Frustration from last season has transpired into optimism for this season for the Aberdeen Roncalli football team.

The Cavaliers were besieged by injuries last fall, which meant meaningful playing time for others. Now, those injured players are healthy and will be joined by a younger and more experienced crew.

“Given the situation we were in as far as injuries, that gives you a lot of hope for this year,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young, “because it just showed you the resilience of some of the guys on our team.”

The undermanned Cavaliers finished the regular season strong, and then went on the road in the playoffs and won a game at Wagner, before another solid performance against perennial power Winner.

“I think winning those games at the end, not just winning them, but winning them under the circumstances really gave our guys some confidence,” Young said.

Zane Backous, who missed most of last season with an injury, and all-stater Aiden Fisher will be key components to the squad this fall.

“We’re going to rely on those two guys pretty heavily to start with,” Young said.

While both have experience at quarterback, Backous will be the signal caller and Fisher will be a wing.

“Aiden is so dynamic at other positions,” Young said. “We can do some stuff and put him at quarterback, but we can move him around and do other things.”

Carter Samson, Tom Niederbaumer, and Gabe Eichler are key returning linemen.

Senior Brody Weinmeister is also a main weapon for the Cavaliers, but will miss part of the season, recovering from an injury.

Roncalli has a dozen seniors total on the team who will help to provide talent, depth, and leadership.

“We’ve got a good core group of seniors and some guys that may have flown under the radar. Late in the year, Noah Kramer really started to flourish,” Young said. “When Zane went down, Noah kind of took on an increasing role on defense and played really well offensively for us. So he proved himself to be a really valuable asset to us in the secondary and as a tight end.”

The Cavaliers also have other key contributors at skill positions.

“Kaden Larson came in and played four games for us and played really well,” Young said, “and then we have a couple of younger running backs behind him that nobody really knows about, but they’re going to be really good, too.”

Cade Young and Jett Johnson will also fill key roles on offense.

Roncalli will look to carry on a strong defense, which has shutdown foes on a regular basis.

“We’ve done a good job of holding teams to single digits,” Coach Young said.

He noted that assistant coach Dan Gallagher handles that side of the ball.

“Coach Gallagher does a great job with our defense,” Young said.

That defense will be led by Backous, who causes havoc for opposing offenses.

“In my opinion Zane is, and maybe I’m biased, but I think he’s the best defensive player in 11B,” Young said. “Looking at it from an offensive standpoint, he’s somebody that you have to know where he’s at all the times, because he can single-handidly change what you’re trying to do.”

Jean Anthony Thomas and Brad Harms will also be counted on for major contributions.

The Cavaliers will try to win the special teams battle as well.

“It’s a third of the game,” Young said. “A lot of people say that, and they don’t really treat it like it’s a third of the game as far as how they allot practice time to it, but we have been blessed to have good kickers and punters.”

Roncalli has a couple of standard goals in mind to start each season and then goes from there.

“We always want to try to win the conference. We want to get the (highest) seed that we can get, going into the playoffs,” Young said. “When you get to that point, then you just kind of wipe the slate clean and you start over.”

The Cavaliers open their season at Clark-Willow one week from tonight. Roncalli will look to continue a streak heading into that contest.

“We are focused on winning that first game,” Young said. “We take a lot of pride in preparing for that opening week, because I don’t think we’ve lost a season opener since 2011.”

It’s a game that Young and the Cavaliers look forward to each season.

“We do a lot a stuff over the summer preparing for that first opponent,” Young said.