North Boone ready to battle in the BNC with some new faces

POPLAR GROVE, Ill. (WTVO/WQRF) — The North Boone Vikings were a strong third-place finisher in the Big Northern Conference last season. For the first time in several years, they don’t have any members of the Doetch family on the roster, but the Vikings will again have some firepower.

At the same time, the guys in green will be a little green this year when it comes to experience.

“We had a lot of (roster) turnover,” says he coach Ryan Kelley. I graduated a lot of seniors that had a lot of snaps for us last year, so it’s a younger group. There’s a lot of spots up for grab,s and guys have been working hard.”

The Vikings graduated most of their ‘Bigs’ on the line, guys that called themselves WarHogs last year, but all-conference player Patrick McCarty is back. He’ll play on both lines.

“They were a great unit last year, and they were my family,” said McCarty. “I love them, but the people we’ve got now are also my family, and they’ve got the WarHog in them too.”

“We’re excited about the guys that we have coming in here,” said Kelley. “Like I said, they’re young, but they’re hungry.”

The Vikings also have a new starting quarterback, RJ Wolski. Kelley is high on Wolski’s grasp of the offense.

“He really just understands the offense more and the concepts, and what we’re trying to do in the passing game especially. He’s a guy, we like with his legs too. He can make plays with his legs and through the air.”

When Wolski goes to the air, 6’4 junior Brad Dahl will probably be the first guy he looks to. Dahl made some big catches last year.

“I think the thing that I’m most proud of him for is he has really developed as a leader,” said Kelley of Dahl.

With North Boone’s spread offense it takes more than one good receiver. As usual the Vikings seem to have several good ones.

“We have a really good group this year,” said one of those receivers Brandon Slater. “We have one through ten can really do it, but we’re just going to keep working and getting better.”

Azriel Dixon is back after starting at receiver last year as a sophomore. He’s a speed guy.

At running back look for Connor Chamberlain and Jacob Webb to get a lot of carries, and some of those receivers could also get carries.

Most of those same guys will line up on defense. The Vikings have a new defensive coordinator in Tony Livit.

“Our defense with Tony Livit, it’s going to be a really good, new defense,” said Slater, “So we’re going to be working, all working hard.”

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