Swary begins 2nd year; Cats wrap up camp

NAPOLEON — Napoleon football head coach Tyler Swary entered this offseason with an entire year under his belt and he is using that knowledge to help guide the Wildcats into his second season.

Swary's team wrapped up its three-day offseason camp Friday on the turf at Buckenmeyer Stadium, which has been a key building block for a more organized Napoleon group.

"It was a big-time game-changer, having an entire offseason as a head coach," said Swary during Friday's practice. "And then having the staff with me for the whole offseason. So in terms of planning and laying things out for what we want to get done throughout the summer, it was much easier this year."

Much of Friday was spent going through offensive plays, both at walk-through and game speed. But aside from several quick breaks for water, the Wildcats were getting consistent looks at every level of their potential depth chart while coaches addressed any areas of concern.

"We want to be efficient, especially early on in the summer with this, to get as much stuff in as possible so that way we can work on it throughout the summer," said Swary. "Having that offseason to get all that planned — my biggest worry last year was just making sure I had a staff — and now we're able to meet together throughout the winter and the spring and really lay everything out of what we want to accomplish and how to do it.

"I learned a lot last year, made a lot of mistakes and, as we preach to our kids, learn from those and use them to get better and that's what we're trying to do."

A key for Napoleon this season will be the change at quarterback.

With Blake Wolf now graduated and senior Lucas Gerken, who opened last season as the backup to Wolf, opting not to play football after another surgery on his leg, junior Owen Espinoza is the No. 1 guy under center entering the 2023 season.

While Espinoza began last season as the second-string junior varsity signal-caller, due to injuries to both Wolf and Gerken, Espinoza did earn valuable repetitions, eventually starting several games for the Wildcats.

The assimilation of him into the offense has been great for Swary.

"He ended up playing five games, which was tremendous," said Swary of Espinoza. "So having him, and then Trey Rubinstein, one of our top receivers, they are the same age so he's been throwing to him his whole life. So that's made it really nice and having a kid that's had some experience and understands what we're trying to do is really big."

The collective will be just as key this season for Napoleon, which is coming off its first playoff appearance since 2013, thought the Cats did play one postseason game in 2020 when every team made the playoffs due to a pandemic-shortened season.

Building the entire group has been a primary focus of the Swary during the early-June camp.

"It's been really good. The kids have had a great attitude and have been all in so far. That was a big thing, is making sure that they are buying in to what we're doing," said Swary. "It started last year and so they understand what the goals are and they've done a good job.

"And then another big thing was just to evaluate these guys out on the football field. Obviously the weight room is a big thing for us, but seeing a kid out here on the turf is a little different than watching him do a squat or a deadlift."

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