“Next man up.”
It’s the unspoken philosophy that defines Yankton Bucks Football; a program that has not missed the SDHSAA playoffs since its inception in 1981, and has won 8 SDHSAA sanctioned state championships.
And after losing a talented senior class, this year’s version of the Bucks have proven to live that motto to the fullest.
“All of the guys progressing through the program, it’s always a next man up mentality,” said Head Coach Brady Muth.
“In that sense, everyone knows they’ve got to be ready and training for their opportunity. Whether that’s right now or whether it’s down the road. Our guys are really good in the offseason and that’s highlighted by our strength and conditioning coach and that program.”
Yankton is already off to a great start with wins over Mitchell (42-0), Spearfish (42-27) and Watertown (31-20). And according to Coach Muth, that success is attributed to a special brand of toughness this iteration of the Bucks have shown.
“We have a tough football time so they’ll fight. That’s the thing I’m most proud of and that’s something we’ve worked on. We work on competitive situations during the week in practice.
“It’s also a big part of who we are and what our DNA is. These are scrappy kids and they have a bit of a chip on their shoulder and they want to go fight and prove that they’re a good football team.”
Maybe no unit in the Yankton Bucks has displayed that combination of toughness and “next man up” mentality better than the offensive line, a group returned just one starter from last season, but has contributed heavily to an outstanding offensive attack.
“It [the development of the offensive line] was so big coming into this season as we didn’t know what we were going to have. We only had one returning starter coming back.
“They’re a tough bunch. They’re all like minded and they’re all really nasty so you know if you have an offensive line like that you can get some things done.”
Now, the #2 ranked Bucks prepare for their toughest matchup of the season, the top-ranked and defending state champion Pierre Governors, in a battle of undefeated teams.
“It’s going to be an interesting one. It’s two teams that are playing well right now…At the start of the season here just getting to measure ourselves against the state champ, who is a state champ for a reason, it’ll be a good test for us. We’re excited for the opportunity.
“It’s going to tell us a lot about where we’re at. We learned a little bit last week about where we were at [as] Watertown is a tough opponent and they’re going to be a tough out for anybody in the state, and Pierre’s going to give us a good opportunity to learn about ourselves.”
This year’s battle between the two top-ranked teams in 11AA will take place at Crane-Youngworth Field, and Coach Muth is excited for the atmosphere that is to come at their home stadium.
“We have the best fans in the state; I can’t say enough about them. That’s with anything in our community. People in Yankton really take pride in their sports teams and other activities that go on in town.
“I unfortunately don’t get to enjoy it as much because they are all behind me so I don’t get to see what’s going on but you can definitely feel them. [And] our student section is loud and proud and they get involved in the game as much as you can get.”
Tonight’s matchup will take place at 7 P.M. CT and can be seen on KYNTV’s Youtube channel.
This article is our part of our weekly coaches’ interviews presented by The Move Group. To see the complete list, check out our website below.
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