Wayne High Football To Grow From Playoff Qualifying Season In 2017

WAYNE – Following their first playoff appearance since 2013 and postseason win since 1983, the Wayne High football team will look to take the next step.

WHS posted one of their best starts in school-history winning five-straight games before dropping three consecutive contests and winning their season finale last year to finish the regular season at 6-3. In the postseason, the Blue Devils won at Chadron, 30-28 before suffering a 42-8 loss against Wahoo.

Russ Plager will be entering his third year with the Blue Devil football program, second as head coach. Coach Plager said the first week is always a work in progress installing a lot of plays.

“I see kids wanting to do well, I see kids trying to fight for positions and that’s what you ask for that first week,” said Plager. “It’s starting to get to the point where it’s going to work itself out a little bit.”

Roughly 45 student-athletes make up the team with nine seniors. WHS will return some experience who started late last year as well as keys subs and role players.

Coach Plager stated fans will see a lot of new faces on the field.

“We put some time in the weight room,” Plager added. “The kids have worked hard over the last year, so it makes me real curious to see what they’re going to do on Friday night. How that strength and that work they put in and see how it pays out for them.”

The Wayne High football team is scheduled to host their season opener from Bob Cunningham Field at the campus of Wayne State College on Friday, August 24. WHS will entertain Wahoo at 7 p.m., the team who knocked them out of the playoff race a year ago.

“I’m real encouraged to see the progression we’ve seen from day one to the end,” Plager mentioned. “First week there was a lot of progression, a lot of improvements over the week. So, I’m real curious to see what we would look like week nine.”

Wahoo was a semi-finalist from 2017 after suffering a loss to eventual Class C1 champion, Norfolk Catholic 14-0.

Catch all Wayne High varsity football games on either 98.9 FM/AM 1590 The City or Big Red Country 104.9 and all online at waynedailynews.com with pregame coverage set 15 minutes prior to kickoff.

Join Sports Director, Aaron Scheffler and color commentary from Justin Raulston on The City next Friday with pregame coverage set for 6:45 p.m.

Share:
Comments