It's the day before the start of football season for Berry football, but head coach Tony Kunczewski isn't wound tightly like you might expect. Instead, it's a much more relaxed mood as Berry gets set to face Maryville Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on the road.

"It's a vastly different feeling. This will sound like excuses, but reflecting on 2021, it wasn't up to the standard of Berry Football that we established," Coach Kunczewski said. "It was difficult for the coaches and players to play a short COVID season, then turn around and have a short offseason. Then we had to turn around and replace five of nine coaches in the offseason. Then we had guys that were still injured from the spring and didn't have a chance to recover because of the short offseason. That being said, a lot of other teams went through those same things and maybe we didn't handle them as well as they did."

A full offseason has meant things have been able to get back to normal for Berry, and yet, there are changes to that normal. A full offseason gave the Vikings a chance to recover, but it's also given the coaching staff time to go out and recruit a full recruiting class.

"This has been our first full offseason since 2019. This is the most freshmen we've had since we had 99 kids our first season," Coach Kunczewski added. "As we move into this post-COVID era, it's an ever changing landscape of who's in and who's out. We're like a lot of schools and we've had to pad our roster to try to account for the fact that we don't know if someone might be out. The last two years, we've been really thin at some key positions. That not only effects our play out on the field but effects how we're able to operate from a practice standpoint. So, we're going to carry a higher roster because we're not going to be in a position where we get too thin and we end up in a 6-4 season."

In self-reflection after last year's campaign, Coach Kunczewski found occasions where he let the desire to get a win override the sense of culture that Berry has attempted to build over his tenure in Mount Berry. "We talk about it all the time with our guys, but to be elite, it takes more than just talent. It takes toughness and a certain type of character and culture amongst your team. If I'm being honest with myself, there were times last year where I neglected what made us successful for the sake of trying to get a win. I'm not going to let that happen again."

Two major factors help Coach Kunczewski in building that culture. First, he has three assistant coaches (Jesse Williams, Luke Seale, and Bernard Granville) that are Berry alumni. "It's great for us to have three guys here that understand the standard that we have here and understand the culture that we've built here," Coach Kunczewski said.

Second, he has five fifth-year seniors (Trace Wells, Michael Luckie, TJ Watkins, Connor Cheyunski, and Jake Weitkamp) to help provide leadership. "All five of those guys are going to contribute to us," Coach Kunczewski said. "Michael Luckie is a guy that had a catastrophic knee injury in October of 2019, and now he's been able to recover and is going to be an H-Back for us. Jake Weitkamp is a nominee for the Campbell Trophy. All of those guys are going to have big roles for us this year."

From the first day of practice, Coach Kunczewski noticed that speed on offense could be a big factor this year. "We're certainly going to have a good balance of run and pass offensively, but we certainly have explosive play potential in the run and the pass play. We've got guys that can hit singles, but we've got some guys that can hit home runs for us also."

Defensively, Coach Kunczewski has gone outside of his coaching tree, bringing in Joel Elliott to be the defensive coordinator. "I think we're going to see a more attacking style of defense," Coach Kunczewski stated. "We're going to have multiple fronts and coverage.

Ultimately, the game will be won at the line of scrimmage in Coach Kunczewski's eyes. "Last year, we were extremely young on both sides of the ball at the line of scrimmage. We've got a lot more depth this year on both sides of the ball, and we've got a lot of experience on the offensive line. We're going to be starting three juniors, a sophomore, and a freshman. Four of those guys have played together for a season, and three of those guys have been together for a couple of years," Coach Kunczewski added.

As the team ends what Coach Kunczewski described as the best preseason its ever had, the attention turns to an athletic Maryville squad that is well coached. "You watch Maryville warm up and you'd think they've tilted the field they look so athletic," Coach Kunczewski said. "They've got a head coach in Ben Fox who went into a difficult situation taking over that program right as the COVID season started. If I'm telling you it was a struggle for us, I can only imagine what it was like for him. They're going to be well-coached and it's going to be a really good early season test for us."

Ultimately, the hope is that the work in the preseason will translate into a successful regular season and a return to the lofty standards the team has built heading into its 10th year of existence. "I think the lessons we all learned last year are going to benefit us heading into 2022. Hopefully that'll lead us back to where we've been before," Coach Kunczewski said.