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Seasoned Spartans ready for state spotlight

GRUNDY CENTER – The 2016 Grundy Center football team has been years in the making, and will finally get its shot to prove its worth come Aug. 26. Head coach Brent Thoren will lead the way as the Spartans return speed, size and most importantly, experience as they take on Class A action this fall.

It’s been a process, waiting patiently as players like returning tailback Bryce Flater, senior Braidan Buhrow and quarterbacks Jake Bangasser and Drew Rathe develop. But coming off a 6-5 season last year, there’s not a group more ready to take on the challenge than the Spartans.

“We’re really excited about the kids we have coming back,” Thoren said. “We’ve put a lot of time in, watching the kids develop, and we’re a different team than what we’ve been in the past. We’re not as young anymore. We’re going to be playing a lot of upperclassmen finally.”

Flater comes back as the Spartans’ leading rusher. The senior carried the ball 237 times last year, accumulating 2,103 yards and 24 touchdowns. He led his team in total yards as well, with 2,179 and in scoring with 152 total points.

On defense, Flater recorded 63.5 total tackles and six for a loss, with one of the two sacks on the season. This year, Flater comes back bigger, stronger and faster, ready to prove to everyone the Spartans will be a leading force in Class A.

“With Bryce, and a lot of our other kids they’re level of maturity really started to kick in,” Thoren said. “You start to see a lot of kids physically come into their own. Bryce is a very gifted young man, but we have a lot of guys like that, and those kids are starting to see what it takes.”

Developing as “a young man” was a theme Thoren stressed when talking about some of the key playmakers for the 2016 Spartans. Flater echoed his coach, while shifting his credit of a fanatic rushing year to his teammates.

“Having my linemen in the weight room with me, helps motivate me,” Flater said. “They’re the ones all the glory should go to them. I can’t do it without them. And them pushing me helps; I push them. We’re excited to see what the year brings.”

Thoren said the offensive line “loves to block for him.” Having that kind of relationship between an offensive line and a running back is pivotal when setting high expectations at the beginning of the season.

Grundy Center returns Jordan Hook, Cade Rohler, Josh Kuiper and Nolan Freeman, who were all starters last year, while continuing to add Aaron Havens, who was a partial starter on the offensive line in 2015.

The entire offensive line will be a wall of juniors who are buying into their roles, some Thoren said is a difference maker when it comes to putting together an intelligent team.

“Physically now, they’ll be a nice group of kids,” Thoren said. “The other thing people don’t understand is how smart they are. All of them are incredibly gifted in the classroom as well. That makes our job really easy up front. They’ve played together, there’s a lot of chemistry there. They’re a unit now.”

The offensive line will have to be stout in order to help Flater continue on a career-making role at the tailback position. Flater has no worries because of the relationship he has with his lineman, that he’ll be able to do just that.

“Since middle school, we’ve always been pretty tight,” Flater said. “I had one of those lineman be my fullback in middle school. So we’re all like brothers. I got their back and they’ve got my back. We’re ready.”

Thoren said despite a “daunting” schedule ahead of his team, the Spartans will start in a NASCAR-like fashion, with maybe their biggest game of the year Week 1: Defending Class A state champion Gladbrook-Reinbeck.

“It’s going to be a great measuring stick for us, but we’re excited for the challenge,” Thoren said. “You’ve got teams, that in the past, have bounced around from 1A to A and some are coming down from 1A to A. It’s going to be a challenging district. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

With a new playoff format where just the top two teams from each district advance to the postseason, rather than four like in years past, Thoren said the Spartans are controlling their own destiny.

But he’s confident in the team that will take the field Friday, that it’ll be able to accomplish what previous years have built it up to do.

“It’s a group of people working together, and pulling the same direction,” Thoren said. “A lot of these guys have been through the fire, and have survived it. And that’s what they’re most excited about. They’ve had to deal with a lot of stuff in the past, and now they’re ready, physically and mentally, to handle this.”

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