After finishing 7-3 and being the St. Louis County North Conference champions last season, Littlefork-Big Falls’ football team will be without several players in 2011 who were part of those accomplishments.
Gone to graduation are all-conference selections Tyler Lehman, Aaron McGuire, Reed Pritchard, Pat Boorman and Cody Pfeifer.
The Vikings will also be without senior Garrett Larson, whom head coach Derek Bilben said did not go out for football this year. Larson, who was a quarterback on L-BF’s roster, missed the 2010 season with a broken leg.
However, Bilben, who enters his seventh year as head coach, noted four top players are returning. They include: senior Jeff Fry, an all-conference lineman; senior Mitch Nelson, a fullback who rushed for more than 600 yards last year; junior Richie Van Drunen, a halfback who rushed for more than 500 yards in 2010; and senior Tyler Vork, an all-conference tight end.
Though the Vikings overall are young and inexperienced entering the 2011 season, which begins 3 p.m. Thursday at Bigfork, Bilben said the team’s strength is its speed.
He said he is the most concerned about a lack of depth and the effect injuries could have on this year.
Bilben said he is looking forward this season to “watching young men grow and develop as leaders and great people.”
He said the teams to look out for this season include Bigfork, North Woods (Cook/Orr) and Mountain Iron-Buhl.
