The Maroons will see some new opponents this year, and although they only graduated five players from last year’s state semi final team, the shoes will be big ones to fill.

"We only lost five seniors from last year, but they were a very high quality five players," Brown said.

"I am anxious to see if we will have players step up and fill those shoes."

DC will be competing in Region 5 this year, which will include nine teams instead of seven.

The new teams will be somewhat familiar, as most have been regional opponents at some point in the past several years.

Region lineups have changed regularly as the North Dakota High School Activities Association has juggled alignment formulas to deal with declining enrollments and new co-ops.

Williams County, the Tioga-Ray co-op, has dropped out of the Class A 11-man league and joins th 9-man region that includes DC. Rejoining the region this year are Glenburn and Surrey.

"Every game on the schedule counts this year," Brown said, because every game is against a region foe. The top four teams in the region will advance to the playoffs.

The DC schedule actually kicks off before school starts as the Maroons travel to Trenton Tuesday, Aug. 21. DC opens its home schedule just four days later when they host Westhope.

"We will have our first region game after only 10 days of practice, Brown said, so the pre-season tuneup will be important.

Brown expects the hard work his players have been putting in during the off season will be advantageous with the quick start.

"The players and coaches are very excited to get started," he said.

"We have had a good offseason and the players seem to have the right attitude heading into training camp."

The success of Williams County in Class A play the last several years sets up the Firestorm as the team to beat, Brown said, but he also noted that all eight teams have potential to be contenders.

"Williams County will be heavily favored to win the region," Brown said.

"They have some very good players returning, plus they were very successful in Class A the last few years. After that, it will be wide open for the other three playoff spots."

With Clint Urvand, Brock Overbo, Blake Lampert and Ben Johnson returning from last year’s starting lineup, Divide County’s strength will be on the line, he said.

"We return four quality starters on the line and we have decent depth vying for the other starting spot."

He said the key for the Maroons will be finding the right mix in the backfield, where junior quarterback Quin Ellison returns for his second year.

"We need to find the strengths of our players and gameplan around those. The sooner we can do that, the better chance we have of competing for a playoff spot."

There is an organizational meeting for all players in grades 9-12 on Monday at 7 p.m. in Kirchaofer Auditorium. Brown askes that all players have their physicals completed prior to the meeting.