Weverka will round out the staff. The coaches and players know they have work to do as they look to improve upon their 2-6 record of last season.

One of the players helping to lead that charge will be senior Elijah Cool. “He is the hardest worker on the team and has played a multitude of different positions throughout his playing career,” said Coach Sweet. “Wherever we put the senior, we know he will give his best effort at whatever is asked of him.”

Another senior who Coach Sweet sees as stepping in as a team leader this season is Noah Anderson. “Noah is a returning offensive and defensive lineman for us from last season. He is a big, strong, physical presence, and we will count on his leadership to guide the linemen this season,” Sweet shared.

Tysen Schacher, a junior, saw a lot of playing time last season and Coach Sweet said he could be a key contributor to the team’s success this year. “Tysen is a returning offensive and defensive starter for us from a year ago. He has also played a couple of different positions on the offensive side of the ball and is one of our returning leaders in yards produced,” said Coach Sweet. “He has a good football IQ and we will rely on him throughout the year.”

Rounding out the list of key players to watch for South Loup in 2026 is senior Taytum Wiese. “The senior is a strong and hard-working lineman who got a lot of varsity snaps as a junior a year ago,” Sweet said about Wiese. “He has committed a lot of time to the weight room and off-season camps, and we are counting on him to help us on the line this season.”

While Coach Sweet looks to these upperclassmen as team leaders, he is also excited about the crop of underclassmen coming up. “We have a great freshman class of 11 athletes who will be out for football for us this year. I think anytime you have a big class like that it is super exciting as a young coach,” Sweet said. “This will be a great class to stick together and become a family for the next four years of Bobcat football.”

Coach Sweet said he and his staff want to focus on creating a culture and standard of Bobcat football that every player buys into and upholds daily. “We want to stack good days and focus on doing the little things correctly all the time with very high effort and a good attitude. We want to focus on the process.”

He also understands that to accomplish that, it will require capitalizing on the team’s strengths while overcoming certain weaknesses. “We have a great mix of older guys and young guys, and we want to maximize our practices to get as many quality repetitions to improve as much as we possibly can,” he explained. “We must capitalize on having an extremely high-quality work ethic.”

The team has big goals for the 2026 season and have been putting in the work toward achieving them. “We had a great summer in the weight room and on the track trying to improve our strength and power along with our speed and acceleration,” said Sweet. “A lot of our athletes raised their foundation of athletic ability with their commitment in the weight room over the summer. We also had a few great days of team camps to evaluate a lot of players at different positions and to get a lot of quality reps.”

The Bobcats will begin their season tomorrow, Aug. 28, as they travel to North Platte St. Pat’s. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Then on Thursday, Sept. 3, the Bobcats will host Sandhills Valley in Arnold with game time set for 7 p.m.