Silverbacks taking second season “one game at a time”

Coming off of a winless inaugural season, Wood River-Shelton Silverbacks head football coach Jeff Ashby looks to see his team improve incrementally during the daunting 2021 season. “We intend to take it one game at a time and see improvement each game,” coach Ashby said. “We need to control the ball on offense and limit our turnovers!” He added that expectations this season are, “For our players to play as hard as possible while they are on the field.”

The Silverbacks return a number of letterwinners from last year’s squad, including seniors Cayleb Stewart, Kevan Peters and Tommy Leetch; juniors Caleb Paulk, Quinn Cheney, Sam Stewart and Laramie Fear and sophomores Waylon Cronk and Josh Luehr.

Assisting coach Ashby this season will be Austin Ruskamp, Phil Smith, Ryan Province, Ed Lowe, and Josh Nuss.

“We have four top-ten teams on our schedule,” coach Ashby noted. “Three of our opponents were state semi-finalists last season.” The Silverbacks open their season on the road at Kearney Catholic on Friday, August 27, at 7:00 p.m. and then host the Cozad Haymakers on Friday, September 3, on the Wood River field, at 7:00 p.m.