Football: Mustangs turning page on historic 2023 season, focused on this year

BISMARCK, N.D. — Last year was a historic season for the South Border Mustangs, winning their first region title in program history and making their first Dakota Bowl appearance. Accolades that were years in the making.

“You can’t help but smile,” head coach Evan Mellmer says. “It makes you so proud. Proud of the work that the kids did. Those guys last year wanted it from day one when they came in as freshmen, and they worked their whole lives to get that. And to just see that for them and it wasn’t a shade that we wanted. We wanted a championship banner, but we are going to celebrate that and we’re going to recognize where those kids were able to get to.”

“It’s pretty awesome,” running back Cole Stock adds. “We’ve been dreaming about doing that since we were little kids and to finally do it last year meant a lot.”

After falling short in the state championship game last year, the Mustangs are pressing the reset button. With the team full of new faces, this South Border squad is focused on writing their own story and not just trying to replicate last season’s success.

“It’s a thing you want to forget, but also not forget,” quarterback Berkley Frantz says. “You want to wipe it out of your memory. You know you don’t want to live up to it again. You don’t want to just think about it too much. It’s one of those things you want to go back and do again, so we’ve got to work for it and be back there this year.”

“This is a new South Border team,” Mellmer adds. “This is a new group of kids. You guys got to go out and kind of earn your respect one way or another as the group of dudes this year, and they’re ready for that challenge and they’re excited.”

With a young team this year, the Mustangs are relying on their two seniors to lead the way in All-State performers Cole Stock and Levi Buchholz.

“We got to step up a lot, and that’s been the main thing in practice,” Stock says. “Me and him don’t usually talk and we’ve been talking to each other like we got to start chirping in practice and getting each other, getting the whole team hyped up and getting ready to go.”

“They’re not me guys,” Mellmer adds. “They really are team guys. And it’d be really easy as an All-Stater to go, ‘I want the ball, I want the I want my name here. I want to be talking to the news guy.’ They don’t care. Whatever it takes to win they’re willing to do. They’ll sacrifice touches. They’re obviously going to get involved in the offense and use that, but what they do, just from their leadership standpoint, is so much bigger than what they do as a football player. Both really good kids.”

While fresh faces fill the field for South Border, another key returner is junior quarterback Berkley Frantz. After entering the 2023 season as a first year starter, the Mustangs relied on Frantz to find ways to win games as the year went on, and will continue that mindset throughout this season.

“As a sophomore, I didn’t really know what I was going expect or how I was going to do really, and that was kind of the problem with our team was how I was going to perform,” he says. “So, I really worked at it and it was a good wake up call for me and I think it was pretty awesome. I didn’t really know how I was going to do, and then I started doing better and better and better. For him to trust me to make calls and make the plays to win the game was really cool.”

“We trust him to do everything,” Mellmer adds. “We’re going to give him a lot of freedom at the line of scrimmage to call things that he sees. Get us in the stuff that he wants to do, that he feels comfortable and he’s just so football smart and then naturally he’s just an athletic kid too. He can do a lot of things on the field.”

The 4th-ranked Mustangs started the season with big win over Richardton-Taylor-Hebron and hit the road for the first time on Friday to battle the Storm of Grant County/Flasher.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KX NEWS.