FOOTBALL: Libby Loggers look to improve after 2015 season woes

After a heartbreaking 2015 season that ended without a single win, the Libby Logger football team has nowhere to go but up this fall.

The Logger squad, about 43 strong, started practice on Friday. Libby Head Coach Neil Fuller said the team is still young and small, but brings more experience after last year’s roster was light with upper classmen. Fuller and the coaching staff have been impressed with the noise and intensity brought by the players in the first few days on the field.

“It’s been fantastic,” Fuller said. “We’re talking as a coaching staff and this is the best start we’ve had in several years. The attitudes have been great and they’re doing a good job of helping each other out. There’s a real good sense of team and we’re excited.”

Fuller said while size may be the team’s weakest attribute, experience built with a similar team last year, plus the work done during the offseason, should bridge that gap against the competition.

“They’re bigger, faster and stronger, so they’re going to enjoy the game a lot more. What excited me more than anything is the attitude from the kids,” Fuller said after Monday’s practice.

Fuller said he plans to field a run-heavy team this fall, taking on opponents with some option offense. In the passing game, the Loggers will look for short, high-percentage passes rather than deep-field bombs.

Defensively, Fuller said this year’s team contains some depth at linebacker and in the secondary positions. He’s hoping a deep roster will be able to feed that run-happy offense with fresh players in the backfield.

“Defensively, we have a chance to be really salty,” he said. “We’re not big, but we’ve got athletes.”

The Loggers will be led by five seniors this year, including veterans Logan Nelson, Dylan Parrish and Braydan Thom. That group also includes Nate Gallaway and Damian Kelch-Visness, two players who are yet to play their first minutes on the gridiron. Fuller said Gallaway and Kelch-Visness are both the right type of athlete to contribute to the line of scrimmage.

The Libby lineup also includes a handful of juniors and sophomores who started last year. Another addition to the offense will be Frenchtown transfer Clancy Gout, a fullback and middle linebacker who Fuller expects will be able to staff the backfield on both sides of the ball.

Also on the front lines will be two freshmen, Tanner Marshall and Cyrus Sweedman. Fuller said Marshall and Sweedman will provide more depth to the batch of lineman that will make the holes for that option offense.

There are also a few new additions to the 2016 coaching staff, including assistant coaches Jeff Gruber and Justin Graham. Gruber and Fuller coached together when Fuller began his tenure 13 years ago, while Graham, a 2009 Libby graduate and former player for University of Montana Western in Dillon, brings the energy and demeanor to the table for a younger team looking to make some noise this season.

The Loggers will have their hands full early, starting their schedule off at home against Missoula Loyola-Sacred Heart, which lost out in last year’s semifinal game, on Aug. 26. The next week, Libby will face the defending champions in Fairfield.

“When you go against team’s like that, it’s a great measuring stick to see where you’re at,” Fuller said. “For us to be competitive, we’re going to have to be really efficient with the football.”

Fuller said the team got a taste of success at a June football camp at the University of Idaho.

“They had a great camp from a competitive standpoint. That’s when they get excited because they saw they can go against some bigger kids and compete,” he said.

While last year’s team featured a young team loaded with freshman and sophomore starters, Fuller said that building year will make for a more confident team to field this fall.

“Anytime you get that experience is good,” he said. “Unfortunately, last year to be able to field a team we had to play them. Some of those guys were ready, some weren’t but they got in there and played hard.”

Fuller said the team was physically outmatched almost every game. He said it was the first year since he began coaching in 2003 that he was worried about kids’ safety on the field.

“This year’ we’re going to be young in some spots but we’ll match up physically a lot better and the kids will have a chance to compete,” Fuller said. “We want our kids to stay together as a team. We’re going to experience some growing pains, but the key for them is to stay together and be positive. If they can do that, they can develop into a good football team.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.