HANOVER, KS — The Hanover Wildcats are back on the prowl for championships.

The northeast Kansas school won the 8-Man D2 title three straight years from 2016-18.  Rival Axtell ended the Wildcats’ state record 43-game winning streak in the regular season last year, then stomped out their trophy hopes in the playoffs.

Hanover Head Coach Matt Heuer says this year’s bunch is experienced and motivated.

“Having a lot of those kids back and that experience factor being strong again like we’ve had in the past, I feel like this group has regained some of that hunger and put the work in to have another successful season,” Heuer said.

Jacob, Colin and Emmitt Jueneman are a trio of cousins expected to be big contributors.  Jacob threw for over 1500 yards as a junior and Colin and Emmitt combined for more than 2/3 of the team’s receiving yards.

Heuer says you could see the Wildcats throw the ball more this season.

“We always try to be extremely balanced on the offensive side of the ball," Heuer said. "I feel like we did a good job during this offseason strengthening our passing game a bit and continuing to work on our running game.”

Heuer says that even with the pandemic altering the offseason, there was a renewed focus on strength training. He says that effort was driven by the players’ pride in playing for Hanover.

“There’s a lot of pride instilled in these boys by the time they get to the high school level about what it means to put on a Hanover uniform," Heuer said. "I think that’s probably our number one building block that we’ve built ourselves around for the last 15 years.”

Does that school pride mean that the Axtell redemption game is circled on everyone’s calendar? Heuer says the September 25th matchup is just another Friday in the fall.

“I believe it’s one of those games you definitely look forward to and it’s kind of a measuring stick as far as where you are as the season goes, but in the grand scheme of things I feel like that’s going to be a real testament to where we are as a football team,” Heuer said.

Diplomatic answers aside, the Wildcats at the Eagles is likely to be full of energy. We’ll have that game live on Ol’ Red 99-5.

Hanover starts its season tonight at Pike Valley.