“Go Chargers.”

Junior Travis Egan exclaimed about the upcoming season, and many other players have high hopes, as well.

The coaches have some plans on how to overcome some of the hardships they’ve faced over the past couple of years. Seniors are looking forward to this season, even though it is their last season. Juniors tend to believe that this season will be full of wins, for this year.

Head Coach Ethan Atchley plans for the return of true football for the upcoming season. “We’re taking the next step forward, to restoring the once proud tradition, here in this program. So, the big first steps that we’re looking for this season, compared to the last two, and the rebuild we’re on, is a winning season, and hosting a home playoff game,” Atchley said, “The most difficult part about this off-season has been just the continued abrupt changes, and movement of the goalposts, so-to-speak, of what COVID will have on our season. We’re seeing more cancellations early this season than we saw, at all, throughout the first half of last season.” With the way they worked this previous offseason, they are looking forward to a good season.

Receivers Coach Tyler Faucett plans to overcome some of the hardships that they had been facing by just continuing to practice, and preparing. “It’s just going back to work and preparing, to overcome some of the hardships that we’ve faced. We take every precaution we can to keep our kids safe and healthy, and we learned a lot about how to work through situations and stuff last year. Hopefully, this year, we can take some of these lessons and continue to make it a growth process, and our guys can learn to work through something. So, the more we learn how to work through challenges, the better,” Faucett said, “We have great support from the Red Zone Rowdies. You hear about it, you see it; they’re constantly supportive. They’re constantly loud. They bring a lot of energy to our kids. So, I think it’s going to be a big asset for our football team having them come out, and make a lot of noise. It is a lot of fun.” Faucett is looking forward to the return of the Red Zone Rowdies.

Offensive Line Coach Keegan Kendrick has expectations to get better throughout the season, and to just keep it that way. “I’m excited about this group. My expectations are just that I expect that we continue to get better. We’ve got a lot of guys who are returning and have gotten a lot better since last season, and I’m just looking forward to seeing the product they put on the field this year,” Kendrick said, ““Oh I can’t wait (to have the Red Zone Rowdies be back). One of the biggest things I missed last year was not having the fans, but especially the Red Zone Rowdies. They definitely make the game more fun for us, and make the game more fun for the players. They definitely give us an advantage when teams come here and even when we travel. So, I’m very excited to have the fans, and the Rowdies in the stands again.” Like Faucett, Kendrick is looking forward to having the Red Zone Rowdies return to the stands, to support them.

Senior Matthew Parrott looks forward to beating Fern Creek, who they didn’t beat last year, for the upcoming season. “None of them, I am most excited to play Fern Creek and Male because they are the best competition we have,” Parrott said, “Being able to play games hopefully without any COVID restrictions is what I’m looking forward to for this season.” Parrott believes he is most excited to hopefully play a year with no COVID restrictions.  

Senior Nathan Mitchell has a plan to show leadership, with him being one of the seniors on the team. “Just communicating more, and showing people how to work hard, is how I plan to step into that role of leadership with me being a senior,” Mitchell said, “Injuries, and people getting quarantined, and stuff like that, are some of the challenges we’ve faced this year.” Mitchell believes some of the main challenges they could face this year is injuries.

Egan is glad to have the Red Zone back for this year. “I think it’ll be really fun to have the Red Zone return to our games. Most of us have never played with a Red Zone. We don’t know what it’s like, and it will be really exciting,” Egan said, “I think the season should go pretty good, because our team has gotten older, and we are just more comfortable as a team.” With the team getting some work in this off season, and with this year around having an older team, Egan thinks that this season should be a good one. 

Junior Camron Brogan originally fell in love with the game of football, “back in third grade, when all my friends were playing, and they just got me to go out to play football. I have loved it ever since.” Brogan has since this time been playing football now he is a starting wide receiver for the Chargers. 

Like Parrott, Brogan also shares the readiness to play against Fern Creek, this year. “I’m looking forward to playing Fern Creek, because they beat us the last two years, and I think we can beat them this year,” Brogan said.

Ever since his childhood, junior Mason Gauthier has been playing football, sharing a love of it with his siblings. “Ever since I was little, I played with my brother and sister. So, I have just always played,” Gauthier said. Mason’s brother, Max Gauthier, was also a Charger, with them even playing the same position.

Gauthier believes some of the challenges in which they could end up facing, for the upcoming season, would just be the side of the COVID-19, and the possible quarantines. “With COVID still going, and us being in school, you have to deal with quarantine issues and stuff; so, we have a lot of that going on. We also have a lot of kids injured early-on, before the season has even started,” Gauthier said.

The next game will be an away game, against North Bullitt, at 7:30, Sept. 3.