Miners looking forward to a new schedule in 2018

NEGUANEE – The Miners showed they were an inexperienced team last season, finishing four and five. Last year was about learning the basics for Paul Jacobsons squad, but now with one year of varsity under their belt, it’s time to hit the ground running.

“We ended up losing a couple of starters on both sides of the ball from last season,” said Head Coach Paul Jacobson. “We’re bringing back a lot of experience and it should help this year. We have some stiff competition within the conference, so it’s going to be an interesting year.”

“We started a bunch of sophomores on both sides of the ball,” said Jason Waterman (JR. QB/FS). “Nobody really knew what to expect. Going into our second year playing together, especially when we had a year on JV together, we know what’s coming and there’s a high sense of urgency right now.”

Negaunee plays, Gogebic, Houghton, Hancock and L’Anse this year – all teams that were not on their schedule last season.

“With the new conference we are in and with the new schedule, our first three opponents, Iron Mountain, Calumet and Hancock are all playoff caliber teams. There’s a heightened sense of urgency within our two-a-days,” said Jacobson.

“Competition is going to be tight once again. We’re pretty excited to play some new teams and take some road trips to new places. It feels like we’ve been playing the same schedule over and over. It’ll be a good experience to play some new people,” said Waterman.

The Miners open up the 2018 season at home against Iron Mountain on August 24th.