BROOKINGS The Brookings football team will open the 2025 season on Friday night with a matchup at Sturgis.
Brookings is coming off of a season where it went 8-3 and lost in the semifinals of the Class 11AA Playoffs. The Bobcats will have a new head coach this year as Carter Gordon takes over the reins. Gordon played quarterback for the Bobcats for two seasons before graduating in 2015. He is now a high school social studies teacher.
Gordon said the practices leading up to the first game of the season were informative and he was proud of the effort that has shown so far.
We had a really, really good fall camp. I was really happy with those two weeks and the effort that the boys showed, more so with the amount of information they learned in those two weeks. Fall camp was great for us, Gordon said.
Gordon takes over a roster that is experienced. The leader of the offense will be senior quarterback Gavin Anderson. Anderson started games for the Cats last season and Gordon said he has been impressed with the way he has been running the offense in practice.
I think Gavin has a very good understanding of the offense were going to be running this year and he figured it out fairly early. Hes progressed substantially throughout the summer and is making checks and calls on the field at this point. Hes running the offense and I couldnt be happier that that took place for us, Gordon said.
Brookings roster is loaded with seniors that have played multiple seasons for the Bobcats. Gordon went through them on each side of the ball and is looking forward to seeing that experience translate into success.
We have 28 seniors and thats a great ratio to have going into a season, Gordon said. Theres a lot of guys returning that have at least one year of experience and some with this being their third year of experience. Bergan Tetzlaff at tight end, linebacker and defensive end. Hes committed to go play at SDSU and has been a workhorse for the program for three years now and is in his second year as a captain. We have Alex Wainman returning at wide receiver for us and have Otto Eidsness and Gus Armenta as two senior running backs. Our offensive line is heavy with seniors in Michael Nelson, Dylan Reynolds, Carson Loehr, Brady Caraway and Tygh Jaeger, who all have experience.
On the other side of the ball we have [Tetzlaff[, Loehr, Zach Hagemann, Blake Kannegieter, who will be playing his third year at defensive end, Owen Oppe, Stephen Anawski, Phoenix Sather, Cash Sather, Eidsness. Jay Harris will be our fullback and its year three of him playing that and also bandit linebacker. Hes someone that gets us going on both sides of the ball. Jones Huntimer and Armenta are going to be playing cornerback and Ashton Baker is going to be playing safety.
There are a couple players that arent seniors that will be starting for the Bobcats this year. Gordon mentioned that one of the drawbacks to having so many seniors is that other classes dont get as many opportunities but he knows that those players will be ready should their time come.
Ezra Eidem is a junior who is going to be playing at slot receiver for us and Kingston Schneider is also a junior who is going to be playing in our spread offense as a wideout, Gordon said. Both of those guys, Eidem probably has more experience at the varsity level, but Schneider also got some experience last year. Ben Schulte is another running back for us and hes going to be a sophomore.
On defense, behind our senior-heavy starters, we have juniors that are going to play vital roles as well. Eidem will play cornerback and Schneider will play strong safety. We have some juniors that can sneak in there at linebacker. One of the nice things when you have seniors is you have all of that experience but then juniors dont get to play as much. But we have some guys that could come in and make some plays.
Gordon said much of the run game will look similar to the past couple seasons but the coaching staff did add some wrinkles into the pass game. He also noted that the transition of him becoming head coach has gone very smoothly.
Scheme-wise and run-game wise [its going to be similar to previous seasons]. In the air its going to be different than in the past. We have some more concepts that we threw in and are very easy for our young men to understand but it will be more difficult for the defense. This senior group now, at one point in time, a fair majority of them were in my US history class last year, so Ive gotten to know the boys very well the last two years. The transition has also been smooth because I retained the coaching staff from last year. We really havent skipped a beat, Gordon said.
The Bobcats will play their first two games on the road as they travel to Mitchell on Sept. 6. Their home opener is Sept. 12 and then theyll play at Pierre on Sept. 19. BHS Homecoming will be on Sept. 26 against Sioux Falls Roosevelt. Brookings will then play at Tea Area on Oct. 3 and at Yankton on Oct. 10. The Bobcats will close out the regular season with home games against Douglas on Oct. 17 and Huron on Oct. 23.
Gordon said his team did not have a goal for the end of the season. Right now, he just wants the team to be focused on getting better each day.
Were taking it day by day. Were trying to get better every day, whether thats out on the field in practice or a game. I know the senior group is very dedicated and motivated, but were focused on ourselves right now. Were focused and ready to go and are going to take it one game at a time, Gordon said.
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