BOURBON – There are a few returnees from last year’s Triton football squad that went 3-8 and won a postseason game for the first time in four years. But this year’s Trojan team will feature an influx of multi-sport athletes that help bring the numbers up on the roster and bring a winning mindset with them. “We have Jeremy Jones coming back, Gage Waddle’s back, but really when you look at this team you have to look at what they’ve done in other sports to get a guesstimation what they’re going to do out here,” said head coach Ron Brown, who’s been on the job less than two months after taking over for John Johns. “When you look at that, we have quite a few sectional champs in wrestling on this team, we have some basketball kids on this team that, in previous years, have gone down to state and have experience winning. I think that’s the important thing we need to look at here, we have kids that know how to win, and have experienced that and I think they’re going to carry that over to the football field.” With little in the way of football experience, the team will grow as the season wears on. But Brown said the guys have a better football IQ than he imagined. “I’ve been telling the guys ‘I don’t want to focus on what we do in the early part of the season. I want to see where we end up at the end.’ I feel like we’re going to continue to get better each week, and by the end of the season we should be a team that’s very fundamentally strong and able to compete against any team we go up against. I really believe that,” he said. “Having all these kids come out for football for the first time, the thing I was really surprised with was how smart the kids are, talking football terms, talking scheme and game plan. We’ve thrown a lot at them over the last (few) weeks, and they’ve grasped a large amount of it; that’s actually been surprising. Something we’ve struggled with in the past is the football knowledge that the kids have had to work with. “The thing is, they have a great attitude and I really feel like they actually believe we’re going to do something special here and you can really feel it around the town, from the middle school program to the youth league program. They’re excited what’s happening here and the numbers that are coming out. So now all we have to do if focus on what we’re going to do throughout the whole season and see how it turns out at the end.” The Trojans open the season and begin play in the brand new Hoosier North Athletic Conference Friday night when they host Caston at 7 p.m.
