Bishop Ryan Lions’ head coach Roger Coleman working with the team during individual drills at practice. Sean Williams/MDN

Coming off a trip to the Class B playoff semifinals, the Bishop Ryan Lions are looking to improve off last year’s success. To do that, however, part of their recipe for success involves ensuring the development of the sophomore class.

When talking about goals for the season, head coach Roger Coleman shared that was one of them. “Developing our young guys to start out the season, we have a good sophomore class. They are going to have to step up into some roles,” Coleman tells The Minot Daily News.

The ultimate goal, however, is for the Lions to win a region championship and make their way back to the postseason. With a bigtime matchup against Langdon on the schedule for week one, Coleman stressed the importance of getting off to a good start.

“We need to start off by being a little quicker than last season. We need to have the best camp in the fall, and we need to be ready to bring it week one,” he said.

Langdon, like Ryan, is coming off a playoff appearance in 2021, making their week one matchup one of the premier week one matchups in the state.

In addition to coming out of the gates more quickly, Coleman mentioned that he expects his Bishop Ryan team to be physical and fast, with the objective of playing up tempo football.

Paired with that, Coleman shared that he would like the team to make it a priority to play cleaner football by eliminating turnovers and cutting down penalties.

While Ryan is hoping to have the sophomore class fill various roles on the team, there are some key returning players that should help the squad in 2022. Among those players are Brett Mckay, the only senior on the team who has played all four years.

Along with Mckay, Coleman mentioned Teagan Coonrod, Coy Okeson, Cade Okeson, Drew Zwak, Jett Lundeen, among many others as those he expects to be key contributors on the team, with some playing on both sides of the ball.

Even though the week one game against Langdon is a big one, it’s not the game that is circled or starred on the calendar the most for head coach Roger Coleman. It’s a rivalry game that he’s looking forward to the most.

“We play Velva the second to last game of the year. That is typically a game that decides the region and I don’t see that changing this year,” Coleman said.

Bishop Ryan is coming off a 10-2 season in 2021, which saw them make a deep playoff run. They lost their first and only regular season game in week one, and Coleman’s squad would like to get the 2022 season started off on a more positive note this year.

The Lions began its regular season play on Aug. 19 as they hosted Langdon at Herb Parker Stadium.

SCHEDULE

Friday, Aug. 19

Langdon 7 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 26

@ Trinity 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 2

Kenmare 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 9

@ South Prairie 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 17

Ray-Powers Lake 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 23

@ Stanley 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 30

Des-Lacs Burlington 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 7

@ Velva 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 14

@ Nedrose 7 p.m.

ROSTER

No. Name Gr. Position

1 Carson Merck 12 WR-CB

2 Colton Feller 10 WR-OLB

3 Bryce Vibeto 10 WR-CB

4 Hayden Seay 9 RB-S

5 Boden Erck 10 WR-S

6 Treyson Christianson 9 WR-CB

7 Teagan Coonrod 10 TE-ILB

8 Gus Egelhard 9 WR-S

9 Jett Lundeen 10 QB-SS

10 Tytan Lundeen 8 WR-OLB

11 Christian Lormejuste 12 WR-CB

16 Connor Rudland 10 TE-S

20 Nolan Braun 8 RB-ILB

21 Jace Schwan 10 WR-S

24 Aidan Elm 9 WR-CB

25 Daakon Helseth 11 RB-OLB

33 Drew Zwak 10 RB-OLB

51 Christopher Willson 11 OL-ILB

52 Jaxson Thom 10 OL-DL

53 Brett McKay 12 OL-ILB

54 Coy Okeson 11 OL-DL

57 Parker Baier 10 OL-ILB

60 Connor Harvey 11 OL-DL

64 Julian Wald 9 OL-DL

70 Conner Brintnell 10 OL-DL

72 Cade Okeson 9 OL-DL

73 Brekken Johannes 11 OL-DL

74 Nashua Birdinground 9 OL-DL

81 Peyton Seay 8 WR-CB