SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
PRETTY PRAIRIE, Kan. — The Pretty Prairie High School football team hopes to keep the momentum going into the 2024 season that it ended the 2023 year with.
The Bulldogs finished last year with a 2-7 record, but those two wins came in the final two games of the season.
Although Pretty Prairie lost a lot of talent from last season, third-year head coach Blake Lee is excited about this year.
"We've had a lot of really good effort early on," Lee said. "It's been awesome to see. We lost some key pieces from an offense that struggled some last year, but really came on strong late. These guys this year have stepped up to the challenge and brought great energy out, especially with the heat we've had so far."
One of the big reasons the Bulldogs thrived late in the season was the change of the offense.
"We switched up our offense," Lee said. "We went from a pure zone scheme back to a gap scheme. We're ready to take up 40 seconds off the play clock every play and shorten the game."
The Bulldogs will have a young quarterback behind center.
"We've got a sophomore out after sitting out his freshman year," Lee said. "Emmett Harbaugh will play quarterback for us, he's picking up things really quick."
Pretty Prairie will have it's leading rusher back from last season in sophomore fullback Weston Smyth.
"He's a rodeo kid," Lee said. "He's a smash mouth kid, he loves to run into people. That's his favorite thing to do. He could have an open field on the left and somebody on the right, he'd run to the right and go hit them."
The reason for the Bulldogs changing the offense is in honor of the 1993 state championship team, which Pretty Prairie honored last fall.
"They ran it, so we kind of put it in a little bit to honor them and give them credit," Lee said. "We ran it a couple times in practice and the coaching staff all thought it looked pretty good. I like the zone scheme, but sometimes high school kids just need to know to run to this hole and we're just going to go. I think our kids really liked that and we kind of just went with it and it really worked."
Defensively the Bulldogs will mix that up some this year with its four-man front.
"Christian Chandler is going to make plays without making tackles from his defensive end spot by turning guys in," Lee said. "Weston Smyth at the middle linebacker will make plays for us. Rylan Reyes is a big sophomore that will turn guys in and make plays for us, as well."
The Bulldogs will do the best it can with 13 total players out for football.
"The dropdown to 8-Man Division II has been really good for us," Lee said. "Our girls programs at Pretty Prairie have been really good over the past several years, but we're low in boys numbers."
Pretty Prairie will open the season on the road with defending state champion, Lyndon.
"It's going to be a dogfight," Lee said. "We can step up there and let people know that we are here. We are ready to go this year."
PRETTY PRAIRIE SCHEDULE
Sept. 6 @ Lyndon
Sept. 13 STAFFORD
Sept. 20 @ Pratt-Skyline
Sept. 27 VICTORIA
Oct. 4 NORWICH
Oct. 11 @ Fairfield
Oct. 18 CENTRAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Oct. 25 @ Attica-Argonia