By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
On the heels of back-to-back 2-7 seasons, the Solomon football team will look to get back on track in 2024 with a new leader at the helm.
After spending the last four years as an assistant under Mike Kilgore and Andrew Capsey, Devin Rizzo has been promoted to head coach of the Gorillas, and has already gotten to work rebuilding the football culture.
“We’ve had a big emphasis on change this offseason,” Rizzo said. “It’s been a tough couple of years for us but we know that we have to make changes if we want to see a different result on the field. We’re doing things in a different way and we’ve run more this offseason than we ever have before to prepare our guys for Friday nights.”
Rizzo inherits a team that is light on seniors, but heavy on experience, with a boisterous junior class that saw a good amount of playing time as sophomores last year.
“We lost some key pieces and an incredible senior class that played a big role for us but we’re excited about the group that we have,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the amount of experience we’ll gain this year, we only have two seniors and we’ll be bringing back 19 guys next season.”
This year’s Gorillas will be built around six team captains, including Andrew Gray and Mathias Baxa in the trenches, Seth Pekarek and Matt Hamm-Jones at linebacker, Carlos Duran at WR/DB, and Breken Coup, who takes the reins from his brother Spencer at quarterback.
“Breken is extremely smart and he understands the game of football better than anyone I’ve coached,” Rizzo said. “He sees the game differently from the time he spends watching it and in today’s day and age there aren’t a lot of kids like that.”
While several newcomers will be tasked with overhauling a new-look offense, much of the other side of the ball remains intact from last years core, and should be a unit the Gorillas can hang their hat on week to week.
“I’m more excited about our defense than I have been before,” Rizzo, who served as defensive coordinator prior to this year added. “We bring back a ton of juniors that have a lot of experience and I’m excited to see that group play fast, physical, assignment sound football.”
Youth across the board and inexperience in certain spots remain the biggest preseason mystery for Solomon, but if the Gorillas can find their footing and solidify their lineup, fortunes for the red and black unit could change quickly come kickoff this Friday.
“We have a lot of guys that haven’t played a ton of varsity snaps so getting those jitters out of the way and seeing where we’re at is going to be huge for us,” he said. “Our biggest question mark is who’s going to take on that challenge and run with it.”
Despite facing a stacked back half of their schedule, the Gorillas are taking things one game, and one snap at a time, as they look to rebuild their program the right way.
“We put a big emphasis on the here and now,” Rizzo said. “Our focus right now is on a really good football team and a big rival in Rural Vista. We have to stay focused week in and week out and we have to stay focused on playing Solomon football.”
The Gorillas will travel to White City for their week one matchup with Rural Vista, with kickoff set for 7pm this Friday night.
2024 Solomon Football Schedule
9/6: at Rural Vista
9/13: vs. Wakefield
9/20: vs. Frankfort
9/27: vs. Central Plains
10/4: at Ell-Saline
10/11: vs. Goessel
10/18: at Canton-Galva
10/25: vs. Little River