Carlton-Wrenshall Raptors football back playing on the varsity level after a year hiatus

When you think of prep football, junior varsity and varsity comes to mind. Well, the Carlton/Wrenshall Raptors team only had a junior varsity team in 2022 after not being able to complete a full varsity playing year in 2021.

Related Story: Beyond the Playbook: Raptors football rallies despite fielding only JV team this season

One of three Raptors to have seen a varsity snap was senior center/edge Tyler Mills back in 2021. He is excited and eager to get back to the varsity style of play and see how the team handles this new challenge.

“I’m personally excited about it. Going down to JV was fun and all, but playing varsity is always like a main goal for seniors. I think the team’s just ready and excited to play this season.”

The team will be going up against new opponents, and head coach Brent Pokornowski knows the schedule will be tough and wants his team not do much and play their game.

“We’ve got to keep things simple, not get too complicated, because we don’t have a lot of time. This is an exciting time here in the fall for football. But, again it’s two weeks, then you start playing games in that third week. So, we need to be able to implement the offense without a lot of complications. We have new guys, so we got to be able to plug and play guys in and pick up the offense with ease.”

The Raptors open their varsity season at home on Friday, August 25th hosting Nevis at 7 p.m.