Platte County sophomore Rocco Marriott will be the Pirates’ quarterback this season.
For the first time over a decade, the Platte County football team ended with a losing record last fall but will look to some new faces to lead the way in 2023.
Platte County lost four of its first five games before finishing out the regular season 3-1 and winning a postseason game. The Pirates finished with a 5-6 record with eight straight years of at least eight wins, including a pair of trips to the state championship.
“We had an uncharacteristic year in a sense of what we’ve had a recent run from a record standpoint,” Platte County head football coach Bill Utz said. “The one thing that I will always guarantee is that our expectations are always going to be high no matter what.”
For the fourth straight season, Platte County will have a new player under center. Sophomore Rocco Marriott saw some time last season and has been promoted to starter.
“Rocco has spent a tremendous amount of time working in the offseason and he’s willing to do all the extra stuff that he needs to do. As a quarterback, there’s a lot of things happening at the same time, so it takes a lot of reps and a lot of experience, but he’s still striving to be very good,” Utz said.
Last year, Marriott saw some time late in some contests that weren’t competitive but there were also some offensive packages the 2022 freshman took the direct snap of. With Marriott being a younger player, the Pirates have been looking to a different veteran offensive player for leadership.
“Probably the one with the most experience is Ted Maxwell, he’s our left tackle. He’s a senior and kind of the face of our offense, if you will, because there are so many kids that are back that are young and inexperienced,” Utz said.
Another addition to the offense will be Dayton Doll who is set to be running back after playing wideout in years past. After graduating some experienced skill players, the Pirates have new guys in the wide receiver room.
“I like the receivers that we have; they’re able to do a lot of different things and I like the group. You don’t necessarily want one guy that’s the over-the-top guy. If everybody can do a little bit of everything that’s going to serve us better,” Utz said.
Defensive back Darryl Smith will be the most experienced Pirate on the defensive side of the ball. He missed a couple of games last fall but brings back the most playing time from 2022.
“Senior Tucker McDowell at defensive line is just a solid leader and another senior, Seth Martin, is going to be a first-year starter for us but he’s a good leader a good example. Those two are being good leaders and doing what’s needed to help the young kids get going,” Utz said.
With a mixture of experienced and inexperienced players, Platte County is gearing up for the fall. Ahead of the season opener against Kearney, Coach Utz told the Platte County Citizen he has been getting the players ready.
“We’re as prepared as we can get, it’s one of those things that there’s no way to really emulate game experience. It’s a situation that you get better the more you play, and so that’s part of it but other than that factor I feel like we’ve done a nice job of getting them ready,” Utz said.