HHS 2016: A lot of new in Blue Pony Football

No two high school football seasons are ever the same. And when it comes to the Havre High football team, that will be very apparent as HHS takes the field against Whitefish this Saturday.

Not only will the Blue Ponies have a new head coach after the departure of Mark Samson to Great Falls High, and the hiring of Ryan Gatch, formerly the head coach at Forsyth, Havre will also be without numerous key players from last year's team, including All-State quarterback Dane Warp and All-State wide receiver Nate Rismon. Warp started every game at quarterback the last four years for HHS and along the way set state records for passing yards and touchdowns in 11-man football. Yet, Rismon was no slouch either, starting for three years and earning a football scholarship to the University of Montana-Western.

Havre will also be without the talents of former All-State wide out and linebacker Parker Filius, who is not playing football this season, as well as others such as Travis Adams, Logan Pleninger, Cole Keller and Thomas Keith, who graduated off last year's team. In addition to replacing a number of key components from last year's squad, Gatch is also tasked with installing a new system, while at the same time evaluating his personnel.

"I am fortunate that I have a lot of great football minds helping me," Gatch said. "Every day after practice that's something that we talk about. We talk about personnel. But those are just some of the challenges you face as a first-year coach. You have to get your system in and get everyone up to speed and those are some of the things we are focusing on right now."

Certainly, the biggest question facing Gatch right away is who will replace Warp as the team's starting quarterback. Junior Trey Murphy, who backed up Warp the past two seasons, appears to be the leading candidate, but he is competing against fellow junior Ivar Aageson, who also plays wide receiver and cornerback.

"We have two guys competing and learning the offense," Gatch said. "They each have different strengths, but we are still using the base offense that we run. Right now, they are both doing a great job."

In the Blue-White scrimmage last Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium, both players got reps, but it was Murphy who stole the show, completing all five of his pass attempts for 54 yards and two touchdowns. He even quarterbacked the second-team offense to a score against the starting defense. Aageson also managed to lead the offense to one touchdown on the night and was impressive running the football.

Havre may have a few question marks in the passing game, but when it comes to running the football, the Ponies should be more than solid. HHS returns both First-Team Central A All-Conference fullback Jase Stokes, along with Second-Team All-Conference running back Jazz Schroeder. Stokes rushed for 547 yards and scored three touchdowns in 2015. The senior also caught 21 passes for 219 yards and another score. Schroeder racked up 379 yards and led the Ponies with seven rushing touchdowns. In addition to Stokes and Schroeder, freshman Mason Dionne should also see the field this season.

"Jase and Jazz, they are going to be a two-headed monster for us," Gatch said. "And we don't really have a fullback, we have a halfback and a tailback and that allows us to do a lot of different things with both of those guys."

Having a pair of experienced ball carriers helps. So does a deep and talented offensive line, which is exactly what Gatch and the Ponies believe they have. The line did lose three starters in Adams, Keith and Keller, but with the return of Jared Sienkowski, who earned Second-Team All-Conference honors in 2015 and Chris Gabrielsen, who each started a season ago, along with new starters Brock Smith, Tyler Schaub and Tony Antley, a sophomore, who will be the center, the group looks solid. Cody Rennick will also see time as the first guy off the bench at both tackle and guard.

"We have a deep group there," Gatch said. "We have a few other kids that are competing there, too, so that's nice to have. We had to replace three good players there, but we moved Tyler Schaub to left tackle and he has really bought in and all those guys are looking good."

The rest of the offense, which is wide receivers - Gatch isn't currently using a tight end - is a talented group that consists of Aageson, Jacob LaBrie, Nate Korb, Isaac Warp, Brady Ophus and Will Thomas.

"Ivar has been playing quarterback, but he's a very good receiver, too," Gatch said. "So we want to have him out there to throw the ball too. We also like Isaac Warp, he will be out there a lot and Nathan (Korb). Those are our top three guys there."

Defensively, Havre will be led by Stokes, an All-State inside linebacker a season ago, who totaled 100 tackles (nine tackles for loss), four sacks, one interception, one fumble recovery and eight forced fumbles. Yet, he's not the only strong linebacker on the team as Dane Flammond and Dionne, who will start as a freshman, will have the chance to make an impact. In the secondary, the Ponies will have two key returning starters in Aageson at cornerback and Korb at safety. The other starting corner will be LaBrie, while Ophus and Thomas will be the top subs. At safety, Warp will be the starter opposite Korb, while both Schroeder and Kelden Sullivan will serve as backups.

As good as the Ponies hope to be along the offensive line, the defensive line looks just as promising. Schaub and Gabrielsen will man the defensive end spots, which they both did last season, while Sienkowski and Smith look to be the top guys inside. Others that will see snaps on the defensive front are Rennick and Austin Ratliff inside, as well as Taylor Gopher and Thor Abbasi on the edge.

"The only thing I worry about on the lines is that you see a lot of the same names on both sides," Gatch said. "So we will have some other kids rotating in there and playing to try and keep our legs fresh, but we feel good about our line on both offense and defense."

While Havre has to replace some key personnel, another thing that will make wins tough to come by is a schedule that once again includes a number of challenging non-conference foes. The season will kick off with a road game against Whitefish, the defending Class A state champions and it will continue with three straight games against Eastern A squads. Havre will travel to Hardin Sept. 2, then return home to face Miles City Sept. 9, before hitting the road again to play Sidney Sept. 16.

"I think that our schedule is awesome," Gatch said. "I think it's a tremendous opportunity to go out and play four really good teams early, in Whitefish, Hardin, Miles City and Sidney. And not only that, we get to visit each part of the state and get to go play football. So we are excited about it. You don't want to play the bad teams, you want to play the good teams and that's what we have the chance to do."

After playing three of their first four games on the road, the Ponies will finish with three of their last five at home, starting with Browning, the first Central A opponent, Sept. 23. HHS will travel to Livingston (Sept. 30) before hosting Belgrade (Oct. 7) and paying a visit to Lewistown (Oct. 14) in consecutive games that could decide the Central A. HHS will then finish the year at Blue Pony Stadium against Polson, in a game that could potentially have an impact on the playoffs, which are scheduled to start Oct. 29.

"We have two parts of our schedule, a conference schedule and a power-points part of our schedule and they are both important," Gatch said. "We want to be productive in the conference and we want to be productive when it comes to getting points for the power poll. Our kids understand that and they are excited about the chance to go out and play and show that we are a team that should be in that discussion when the playoffs come around."

Havre will open its 2016 season this Saturday in Whitefish in the annual battle for the BNSF traveling trophy. Kickoff between the Ponies and Bulldogs will be at 2 p.m.