The Munising Mustangs will have a new head coach this season, but he should look familiar to players as Matt Mattson is a longtime coach in a number of sports at the school. His assistant coaches will be Eric Elore, Rick Bowerman, Matt Peramaki and Dan Graves. Team members are, front row from left, Selby Beauchaine, Bryce Bowerman, Austin Killips, Chad Trepczyk, Josh Huotari, Ethan Lakosky, Joe Holcomb, Carter Gould and Cole Gould. Top row from left, Mason Smith, Jason Linsenman, Andrew Priebe, Isaac Cooper, Dylan Moore, Steven Richardson, Caiden Kienitz, Gabe Cole, Josh Price and Devin Moore. (Photo courtesy Matt Mattson)

2019 Munising Mustangs schedule

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(* West PAC Iron Division game)

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Fri., Aug. 30 — * WEST IRON COUNTY, 7 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 6 — * NORWAY, 7 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 14 — * at Bark River-Harris, 1 p.m. ET

Fri., Sept. 20 — L’ANSE, 7 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 27 — at Hancock, 7 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 4 — * at Manistique, 7 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 11 — * LAKE LINDEN-HUBBELL, 7 P.M.

Fri., Oct. 18 — * ISHPEMING, 7 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 25 — * at Gwinn, 7 p.m.

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MUNISING — There’s a new cop in town with the Munising football team.

Figuratively that is. After longtime Mustangs head coach and Michigan State Trooper Jeff Seaberg stepped down after last season, assistant coach Matt Mattson has taken over the reins this fall.

“I’ve been Coach Seaberg’s assistant for about the last decade and I really enjoyed that spot,” said Mattson, who is a guidance counselor in the school district. “I wasn’t looking to move into the head coaching spot, but Coach Seaberg decided to get out of it and spend more time with his grandchildren.

“I did put in for it and it’s been a nice change and exciting. The offseason you forget about some of the budgets and we had some staff hiring and those types of things, so it’s been busy to get ready. Now that practice is here, that’s when the fun part happens.”

Mattson’s first year could prove to be a little difficult as the Mustangs don’t have many players on the roster and must replace several starters. The only player locked down into his position is quarterback Josh Huotari.

“I wish we had a couple more numbers on both of levels,” Mattson said about the varsity and JV teams. “Both our teams are between 16 or 18 kids and it’d be a lot better if we had 20 or more on both the varsity and JV.

“We’ve got a pretty good group of kids. The kids are working hard. We don’t have a lot of returning starters back from last year, but over the first four days, the kids’ attitudes and efforts have been great.

“Josh started every game for us last year. We also have Gabe Cole, who will be starting some on the line. That’s about it, though. We’re replacing nine starters on both sides of the ball.

“We’ve got lots of juniors, but Josh is our returning starting quarterback. That’s a position that I feel really good about, but there are question marks about a lot of the other ones.”

To help Huotari in the backfield, Chad Trepczyk looks like the starting tailback and Jason Linsenman the fullback. Mattson also said there are some other options, but they are the frontrunners. He added that Isaac Cooper and Austin Killips will help give Huotari some reliable athletic weapons at the wide receiver spot.

On the offensive line, the Mustangs also have a lot of spots to fill, but Mattson said he’s got some guys in mind to fill those holes.

“We have a lot of replacements and we have some juniors that are going to be stepping in,” he said. “They’ve been playing a lot of football. Ethan Lakosky at the tight end is a pretty big kid and he has good hands. We also have Josh Price at center and Gabe as a returning starter and we’ll have a couple of other kids that we’ll have to figure out who’s where and what we can do.”

With a lack of players, almost all of the Mustangs will play both offense and defense, which could be worrisome if injures pile up.

“That’s one of the problems with low numbers is that they have to turn around and play on both sides of the ball,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure you’re in shape and hopefully stay away from the injury bug. That’s a huge concern when you have guys playing on every play of the game.”

Mattson said much of the offensive line will switch to the defensive line, with Cole Gould anchoring it. Huotari and Andrew Priebe will then be in the defensive backfield, but a lot of the other spots are up for grabs.

“We’ll have some kids that will hopefully develop and play well for us,” he said. “We just don’t have a ton of varsity playing experience there, but I’m feeling good about the kids that we do have. It’s just a lack of experience.”

Speaking of experience, the schedule looks like it could be a tough for the Mustangs, especially out of the gate and Mattson said it reminds him from when Munising played in the Mid-Peninsula Conference.

“We’ve got an awfully tough conference (the West PAC) that we play in,” he said. “We open up with West Iron (County) and Norway to start the year. It’s definitely not an easy schedule. I think Hancock is on our schedule and I think their student population is 587 or something (with its cooperative program). They’re bigger than Kingsford, so I think we’re the second smallest school still playing 11-man (in the Upper Peninsula). So it’ll be an uphill battle.

“Every game will be tough. It’s going to be a little bit of a new year with a lot of kids playing their first year of varsity football. Obviously, that’s a big change from JV to varsity level. Both our first two games are at home, so hopefully, that will make us more comfortable with the lack of playing experience.”

The Mustangs may lack in numbers and experience, but Mattson is still excited to take over the program and start a new era.

“I really enjoyed by time with Coach Seaberg,” he said. “We’ll look a lot of the same way we have for the last decade. We’ll throw in some new wrinkles and Coach Seaberg was actually my freshman coach. It’s going to be an I-form formation on offense and a 4-D front on defense. And then we’ll throw in some new wrinkles.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.