Young Four Winds football team learning through experience

There’s one thing that Four Winds football coaches Mark Bishop and Travis Mertens keep reminding themselves: This team is inexperienced.

On paper, the Indians were hurt by the seniors they lost. Wide receiver Deng Deng, now competing for a spot on the University of North Dakota football team, was chief among them. Not to mention his cousin, fellow wide receiver Dalen Leftbear.

Four Winds now has to rely more on underclassmen and kids who haven’t played as much football. But the inexperience isn’t something that scares Bishop or Mertens; it’s something they’ve leaned into and embraced, rather than letting it wear them down.

“You don’t quite have that experienced team yet,” Mertens said after the season opener, a 48-14 home loss to North Border. “You’re still looking for guys to kind of make plays, and see what they’ve got out there, because of our team being so young and inexperienced, and the guys we lost last year.”

Still, Mertens was adamant in his confidence that the kids would still show up every day, ready to work hard. He had faith that things would start to click.

Fast forward six days. The Indians won a Thursday night football match on North Star’s home grass, trouncing the Bearcats 36-8. Already, less than a week after their season started with 34-point loss, they had evened up their record.

“It’s a lot easier to coach hard when you win,” Bishop said. “Guys can see that things are going the right way, and they can see that their work is coming to fruition. It’s hard to keep wanting to show up every day and work hard, and then lose. And then work hard, and then lose. So it’s definitely great to win. Then those boys come back hungrier on Monday.”

They came back even stronger in their third game of the season, back at home against St. John. The coaches felt it was their most complete performance of the season, a 30-0 pounding of the Woodchucks.

It’s all a continuous process of making adjustments and learning from experience. With a youthful group, there’s no way to magically flip a switch and become great overnight. But sulking after a loss won’t help, nor will being afraid to even play in the first place.

The Indians played. They lost their first attempt. They made corrections, and they found a way to win on their second try and get even better in third try.

Not everything in the first victory of the season went perfectly. They still committed too many false starts, and they gave the ball away too easily a few times. But it just gave them another chance to grow.

“We’re gonna get on you,” Mertens said of his message to the team. “We expect a lot out of you as young, inexperienced players. But it’s because we know what you guys are capable of.”

One of the biggest X factors on this team is the younger brother of freshly departed superstar Deng Deng: junior Marial Deng. Like his older brother, Marial is a tall, athletic wide receiver. Marial is lankier, though, and hasn’t yet reached Deng’s reliability.

But Mertens believes it’s in there.

“I’ve seen him since he’s been a seventh and eighth-grader, how well he catches the ball,” Mertens said. “It’ll come. He’s another that just needs more games, more reps.”

Deng, though now an upperclassman, is only in his second healthy season of high school football. He sat out last year with an ACL injury. And even when he did play as a freshman, he didn’t get a ton of playing time.

So in a sense, Deng is just as fresh as many of the freshmen and sophomores on the team. But his athleticism has shown itself a multitude of times throughout the early season thus far, with long catches on offense and sacks and interceptions on defense. Like everybody else on this team, he’s still figuring things out. But it’s already coming.

“You can see what he’s capable of,” Mertens said. “And the minute he just goes, ‘I’m the best athlete on the field,’ is when it’s really going to take off for him.”

Another key player trying to settle in after an injury is quarterback Kashton “Junjun” Keja Jr. Keja is a senior, and had a strong season for the Indians as a sophomore. But he had a knee injury last year, and he never got to where he was the season prior.

Now he’s healthy. And in his final season of Four Winds football, he’s looking to guide this team on the field.

“We know we’re gonna have to rely on him because of who we lost last year,” Mertens said. “He’s a good leader, smart player. He’s a gamer, I like to call him, because once those lights come on, it seems like that’s when he plays his best.”

Right from the beginning, the Indians have been utilizing Keja’s strength: running the ball. It’s what he does best, and what has carried this team to the success it’s had. Late in their first win, they also started handing the ball to running back Wakinyanho Greybear, and Bishop noted they might have to run that play more often. But when all else fails, Keja can run the ball well, and though slightly unconventional, it’s worked well for this squad.

After that first loss, Bishop said the team was still looking for that next playmaker. They were mostly happy from what they saw from Keja Jr. — and there were a few positive signs from Deng — but the team wasn’t complete or versatile enough to win that first game.

Already, there are reasons for optimism. Deng and Greybear, along with linemen like Tyler Black Jr. and Kyle Charboneau, all took steps forward in the second game. Even more linemen improved in the third game. If the Indians can find consistency with plays involving Deng and Greybear — not to replace Keja’s running game, but simply to complement it — they’ll be better equipped to win games in the future.

“With this young team, we’re gonna be way better at the end of the year than we are right now,” Bishop said. “And that’s what we’re preaching.”

Four Winds is still yet to begin region play, with that not coming until Sept. 13 against Larimore. The coaches have been stressing that those are the games that will matter the most in the standings. These early non-region games are just a chance for the Indians to figure out who they are as a team and assess their strengths and weaknesses.

“We all have the same goal,” Mertens said. “Playoffs is the goal. And in order for that to happen, we’ve gotta keep continuing to show up, and watch ourselves, and correct the mistakes.”