ROCHESTER – After a 2-0 start last season, things quickly fell apart in Rochester. The Warriors lost six of their final seven games, all of them by multiple scores, and their lone 2A EvCo win came against Centralia, who went on to finish 0-9.
Entering his fourth year as Rochester’s head coach, one of A.J. Easley’s goals this fall is to get back to who they are as a program.
“Very blue-collared, hard working,” Easley said of the target this fall. “Be a little tougher and a little more hard-nosed than we have been in the past few years.”
Leading the offense this season will be either Kole Smith and Carson Rotter, two juniors who are competing for the starting job. Both of them have started at QB in the past, including Smith as recently as last season, and Easley said that they have both shown flashes of being capable of leading the unit.
While the QB job is still up for grabs, several other roles are set with returners from last year’s team. Palmer Watt, Mason Armstrong, Tate Quamstrom are back to anchor the Rochester backfield, and they’ll be running behind returning linemen Jaden Nichols, Asher Neff, Wyatt Dahl.
Easley noted that with a large sophomore class, the Warriors should benefit from an amount of depth that the team hasn’t had in recent seasons.
“In this offense, I feel like Tate, Palmer and Mason will be those guys in the backfield,” Easley said. “But we got guys behind those guys that if they need a break or if they do this we can sub them out, get them off the field and not completely fall off.”
While he has seen strides from the offensive unit since camp began last Wednesday, Easley said the growth will continue throughout the course of the season and it will be a week to week process.
That process will also hold true on the defensive side, where Easley says the Warriors are shifting to a scheme that will better allow them to match up with specific offenses they will face throughout the season.
While Easley said the unit may not be as deep as the offensive side, there are still several key returners from last year’s team.
Nichols and Jack Dane are back on the line, Rotter and Ethan Rodriguez will be at cornerback, and Watt will be back at middle linebacker.
“What we’ll be in this year will allow us to adapt,” Easley said. “Cause we see so many different things … You have to be very adaptable and I think this lends itself better to doing that.”
