By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Salina Liberty, still hungry for the first championship in team history, will look to reload and run it back in 2022, following back-to-back heartbreaks on the final plays of the last two title matches.
“We had to do a lot of soul searching after coming that close again but not playing our A-game in another championship game,” Liberty head coach Heron O’Neal said. “You’ve got to give credit to the Champs in Omaha and Duke City but looking back at those games has been my fuel to recruit and coach better.”
This year’s Liberty squad will be absolutely loaded, and while the makeup of the team will look a little different, the determination to finish strong will remain the same.
“This year isn’t about unfinished business, it’s just about finishing,” O’Neal said. “We haven’t done that in the last two national championship games. It’s definitely a different mindset going into this year.”
Heron O’Neal, inducted into the IFL hall of fame last season, will return for his fourth year at the helm of the Liberty and will be joined by two new faces in Carlos Cavanaugh and Dylan Mendicina.
Cavanaugh, the former head coach of the Wichita Force, will add both coaching and playing experience to the staff while Mendicina slots into an analysis role and works with the lines.
As far as the makeup of the roster on the field, the Liberty will be menacing on both sides of the ball once again, returning nine experienced veterans to lead a swarm of incoming talent.
“It’s definitely an edge to have guys that know what I’m looking for back for another year,” he said. “You have to have some veterans that your rookies and new vets can follow.”
Reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Tyrie Adams will return after a stellar 2021 campaign, and will take snaps from veteran 300-pound center Kelvin McCoy.
The Liberty backfield will be problematic for opponents this year who will be tasked with stopping reigning CIF MVP Tracy Brooks, as well as newcomer Tre Griffin, who has garnered comparisons in style to Alvin Kamara from Coach O already.
Those backs will work behind a line that in addition to McCoy, will be anchored on either side by newcomers Steven Fluker (6-6, 350) and Casey Pierce (6-4, 340).
“This will be the third biggest offensive line that I’ve had in all my years of coaching,” O’Neal said.
While the battle for spots in the slot still rages on in practice, the one guaranteed staple will be “Fast Ed Smith,” who returns for another year with the Liberty after putting up Offensive Player of the Year numbers in 2021.
After taking a huge leap offensively from 2020 to 2021, Salina is optimistic that the team can continue to build on that success again this year.
“We were number one in the league averaging over 50 points per game and we definitely want to continue scoring even more this year,” he said. “We’re going to continue to hang our hats on defense but we want to continue what we started offensively last season.”
On that defensive end, the Liberty will return four veteran showstoppers from a season ago to go along with several promising first-year stars in the making.
In the trenches, Travis Taylor and Shaq Bradford return to terrorize opposing O-lines off the edge while newcomer Zack Reynoso (nicknamed “oso” or "bear" in Spanish), will look to bulldoze his way up the middle.
In the linebacking core, Salina fans can expect a show from Tron Folsom, whose speed will come as a major asset to the Liberty in the open field.
Finally in the secondary opponents will have a tough time moving the ball against Salina through the air once more with K-Hop and The Predator (Kendrick Harper and Dontra Matthews) returning to slot in alongside newcomers like Coray Williams.
Rounding out this year’s Salina Squad will be kicker Jimmy Allen, who proved himself as the best in the league a season ago en route to Special Teams Player of the Year honors.
As the Champions Indoor Football league prepares for a new season, the Liberty find themselves as one of the older and more established teams in the CIF.
Salina will compete with old faces like the Omaha Beef, Sioux City Bandits, and Wyoming Mustangs as well as several newcomers this year in the Southwest Kansas Storm, Topeka Tropics, Billings Outlaws, and Rapid City Marshalls.
“I’m very excited to have eight teams in the league this year,” O’Neal said. “It shows growth and it shows that people believe in the product of the CIF. I hope that number continues to grow.”
With week one already in the books, the Liberty will begin their season in Topeka on Saturday, March 19th when they get their first look at the Tropics.
“These guys are very excited to get back out on the field, especially with the physical training camp that we’ve had,” he said. “Last year there were games where we had more fans on the road than the home team had and we feed off of that. We’re hopeful that we can continue to see even more support as we try to bring that championship to the city of Salina because they definitely deserve it.”
For continuing coverage of Liberty football all throughout 2022, stay tuned to the Salina Post.
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