Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Mary M. Knight High School coach Tom Kerr talks to his team during practice Aug. 25 in Matlock.
Mary M. Knight coach Tom Kerr teaches the lineman what to do on a play during practice Aug. 25 in Matlock.
Mary M. Knight enters the 2022 football season with something they're not experienced with: inexperience.
"I have one returning starter, and it's only his second year of football," MMK coach Tom Kerr told the Journal. "I've got another returner, a non-starter, second year of football and then five new players that have never played the game before."
The Owls had an experienced senior class last season, highlighted by Ryan Good and Quinnton Krippelcz, but the four seniors are gone along with most of the team's experience.
Kerr said the team has two eighth graders, three freshmen and two juniors. Kerr said he has a general idea of how the team will look for the opening game against Clallam Bay on Sept. 10. He is planning to start eighth-grader Micah Palmer at quarterback.
"We'll be definitely run heavy this year. I don't have the skill set of the quarterback that I've had in previous years," Kerr said. "He'll be very young throwing a ball so if we do throw, it's short but right now, it's just basic fundamentals everywhere. It's a brand new team, all of the talent and leadership and experience I've had in my past five years is gone. It's definitely going to be a learning curve every single day, breaking it down to the simple to get them to learn the game of football."
While there is a lack of players on the team, it also isn't bad considering the number of boys in the school. Fewer than 20 boys enrolled at MMK's high school.
"I have half the high school boys playing football and that's 8 through 12," Kerr said. "I got about 40 girls, so you want to come to Mary M. Knight, I'll get you a girlfriend."
Robbie Strain is the lone returning starter for the Owls and Kerr said he has an athletic skillset. The offense will change with the lack of experience on the team. Kerr said he's just focused on sustaining drives with running the ball and short passing.
"The game plan is to run the damn ball until we can get more advanced in our skill set," Kerr said. "I want to try to eliminate turnovers as much as possible and mistakes as much as possible until they become more football-oriented and then we can open it up to what Mary M. Knight's been known to do the last couple years."
The defense will be the base 3-3 formation Kerr has used and he plans to keep things basic on defense, emphasizing tackling.
Kerr said Lake Quinault is the favorite because they return an experienced team. Northwest Christian lost some players from last season's championship team but they return enough to be second, followed by Wishkah Valley and Washington School for the Deaf vying for third and Clallam Bay and MMK being even.
With all of the factors included, Kerr said they're not basing the season off of any win-loss expectations.
"My expectation is for them to get better every day and learn the fundamentals and keep building off that so as they get older and more experienced and hopefully we get more guys into the program to keep building it back up to what it has been the past few years," Kerr said. "That's kind of the goal. We're not really looking at win-loss at all. It's more just growth of our program. I hate as a coach to say rebuilding, but it is rebuilding."
The goals for Kerr this season are for the team to stay healthy, make it through every game and the kids learn the game and have fun.
"I've got a pretty big seventh-grade class with five or six boys that I anticipate will play so that should jump it up and then I got some sixth-grade boys that are very athletic in a couple years that could be here to help out the program."
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