GARWIN – For the GMG football team, it’s all about getting off on the right foot.

Coming off a one-win season in 2015 that saw GMG score in two other contests, all the Wolverines can do is take it one game at a time and go from there as they ready for Class A District 5 play in 2016.

“We’re hoping the offensive line is the strength this year because most of are seniors who are coming back,” said GMG head coach Michael Spurlin. “We’re we’ll be able to handle defenses a little more with our guys.

“We spent a lot of time in the weight room. Most of those kids lifted all winter which is really good for us. There’s a lot of confidence and experience coming back. We’re hoping they will lead us this year.”

The results weren’t pretty a year ago. The Wolverines gave up 445 points during the course of their nine-game schedule, losing those eight contests by an average of 54-3. GMG was second-to-last in offensive scoring in the state across all classes last season. Only Postville scored fewer points.

A total of 10 Wolverines tallied tackles in the double digits last season. Of those 10 defenders, eight of them return this season, including the top-six tacklers in Conner Stonewall (43 tackles), Levi Duden (41), Garrett Groth (31.5), Koleton Hartwell (23.5), Blaze Krull (21.5) and Brock Baldazo (19.5).

“We were really young. We were playing six freshmen on defense last year,” Spurlin said. “People don’t realize that. Of course a lot of points are going to get scored. We’re hoping those freshmen that played a lot last year, who are now sophomores, are going to know a lot more.”

Offensively, the Wolverines return all of its scoring from a year ago. The leadership of Jacob Burt will be a big loss for GMG, something that will need to be replaced under center. That will fall on the shoulders of senior Garrett Groth or Kolton Gill. The two have a combined two career passes between the two of them, both by Gill last year as a freshman.

“We’re still up in the air as to who is going to quarterback,” Spurlin said. “Garrett has really stepped up for us Gill has looked really good at times. He’s still young. I don’t know if I want to put him in the fire yet.

“Leadership. Just maturity. Right now, Garrett is just a little bit ahead.”

All of GMG’s scoring came via the ground game in 2015. Leading rusher Brock Baldazo returns after rushing for 325 yards and five touchdowns during his freshman campaign. Darrin Anderson tallied the other score of the season for the Wolverines as he returns for his senior year.

“We have to have a little bit of confidence and a lot of heart. That’s what the big thing. They have to make sure when something happens they don’t put their heads down,” Spurlin said. “We saw that last year, especially at the end of the year. But we had some good successes, though the scores didn’t show it. We had some good successes team wise with the last three or four games.”

GMG starts the season traveling to BCLUW, a contest the Wolverines fell 13-0 in last year. The Wolverines travel to defending Class A state champion Gladbrook-Reinbeck in week four, the second district game of the year. In week eight, GMG travels to Traer to face North Tama. The Wolverines got the best of the Redhawks in 2015, 22-16 as non-district opponents then.

“Win the first one. Win the first one, then we’ll go from there,” Spurlin said.