ROCHELLE — Boone Nantz has been waiting 10 months for the start of the 2017 Rochelle Junior Tackle season, and the seventh grade head coach is anxiously awaiting the team’s first game against Morrison on Saturday, Aug. 12 at Helms Park.

The seventh-graders will kick off their season at 10 a.m. before the eighth-graders take the field at 11:30 a.m. Nantz is welcoming some new assistants to his coaching staff this season, and he’s also receiving a deep and talented roster that pieced together a 6-2 record in 2016 as sixth-graders.

“I have a pretty good team,” Nantz said. “We’re strong in the line area and in the running back area. We have good quarterbacks and we have players who can tackle and run. It’s one of the first years that I’ve felt like I have all the pieces.”

The seventh-graders opened up the 2016 season with a 40-0 thrashing of Morrison at the sixth grade level, and the team is aiming to replicate their success against Morrison this year. While Nantz praised his team’s talent, the head coach said that teamwork will be a key factor in determining how the seventh-graders perform in 2017.

“Anybody can run and tackle, but the big thing we work on at the seventh grade level is teamwork,” Nantz said. “We go over all the basics like any other football team does, but the thing we emphasize is teamwork.”

Nantz admitted the changes to both his coaching staff and his roster have him nervous for the start of the season. But the head coach said he’s looking forward to seeing his players come together, something he said is one of his favorite part of working with Rochelle Junior Tackle.

“It’s nerve-racking and exciting at the same time,” Nantz said. “Watching young kids grow up and seeing the kids who were in flag football playing seventh and eighth grade football… It brings the kids together.”