PREVIEW: Orangemen feeling confident in second year under Kezeor

BEATRICE - After a 6-3 season a year ago, confidence is high among the Beatrice Orangemen as they get ready for their second season under head coach Jeff Kezeor.

Kezeor has said he’s seen examples of that in practice this summer. He credits much of that to last years senior group.

“A sign of a good program is good leadership,” Kezeor said. “Because last years seniors  we thought they did a great job buying into the direction we were headed and it’s rubbed off to this group, and this senior group has done a nice job of leading it.”

The Orangemen will have a new man under center in 2022, that being senior Shelton Crawford. He talked about the work in the offseason to prepare for the starting role.

“It all happened in the summer,” Crawford said. “Weight lifting was huge, getting bigger and stronger, coming out here with the guys, working 7-on-7’s, just learning all the pass plays, that’s about it.”

Crawford is known for his success in three-point shooting for Orangemen basketball. He credits a lot of that success to waking up early with his dad to shoot before school. Now, Shelton and his dad are waking up early to practice for his role as quarterback.

“Been getting up early to throw, we’ve got a net, get up every morning, work on drop backs and roll outs, throwing on the run,” Crawford said. “Everything I’ve learned is from him.”

Deegan Nelson will serve as Beatrice’s work horse running back in the famous Maryland-I formation. He also will look to make his presence known on defense as a linebacker. Nelson discussed how the two positions compliment each other.

“They both help each other,” Nelson said. “They’re both super physical, you’re the hard hitters, have to be quick at both of them and they’re positions that are all up the middle.”

Although mostly a ground and pound formation, Nelson talked about what it takes to effectively operate a power run formation.

“Footwork is a big thing, making the right reads,” Nelson said. “Have to find the holes on offense.”

As far as Beatrice’s biggest strength, coach Kezeor says it can be summarized by familiarity with the new system.

“One of the things I think we fee really confident about is being in year two with the new program,” Kezeor said. “The players are comfortable with the terminology, the coaches are comfortable with the terminology, and its allowed guys to dig deeper into the playbook this year.”

With a schedule consisting of Gross Catholic, Waverly, and Skutt right off the bat, Beatrice will have their work cut out for them early on. Kezeor talked about how he’s gotten his team ready for some challenging early season matchups.

“It goes back to that senior leadership. They want to be successful this year and we’re going to push each other to be competitive week in and week out,” Kezeor said. “And with those games where we may be underdogs, we’re not looking at it as if we have no chance, if anything, we’re using that as motivation because we feel like we can compete in those games.”

Beatrice begins their season at home on August 26th when they welcome Gross Catholic. That game and the entire Orangemen football season can be heard on 94.7 FM/1450 AM KWBE.