By Brant Daughtry
Great Bend Post Sports
Football teams tend to be better when upperclassmen are on the field. Sometimes though, there's a shortage of juniors and seniors, and younger guys have to step up. For the past few years, that's been the case for the Stafford Trojans. That lack of maturity has led to a few close losses and hard lessons in the past two years, on squads with three seniors in 2024, and only one in 2025.
This year though, the Trojans will field five seniors, who have all been a part of those growing pains. Head coach Jeff Chambers says he expected those difficulties to begin his tenure, but now he and the team expect to see the benefits.
"When I took over the job two years ago, we had three seniors, and last year we had one. So we've been playing with a lot of young kids. Now those kids are going to be juniors, and things like that, and we've got a few more seniors as a group. So I think you'll see a difference of attitudes. I think you'll see a difference of kids, and there's a whole lot of difference of belief now.
"We kind of knew going into it, when we first started, that we were going to be young, and probably take our lumps. We won a few games, and did some good things. We were in a number of games that could've gone either way. Unfortunately, the immaturity wouldn't allow us to do the things we needed to do to finish them off. But, I think some of that has changed. I know the kids have a burning desire to go hit somebody else besides each other now."
Stafford begins the season on Friday, September 4th, traveling to face Fairfield.