SEELEY LAKE — Historically, Seeley-Swan has not been one of the teams to watch in 8-Man football, but this year a group of upperclassmen and a new work ethic has led the Blackhawks to an early 4-0 record.
In the small town of Seeley Lake lies a football team that has had a losing record since 2007.
After many unsuccessful seasons, second-year head coach Jacob Haley started a new offseason weightlifting and training program, which the team bought into early.
“What can we do between now and when the season starts, just to give us the best chance to be successful,” Haley said. “They've been building on that ever since, and it's kind of led to our hot start. Definitely led by some upperclassmen, they were hungry and motivated this year. Our goal was playoffs and I think it's kind of broadening out now to see how many wins we can stack up and just getting better as we do it.”
Coach Haley also introduced a new motto to the team: “The time is now.”
Senior Severino Dunster, along with the rest of the team’s senior class, took this message to heart.
“Knowing this is my last year, we encouraged (players) to get as many people in the gym and weights and practice and just get our knowledge up," Dunster said. "This is my last chance to play high school football. It's one of the things you don't get back. So, I mean, he's right, the time is now, especially it means a lot more for me than I would say the younger guys. But, I mean, we all go through it where we didn't think it would end so quickly, but here we are.”
After seeing the hard work pay off en route to a 4-0 start, coach Haley said the work is not finished yet, but he is excited about the progress the team has made.
“I think the wins help to prove to the guys that we can succeed at football, which again has been kind of a struggle in the past,” Haley said. “So obviously the wins are what we're chasing, and as we start to kind of see that progress I think the guys get more confidence each win almost to the point we got to run them back a little bit. But they're doing a great job of just taking it week by week and getting better every day.”
Seeley-Swan plays its next game Saturday at 1 p.m. in St. Regis.
