The Mandan Braves might be the most interesting team entering the 2022 football season, losing just a few players to graduation.
Aside from the loss of a few defensive standouts, Mandan will have a ton of depth with experience. Head Coach Todd Sheldon sees his roster as a bunch of above-average talent, those players sense it too, knowing that if they just play to their strengths, they will be a force this year.
“End of games, we got to finish them out,” says OL/DT Brayden Boehm. “And we got to lean on our teammates more, everyone’s got to do their job. And if that happens, we couldn’t be a better team last year. It was just the little things that we do that we wouldn’t lean on each other so that’s what made us lose in that game.”
“We got to keep working our buts off,” says C Seth Gerhardt. “Every now and then, we can see it, focus gets lost and we got to keep doing stuff. But we get that focus on and we just keep working hard, we’ll be able to make this a season to remember.”
Mandan stands out the most with the returning talent on offense, a team that far and away led the WDA in passing, bringing back Tahrye Frank, Karsyn Jablonski, and quarterback Max Carlson. Add that to a veteran O-line, and this group already feels like they are ahead of the curve.
“We were like, okay, let’s throw a few things at them, and they ran every play just really well,” says HC Todd Sheldon. “And those are week five sort of things. So I think that level of experience. That level of knowledge of what we’re supposed to do and what our assignments are, that’s really pretty high, especially in that offensive line group. We’ve thrown a few little wrinkles in for the skill guys, so they’re not quite to week five, maybe week three, but that’s awesome when we’re talking about we’re really day four.”
Mandan opens the season at home on August 26th, hosting the Fargo Davies Eagles.