Healthier Wildcats aiming to redeem themselves in 2023

ALPENA -- The Alpena High School football team has experience, confidence, a desire to be competitive and play physical as a new season kicks off tonight.

The Wildcats hope all that adds up to a winning season in 2023.

"We're excited," Alpena coach Eric Mitchell said. "We're excited for a good year of football. Based on scrimmages on everything we've been doing, we're feeling confident right now."

Alpena went just 1-8 last season, but injuries limited the program's ability to put a healthy team on the field. Now, with a roster featuring 21 seniors, the Wildcats are healthier, a year more experienced, and ready to show what they can do.

"They are (hungry)," Mitchell said. "We have a lot of guys where the season didn't go the way they wanted to last year and they want to make sure they end their career on the right note."

Offensively, Alpena returns a great deal of talent that's eager to put points on the board.

Senior quarterback Jake Zann returns for his second full year as a starter and, according to Mitchell, has a great knowledge of Alpena's offense.

He'll be joined in the backfield by seniors Elyja Chism and Kaleb Donajkowski and seniors Hunter Cohoon and Carter Stark at fullback. Donajkowski was a second-team all-Big North Conference selection last season and led Alpena with nearly 650 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns.

At receiver, Alpena returns seniors Easton Srebnik and John Kurowski. Senior Joe Sheridan is penciled in at tight end and seniors Joe Schuh, Owen Kocan, John Eaton, Carlos Calzadilla, juniors Gabriel Ratz, Braeden Schaedig and sophomore Brady Chapman could be on the receiving end of passes as well.

Alpena graduated three all-conference receivers from last season, but Mitchell said Zann and Alpena's pass catchers have experience playing together and have developed chemistry over the summer.

"Luckily we had all summer to work on things," Mitchell said. "If we had to start at the beginning of camp, that may have been tough...but Jake's been throwing with them all summer.

For Jake, he knows the offense so well right now...This year he's making all the right calls. He sees it, he sees the offense and it'll be fun this year."

Up front, senior Vince MacArthur will anchor Alpena's line at center. The Wildcats return senior guards Alex Corwin and Brady Carlson and tackle Austin Poirer, a second-team all-Big North Conference selection a year ago. Junior Oliver Duthler is penciled in at the other tackle spot.

Seniors Chris Wherry, Mike Maychen and juniors Barnhardt, Jack Krawczak, Eric Eades, Trenton Stephenson could also see time in the rotation on Alpena's offensive and defensive lines as Mitchell expects his team to be physical up front.

Zann and Cohoon with anchor Alpena's linebacker corps and Donajkowski and junior Nathan Southard could see some reps there too. In the defensive backfield, Stark -- an first-team all-BNC selection last year returns, along with Srebnik, Chism, Eaton and Schuch among those in the mix.

Alpena's quest for redemption begins tonight at home as the Wildcats open the season against Flint Powers Catholic.

Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium.

A banged-up Alpena squad played the Chargers in Week 7 last year and fell behind quickly in a 34-7 loss. The Wildcats are aiming for a different ending tonight against a Powers team that graduated some talented players and has a new coach.

"A lot of kids, they want redemption because we feel like we were a better team last year, we just didn't have our team," Mitchell said. "They got us last year, but we're excited for them and I think we'll match up well."

Tonight is the first of six home games for Alpena this season and the Wildcats hope to use that to their advantage as they compete for the crown in an expanded Big North Conference. Schedule regulars Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie and Escanaba are now conference opponents and Mitchell also expects the conference's original core which includes Petoskey, Gaylord and Cadillac will be tough.

"I think we're going to be up there. We look at our season in third and that middle third that will be the conference," Mitchell said. "The original Big North teams, it's going to black and blue, very tough football games."