Warhawks football hopes to keep momentum going

After finishing the season 3-6 last year, West Fork Warhawks football head coach Daniel Westhoff said that the goal is for the Warhawks to keep the momentum going as they finished the season with two wins in a row. Westhoff said that another goal is to be more competitive with the teams in the district and compete for a playoff spot with a .500 or better record.

The Warhawks were a young team last year and that experience can help them take the next step according to Westhoff.

“A lot of our guys have done a good job lifting in the offseason so there is the physical maturity as guys are getting bigger and stronger,” Westhoff said. “They gained some confidence last year as we won the opening game and that snapped a 20-game losing streak for the program so it was really big for them to see some success. Just finishing the year strong was nice.”

One positive for the Warhawks is that they will have multiple starting linemen return this season which is nice according to Westhoff. 

“It is really important to be returning the guys we do at the line of scrimmage,” Westhoff said. 

A strength for the Warhawks heading into the season according to Westhoff is the players being more comfortable with what the coaches are asking them to do as it will be his third season as the head coach.

“The coaching staff is going to return and we added a couple to the coaching staff and I just think there is good momentum right now and obviously it doesn’t mean anything until we go out and prove it on the field and continue to take steps forward as a program,” Westhoff said. “Just a comfort level and feeling confident in what they are being asked to do. They understand things more and we are not starting from ground zero now. So you can really start to focus more on some of the technique stuff and refining and I think that confidence factor is really important for those guys going into this year.”

One thing the team is going to be focusing on is being tougher this year.

“That is our goal and our mindset that we need to continue to make strides at the line of scrimmage,” Westhoff said. ”Being able to impose our will and we had some flashes of that last year but we were still losing at the line of scrimmage too often. That is where we have to turn the corner for the program to take that next step. It all starts up front so we are really hyper focused on that.”

On offense, running the football efficiently is going to be a key for the Warhawks as Westhoff said that this is the most depth the team has had in the backfield since he became the head coach. 

“We’ve got a little bit of everything back there, we have some power guys and some speed guys so I feel good about where we are at in the backfield,” Westhoff said. ”We have a new quarterback this year so the best thing we can do for him is take the pressure off and run the ball efficiently. We don’t want to be throwing the ball all over the place that won’t put him in a position to succeed so we are going to pick and choose our spots on when we throw.”

Westhoff said the team has to replace a few spots when it comes to defense but that he is hoping for the returning players to develop especially in the secondary. To take the next steps, Westhoff said that sustaining blocks and establishing their brand of football is something the Warhawks have to work on.

“We want to be a smash mouth, very physical and aggressive off the ball and every good program is playing a physical brand of football,” Westhoff said. “We have talked about doing that but we have yet to really consistently put it into action especially against good teams. So that is certainly the focus, that is what we need to do.”