said Carpenter. And we also play North Woods here. They were the only team to beat us last year, once in the regular season and again in the playoffs so it’s good to meet them on our home field.
“I hope our fans come out to see us play. We’re excited for the season to start, and it’s great for the kids when they have fans there to support them,” said the coach.
The Vikings’ first home game will be played Friday, August 31 against Onamia.
The game will start at 6 p.m.
The Vikings will have only two more home games this year, one against North Woods on Friday, Sept. 21 that will start at 5 p.m. and the last one will be played against Mountain Iron-Buhl on Friday, October 12 at 7 p.m. Come out and cheer for your Vikings!
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