By Brant Daughtry
Great Bend Post Sports
A good indicator for the health of a football program is the leadership of its senior classes. At Hoisington, strong senior leadership has become commonplace, and so has winning.
This year, the Cardinals bring bring 13 seniors into the season, with the majority being returning starters. While some are at different positions on the field, head coach Zach Baird says the group has a lot in common with their more successful years.
"You have years where you have big classes, you have years where you don't. This just happens to be a huge class for us. I think, off the top of my head, 13 is the most we've ever had. There's been a couple of other years where we've had double digits. But all 13 made 90% or more summer weight room attendance. A lot of those guys didn't miss a day. And I was thinking back, over the years that we've had that were kind of struggles for us, you think either that's not a big senior class, or it just doesn't have that senior leadership that you need. I'm just super excited about this group and excited to get going."
One of those seniors, tackle and linebacker Brody Corbett, echoed his coach's excitement for the upcoming season.
"I always say it's one of the better atmosphere's in 2A on any Friday night at Elton-Brown." said Corbett. "No one, I don't think, really comes out to a game like Hoisington does. The town is very appreciative of what we do, and I'm very thankful for the fans."
Fellow senior center and nose guard Karson Kinman said playing for Hoisington is helping him to live out a childhood dream.
"I've been going to the games since I was a little kid, that's what I looked forward to as a kid. Friday nights, watching all the older kids play. And now I get to do it. It's just special. We've got week 1 Labor Day weekend, everyone's families are back. It's gonna be good."
Hoisington opens the season at home, hosting the Hillsboro Trojans on September 4th.