Dogs roster stacked with veterans

The Bulldogs 2010 one-win season is

ancient history — somewhere between the ice age and medieval

times.

Better yet, that 1-7 overall record

hasn’t detered a healthy crop of upper classmen from suiting up in

the green and gold for another season on the gridiron. If anything,

the returning varsity football players hope that experience only

makes their team stronger.

As many as a dozen seniors will play on

the varsity team — eight more than in 2010 — as well as a good

bunch of juniors and sophomores.

“The distribution is a lot better this

year,” Whitefish football coach Chad Ross said. “Everyone came

back, all the way across the board. Of 22 starters, 19 are

returning.”

As of Monday, the quarterback position

is still up for grabs. Both Connor Donahue and Chris Forrest are

battling it out, but each brings different attributes that could

help Whitefish in certain scenarios.

“I’d love to be 50-50 pass and run,”

Ross said. “With Chris Forrest at QB we can do more option, with

Connor it will be more zone passing. It gives us two different

looks.”

Whoever is starting at quarterback,

they’ll have a strong group of receivers to throw to, including

Gage Vasquez, Logan Harwood, Bryce Wehrli, Connor Ellis and Max

Guerico.

Ross calls the backfield “running back

by committee”.

Whitefish will look to Maxl Smith,

Shane Marcial, Koler Kanistanux and Blake Boucher to share the

duties.

Smith, weighing in at a rock solid 220

pounds, put down an impressive 4.70 40-yard dash in practice. He

mostly played linebacker and on the offensive line last season.

On defense, Wolf Zinke is looking

strong and ready to lead as a junior.

The conference will be even tougher

this season with the addition of Frenchtown as Ronan moves down to

Class B. Frenchtown was 5-5 overall and 4-1 in the Southwest A

league. They won the state title in 2009.

Libby and Columbia Falls tied for the

Northwest league title last season and Polson brings back a strong

core from last year.

“There’s no front runner,” Ross said.

“It’s wide open. Everyone is pretty good.”