HELENA — Bright and early on Tuesday at Helena Capital, Bruins athletes were getting in their summer workouts. Over the past handful of years that Kyle Mihelish has been the head coach of the Helena Capital football team, the mindset of the summer workouts has changed quite a bit.
"We do multiple things now. I mean, it used to be, pound the weight, pound the weight, pound the weight. We do a lot of speed, we do a lot of agility, we work on power. They do great things in the weight room, coach (Lee) Carter, coach (Jeff) Mahana and coach (Jim) Hogan," said Mihelish.
Though many Capital football players are a part of the workouts, they're open to all Capital students who want to participate. With more than 100 kids doing the workouts, they serve as a chemistry builder not just within individual teams but across nearly all of them.
"It's everything to us, because if we don't have this then we're not going to be able to bond outside of on the field as fast because we get to wake up every morning and come out here and really put in some effort and grind to see what we can actually do on the field," said junior linebacker Talon Marsh.
The Bruins finished last season at 3-4 through Western AA play and went into the Class AA playoffs as the West's fifth seed. The Bruins upended the fourth-seeded Butte Bulldogs in the first round before falling to the eventual second-place finisher Billings West Golden Bears by a wide margin. For junior Hayden Opitz, he knows that last year’s finish will play a role in what people expect from the Bruins this fall and wants to change that with solid work this summer.
"We had a pretty rough end to the season last year. I think people aren't really expecting that much from us. But we need to put in the work on the field and during practice and perform at MSU camp for this coming week, and just make sure that we're ready to go for the season and show what we can do," said Opitz.
