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Hillman begins final season of 11-man football

Monday marked the final first day of 11-man football practice for the Hillman varsity football program.

After a decision was made a few months ago that the Tigers would be transitioning to 8-man football in 2018, Hillman held its first day of practice with the goal in mind of going out on top and continuing its impressive playoff streak that stands at 11 years before the program makes the transition.

“I’m always excited about the first day because I can see who put in work during the summer and who didn’t. Our numbers are down a little this year, but we have a lot of senior leadership with nine seniors on the team which is the most I’ve had on any team in quite a while,” Hillman coach Bill Koenig said. “You take the good with the bad, it’s great we have good senior numbers, but bad we only have three freshman so its hard to get a grasp on what our future holds, but all of the kids we have are real good athletes and we are not afraid to start underclassmen against regular season foes.”

A total of 25 athletes came out for the first day of Hillman practices, a total that Koenig thinks could possibly grow a little once school begins. For now the Tigers will go through the first weeks of practice led by a strong senior class.

Hillman is hoping for its 12th consecutive trip to the postseason and the team has a little momentum on its side after rallying late in the season last year, just to keep the streak alive.

“I think it’s in the back of everyone’s mind. They played hard last year from game four on and came together as a team. I think they learned a lot from the way we played in the first half of the season to where we finished in the second half,” Koenig said. “They have already talked about some of the good moments we had last year and you can tell they want to succeed and we have more leadership this year and it’s a good thing to have.”

With nine seniors returning, the Tigers have just a few holes to fill before the season begins on August 25. Hillman will have no easy task continuing its streak. The North Star League is now one division and the Tigers will play each of the six other teams in the conference along with three non-conference games against Gaylord St. Mary, Harbor Springs and Inland Lakes.

“With a lot of area teams moving to 8-man its tough for us to scrimmage teams that we don’t play during the regular season. Instead we find ourselves scrimmaging some class C schools. We know we have a easy mark anywhere on the schedule where we felt like we did at times in the past,” Koenig said. “This is the last group playing 11-man football in Hillman and it’s on our minds to continue the streak and go out on a good note. Our competition is very hard this year, we’re excited to get out there and compete and hopefully we will go out successful.”

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.

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