Rangers ready to forget how last season ended

MOUNTAIN IRON—The end of the 2023 football season left a bad taste in the mouth of the Mountain Iron-Buhl football team.

The Rangers made it back to the state tournament in hopes of defending their Prep Bowl title from 2022. Instead, they were stunned 12-8 in the state quarterfinals against Nevis with the Tigers eventually going on to win the Prep Bowl themselves.

As MI-B returns to the gridiron with the hopes of making up for last year’s disappointment, head coach Dan Zubich said getting over the loss is still not an easy task for his squad.

“Everybody’s really got a rotten taste in their mouth from how things ended last year,” the veteran head coach said. “That’s what’s keeping us motivated right now.”

When the season was wrapped up, Zubich went into the team’s weight room and hung a picture of Nevis up on the wall, something he’s done before following an MI-B loss. That picture is still up on the wall and he doesn’t know when it’ll come down.

“We didn’t talk about that game for a while. Then I hung that picture of Nevis up in the weight room and it didn’t go over real well for the guys. Yes, we lost the game but we also felt like we got screwed by things outside of our control. It is what it is.”

Zubich hopes that photo will provide motivation all season long for his squad.

“I expected someone to try and take it down but no one did anything like that. They didn’t say anything about it but I know they see it. In year’s past, someone would try and take it down but you can’t take it down until you beat them.

“There’s a chance that we play them again in the state tournament if we make it there again so we could see them real soon.”

Taking home six straight section titles, the Rangers program feels like a well-oiled machine at this point. The team puts in the work during the season but also excels when it comes to their offseason training. That was no different this year.

“We went to a camp in Morris again and had some more success there. We saw some great teams like Kingsland (2023 state runner-up), Border West, Hancock and some good teams and state champs from North and South Dakota. It’s a long drive for us but it’s a great camp. We’ll go wherever the teams are.”

Graduating five seniors, it’s obvious the Rangers are going to miss running back Damian Tapio, one of the most consistent pieces for MI-B on both sides of the ball for the last several years. Replacing him at running back won’t be easy, but this year’s 11 seniors will look to fill the gaps.

“There’s a lot of great running backs that have come from here and are in our Hall of Fame but he’s up there with the best, if not the best. He was outstanding and losing him is tough. Derik Dahl will try to replace him. He’s fast, about as fast as Tapio, shifty and a little bit lighter but everything else looks the same. He’s very smart and he’ll fit in nicely.”

The Rangers also return starting quarterback MiCaden Clines and have a lot of consistency returning on the offensive line. Throughout their postseason run, MI-B shifted to a wildcat offense that saw Tapio taking the snaps at quarterback. With that option out of the picture this year, Zubich expects things to go through Clines full time.

Going wildcat definitely hurt our production coming into this year but it was what was best for us in the playoffs last year. That slowed [Clines’] development a bit and maybe hurt his confidence some but I don’t think that’s going to affect him coming into this year. Everything is going through him and he knows that.”

TJ DuChamp returns as the team’s top receiver and Zubich expects sophomore Izaiah Alto to get some important looks as well at the position.

“TJ’s got great hands, his speed is up, his strength is up and he’s always been smart. We’re looking for big things from him and we’re seeing guys like Izaiah step up as well so we’re looking forward to having him at receiver.”

In terms of leadership, going from five seniors back to 11 is a boon for the Rangers, but Zubich is still hoping those more experienced players can find their voice soon.

“They’re slowly bringing the leadership in. The biggest leader we have is a more quiet, lead-by-example guy. MiCaden has been more vocal but we’ve got some big linemen that haven’t been real vocal and three of them are captains. They’re some of the best linemen we’ve ever had here but I think everyone would listen to them if they spoke up. They wouldn’t have to say much cause everyone respects them.”

This weekend, the Rangers will host their own set of scrimmages with plenty of section foes coming to town less than a week before the first slate of games kick off. As the team works towards their opener with Cook County on Thursday, Aug. 29, Zubich expects his players to start ramping up the intensity.

“I’m looking for guys to stop second guessing themselves on offense. You can see it in some of the linemen. They know what they’re doing but they second guess themselves. It’s something we’ll get fixed but we gotta have that down by next week.”

At the scrimmages, Zubich says he won’t be shy about opening up the playbook.

“We like to see where we’re at. We think we’re top five in the state so we should be able to take care of business but you never know. Not everyone plays scrimmages the same way. Some teams don’t want to show too much but we’re not afraid to run some trick plays and see what works and what doesn’t. That’s what you have to do to get better.”

As they await their opener with the Vikings, Zubich said he expected a tough battle with Cook County last year but didn’t get it as the Rangers rolled to a 66-14 win. If MI-B gets off to another fast start, it could be a long night for the visitors.

“They’ve got a good quarterback, a three-year starter and some good linemen but we thought last year was going to be a dogfight and it ended up going heavily in our favor. We jumped all over them and I’m hoping for that again. That’s what we like to do. If we block who we’re supposed to block, I don’t think they can stop us.”

Looking at the rest of the section, there’s a wide range of teams that will hope for a chance at knocking off the six-time defending champs.

“North Woods will be much improved after only losing one guy. Littlefork is always tough. Cook County is tough. Cherry will miss Isaac [Asuma], [Andrew] Staples and Ty Sikkila. I know they got a lot coming back but we’ll see what they look like.”

In the end, Zubich says it comes back to righting the ship from last season.

“We want to finish what we started. We had dreams of a three-peat and we think we’re top five this year so we’ll see what happens. There’s some really good teams out there and we want to show we can compete with them and win another state championship.”