HAVRE — With the new season starting Friday night, the Havre football team looks to build upon a 2023 season that saw them win a Class A playoff game.
At Wednesday's practice, head coach Jake Eldridge and seniors Tre Gary and Tate Nelson expressed their excitement for this campaign.
"We've had a really, really good summer, and fall camp has been really good as well," Eldridge said. "The kids are just grinding, they're working and they understand what they have in front of them."
Eldridge said practice has been getting "a little bit chippy" over the last week.
"We told them last night it's like, 'Yeah, you guys are ready to play,'" Eldridge said. "But let's keep continuing to work and finish this week off the right way, and they're definitely ready. They're excited."
The team has just six seniors, but returns a good amount juniors.
Eldridge gave praise to his seniors.
"This senior class is really close knit and they're really bringing the team together very, very well," Eldridge said. "Super pleased with what they've been doing."
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Two senior leaders are Gary and Nelson.
"As a younger guy I always looked up to the leaders," Gary said. "Being able to work harder in practice for those younger guys to be able to show them how it's supposed to be is a really good feeling."
"It's a big part of the team and keeps us together, you know it all starts from us," Nelson said. "We got to have leadership to win games, we got to be together."
Gary and Eldridge both know the team is ready for this fall.
"It's amazing, I mean we've been beating up on our guys a lot so we're just ready to go hit someone else now," Gary said.
"These kids have put the work in and they want it," Eldridge said. "They're excited to be out here just like we are as coaches. So you know they've put the work in and they know now they just got to go have fun and go play the football games."
Havre heads to Hardin for its season opener Friday night.
