Republic’s football program showed its depth this fall, with the freshman team completing an undefeated season and the junior varsity finishing 6-3. The freshman team’s 9-0 record marked the first undefeated season for any Republic High School football team since Coach Ryan Cornelsen’s arrival.
“They took a lot of pride in it and worked hard. We’ve got a good little group,” Cornelsen said. “There’s some things that we’ve got to get better at, but for the most part, they obviously had a great season.”
The JV team overcame significant injuries, particularly in the backfield, where they lost three running backs during the season. The injuries forced a shift in offensive philosophy.
“We really had two guys we thought were probably the fastest two guys on our team, honestly, and both of those have been out for several weeks now,” Cornelsen said. “We thought we would be an edge-type team and a rocket toss and try to get the pitch to those guys that can really run. About mid-season, they’re both out, and so we had to kind of adjust.”
Greg Hicks stepped into a larger role at fullback for the JV team during the second half of the season. The defense, led by a strong defensive line, also battled through late-season injuries.
“Our defensive line stood out to me as being a really good group of defensive linemen,” Cornelsen said. “I felt like they played hard. I feel like they gave people problems, but they got hit in a few places with injuries just in the last week or two. I felt like they played really good defense for the most part throughout the season.”
Several JV players could see varsity action through the early rounds of the playoffs, beginning tonight.
