Benton Cardinals football preview: New offensive schemes in Year 2 of Corey Bertini

By Calvin Silvers

While the Kansas City Chiefs have been preparing for their season here in St. Joseph, a few more teams in the community were able to begin their own practices, as high school football teams began their journey to a state title for the 2024-25 season.

The first stop for high school football previews was at Benton High School, where head coach Corey Bertini is back for year two with his squad, comparing the first practice to a certain holiday.

“You know, today’s an exciting day, I liken it to Christmas Day as a little kid,” Bertini said. “Super anxious and excited, but yeah, I mean, I’m really excited for our boys. They’ve done a really good job this summer and you can tell they’re a little antsy and excited to get going today.”

The Cardinals are coming off a 2-8 season and haven’t tallied a winning season since 2010. This summer, Bertini made it a mission to work on fundamentals, along with improving both the offensive and defensive lines.

The head coach even mentioned some changes to their offensive schemes, something we’ll have to wait and watch for on Friday nights.

“I just feel a lot more comfortable with that year under my belt, really helps as far as just learning like, little nuance things that you don’t really think of when you’re when you’re an assistant,” Bertini said. “So yeah, I feel more prepared this year.”

As for the team themselves, the players commented on how this year the energy and confidence are higher, despite having a lot of underclassmen. The seniors do want to make sure they leave the program in good hands, which is possible with the amount of brothers on this team.

Senior Jaxson Rich, who has two younger brothers on the team, wants to rejuvenate the program for the younger athletes to build on.

“Definitely leadership and attitude, and then I want to teach all the younger kids work ethic,” Rich said. “It’s got to be better, we can’t be lazy and I like to pass that on.”

Going back to the change of energy this season, it all began during this previous off-season. Bertini saw his athletes bond more while bouncing ideas of each other.

While it’s been a long while since the Cardinals celebrated a winning season, football is taking popularity once again on the South Side.

“The mentality and the leadership are just completely different this year,” senior Austin Zambrano-Saxton said. “Like everyone, we’re a lot more hyped up than previous years and I feel like football is starting to be like really, really fun.”

The Cardinals’ first regular season contest will be at 7:00 p.m. on Aug. 30 at home against Northeast (Kansas City).