Sean Williams/MDN Kenmare/Bowbells/Burke Central head coach Tate Enget (center, talking) addresses his Honkers team during a practice on Aug. 3 in Kenmare.

Coming off a 5-4 record last year, the Kenmare/Bowbells/Burke Central Honkers are in a unique situation heading into the 2023 season. They have a new head coach in Tate Enget, who comes over after working with the Velva/Garrison/Drake-Anamoose football program.

“I’m feeling pretty excited about it, it’s nice to be back in the area and the community is excited too. The kids are looking forward to playing football,” Enget said on taking the Honkers head coach job.

Heading into his first year with the Honkers program, a few of Enget’s goals are to share the love of football he has with the athletes, and to see them develop a “never give up” mentality. With his passion for the game, he believes he can help his athletes develop the same passion that he knows resides within them.

“Obviously, we want to try and make the playoffs. Kenmare was close to it last year. They graduated quite a few seniors, including a quarterback and running back, so that will be hard to replace,” Enget said when discussing more goals for the upcoming season.

He added, “We also want to play complete games. They showed last year that they were a really competitive team. We want to keep that same competitive energy for all four quarters throughout the season.”

Part of the equation of finding success on the field involves the Honkers relying on Jack Zimmer, who is coming off an all-region season, as well as senior Jacob Livingston. Additionally, Enget mentioned the junior class with guys like Gavin Gil, Peyton Helwig, Caleb Knutson and Ryan Sholmer being expected to contribute.

A couple of areas that Enget believes the Honkers will be strong in are on the offensive and defensive line. The youth of the team, as well, is something Enget believes will benefit the Honkers when they take the field this year.

Having a new head coach isn’t the only unique aspect of the 2023 season for Kenmare. This will also mark their last year in 11-man football. After the season, the Honkers will make the move to 9-man football. With that being said, Enget and the Honkers are excited for every game on the schedule this year.

“This is our last year in 11-man football at Kenmare, we will go down to 9-man. I’d say the first game you are always looking forward to with starting the season off. But then after every game you think about how this is the last time Kenmare could play these opponents for quite a while. Every game we play will have a huge weight to it.”

The Honkers opened their season on Aug. 18 when they hosted Bowman County. Their next contest is on Friday, Aug. 25, when they take on Southern McLean in a road game.