As the season is under a month away, the Cardinals will look to continue their reign of success with a little different outlook of a roster.

Big Rapids has fought through the largely populated CSAA tables and reached the conference tournament championship game every year since 2020. With a second-place finish last season, the team is eager to get back to that spot again this season.

While the team has had a deep core of three- and four-year players for many years, this year’s team will be dependent on the young players.

“We graduated a lot of guys and a lot of minutes last year,” Head coach Justin Fox said. “The main focus for the guys was to really figure out who they were as players on the team and come up with a team identity. I think we did that having those newer guys build (into) a bigger role.”

According to Coach Fox, the team will be especially seeking a step-up from their young defensive players, as they will be looking to fill three of four defensive starters and a new goalkeeper from the 2022 squad.

“Defensively, we're going to be growing,” Fox said. “I know it's not going to be perfect at the beginning (but) I'm looking forward to working with the guys and having them ‘gel’. On defense, communication, competence and decision making is key. We're really gonna be growing our communication in order to keep up with the teams that we'll be playing against this year.”

Last year, the Cardinals finished tied for first in regular season CSAA play with tournament champion Kent City and upset-minded Grant. Looking ahead to the fall season, Fox says he expects those two teams as well an improved Newaygo lineup to be in contention for the title with other teams trying to play spoiler throughout the season.

Along with a loaded conference schedule, Big Rapids will once again have a seemingly harder non-conference schedule against many playoff teams from a year ago.

“As far as non-conference (schedule), we start off strong with Whitehall. Then the Alma tournament, which is always tough because you play three games in a day. Our home opener is Elk Rapids, who is a northern Michigan powerhouse. It will be good for us to get started with some strong competition and force us to play well early on.”

The Cardinals will also host a pair of high-tier Division 4 opponents in Grand Rapids Northpointe Christian on Sept. 11 and Midland Calvary Baptist on Sept. 25. Northpointe has been a strong program in the OK Silver in recent years and Baptist reached the Regional semi-finals before falling to eventual state quarterfinalist Leland.

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