Pigskin Preview: Saint Pat’s

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) -The Saint Pat’s Irish are coming off of an impressive first season at the 8-man level going undefeated in the regular season and making the semifinals of the Class D-1 Playoffs, now they are ready to push further in 2023.

“I feel like we can just really build off of last season,” said senior running back and middle linebacker Jackson Roberts, “and getting used to 8 man, I feel like we have a stepping block from last year to this year, so that will be nice.”

Senior James Heirigs says that he feels like the team adapted well to the 8-man game last season.

“It wasn’t that big of a change,” Heirigs said, “and now since we have already been at it for a year, I think we will be more prepared.”

The Irish will stay in the West Central area of Nebraska for the majority of their season, only one trip, to Kimball, will take them more than 100 miles away from North Platte. Roberts says that even though they don’t play many teams from the Eastern half of the state, their schedule prepares them well to take on anyone.

“Us being from the west there still are quite a few good teams from here,” said Roberts, “especially from just this area, there are still some good team in our regular season.”

The Irish will kick off their season at home on August 18th when they host Bridgeport, but despite the week zero start, the team is ready to go after a good summer of work in the weight room.

“We have this kind of sense of urgency during practice because we start early, but I know we will be ready,” said Heirigs.

“The weight room was a big part this year, a big part of being successful in football is going to the weight room, and our guys have done a really good job of that this summer,” said Roberts.

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