With a new school year comes a fresh start for the WHS football team. After a rough 1-9 season with first year head Coach Joe Beveridge in 2021-2022, the Rangers are looking to bounce back. And, with 4 new seniors along with the 7 returning, the core leadership of this team is strong. Lobby Observer’s sports editor Rahim Ramzanali interviewed two of these new seniors, Colin Barr and Steven Speckman regarding their return to football and how their experience has been thus far.

In regards to their return to football, Barr and Speckman had similar answers: it was both a matter of friendship and love for the game. Speckman shared, “My friends [Colin and Hunter Bramley] were thinking about playing football, so we all made an agreement that we were gonna play our last year of high school. We played youth football, but we just wanted this one more year of this kind of community.” 

Barr added, “I knew I had only one more opportunity to play football, and I always really wanted to play in high school.”

When asked about the workload for this team in comparison to others, Barr explained, “Football is way different than all the other sports in the sense that you always have to keep your body in the best shape possible. You always have to stay in the best health in order to be ready late in the season.” 

He added, “You have to have much more endurance, and you have to have more stamina because you’re always getting hit. This makes it even harder to be healthy, so day in and day out you just gotta make sure your body is in the best condition.”

Barr also had lots to say about the bonds the team has created thus far in the season. He explained,