BENTON FOOTBALL PREVIEW 2023

• School: Benton Community Bobcats
• Nickname: Bobcats
• Colors: Royal Blue and Gold
• Conference: WaMaC
• Class: 3A
• District: District 6
• Co-Head Coach: Kal Goodchild / Jeff Zittergruen
• Assistant Coaches: Garrett Albers, Ryan Junge, Josh Hoeck, Adam Bauder, Ryan Neuberger, Colin Waters
• Last Year’s District Record: 3-2
• Last Year’s Overall Record: 6-3
• Conference/District Champs: 11
• Conference/ District Champ Years: 1980, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2018, 2019, 2021
• Chief Rival: Vinton-Shellsburg
• Number of Returning Letterman: 17
• Number of Returning Starters: Offense-6 Defense-8

Top Teams in District

Williamsburg should be the favored team in the district. I would think the Solon will be a close second. Grinnell will be an improved team and should be able to compete at the upper level. South Tama brings back a large number of returning players. I know very little about Fairfield. Our non-district will be very tough. We open with Vinton and that is our rival and has always been a good game. Marion and CCA are bringing back a number of good athletes and will be very competitive. Mt. Vernon will be one of the top teams in 3A again. They bring back a great QB and a number of receivers that helped them get to the 3A finals. They will compete for a district championship, so that makes them very tough.

Overall Thoughts

We have a challenging schedule. The competition will be very good. We play two 4A schools and two teams that were in the State Championship. Grinnell and Solon were both play-off teams a year ago. In our league alone we have four of the six teams in the play-offs a year ago.

We return All State lineman Brennen Blegen, 1st Team All District, Easton Pfiffner and Carson Bruns. We have had a very good off season! Our athletes have worked very hard in the weight room to help make us competitive! We lost a very talented group but return some very talented athletes.

Returning Starters

Offensively returning starters. OL-Brennen Blegen, Carter Holmes, Braydie Parizek RB- Carson Bruns, WR- Easton Pfiffner and Jace Biery

Defensive returning starters are: DL- Brennen Blegen, Braydie Parizek LB- Easton Pfiffner, Brenden Heying, Wyatt Rinderknecht, Carson Bruns; DB-Owen Tjelmeland, Jace Biery