Courtesy Photo The 2023 Alcona High School football team includes, from left to right, in the back row, Aiden Reno, Evan Woods, Jayson Lincoln, Jordan Benac, Evan Borsvold, William Liebler, Jacob Renchenski, Collin Walker, Nathan Nardi, and Nathaneal Henderson, and, in the front row, Jacob June, Sawyer Seminoff, Travis Walker, Richard Schott, Jeremiah Bullis, William O’Neill, Garrett Somers, Zean Monnier, Sam Johnston, and Kelvin Travis. Not pictured is Jesse Sheldon.

LINCOLN — The Alcona football team saw some pretty good success in its first two years of eight-player action.

Things could get a whole lot more interesting in season three, however, as the school is now small enough, enrollment-wise, to be playoff-eligible, should they rack up enough playoff points through the course of their nine-week season.

“The kids are really buzzing about the opportunity, and I think it would be a great thing to qualify and get some postseason play in,” Alcona coach Jason Somers said. “There is a lot more excitement in the preseason, now.”

The Tigers went 5-4 in 2021 in their debut eight-player season and followed that up with a stellar 7-2 campaign last fall. The news gets even better for Alcona in that it returns 12 players from last year’s squad.

“This team has a great mix of youth and experience,” Somers said. “They work well together and have a love for the game. We are focusing on execution. The fact that there are so many returners has helped speed up learning and has allowed us to get to the details sooner.

“This team returns many players that are very capable of doing great things,” Somers added, “and, if you couple that with the new players to the roster, I think we have a great group that will do great things.”

Returning from last year’s team are seniors Jeremiah Bullis (all-conference), Sam Johnston, Zean Monnier, Nathan Nardi, William O’Neill (all-conference), Jacob Renchenski, Jesse Sheldon, and Collin Walker (all-conference, all-state). Juniors coming back include Garrett Somers (all-conference), William Liebler (all-conference), Jacob June (all-conference) and Evan Borsvold.

New to the team are seniors Nathaneal Henderson and Sawyer Seminoff and juniors Jordan Benac, Aiden Reno, Jayson Lincoln, Richard Schott, Kelvin Travis, Travis Walker and Evan Woods.

“This year’s team seems to be focused on goals that we don’t typically speak about in newspapers,” Somers said. “They have goals such as being selfless, maintaining a positive mindset, and working together as a family-type unit. I love this approach, and I believe their performance goals will be a byproduct of this type of thinking.”

The Tigers started last season 6-0 before falling to Au Gres and Rogers City in weeks seven and eight. They’ll play the Hurons in week eight once again this season, and it could prove to be a critical late-season matchup.

“I think the (North Star League) Big Dipper has some really good teams this year and we are all chasing last year’s champ, Rogers City,” Somers said. “They have a lot of good numbers and their coach will have them ready. Their coach (Jesse Fenstermaker) will have them ready, he is a darn good football coach.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean Alcona is looking beyond its other opponents this season. They’ll open up the year Aug. 25 at Mio in a NSL Big Dipper game. The Thunderbolts went 4-5 last year, but put up huge offensive numbers, averaging 47 points a game.

“My hope is to play as close to mistake-free football as we can for week one,” Somers said. “We know our opponent and we know that they will be ready. We will have to match them in both execution and intensity. That will be key.”

Mio graduated their starting quarterback and top two receivers, so they might be a bit of a mystery entering the new year.

“I really don’t know, because they graduated a lot,” Somers said. “I think they’ll be a little bit younger, but, again, (their head coach Calvin Fox) always has those guys ready and they’ll be scrappy. They won’t quit.”