Boonville football looks to continue improvement after best finish in over a decade

BOONVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Boonville Pirates football team is coming off of their best finish in 11 years, claiming a district title with a championship win over Moberly.

"Winning a district championship or just winning a championship in general is the number one thing you talk about when you come in as a coach," said head coach Greg Hough. "We play in a really good conference. Last year was obviously good and took a lot of work, took us five years to do it. Going into year six here we hope to continue to do the things off the field that lead to the championship on the field."

You can watch the full interview with Coach Hough in the player below.

Coach Hough says over his five season at Boonville, he's had some talented teams. He said although last year's team had the most success, it wasn't necessarily just the talent that got the job done.

"I truly feel like we weren't the most talented team last year," Hough said. "Year five and being here it was probably our least talented team, but we just had a bunch of kids buy in. We have a lot of kids returning from last year's team. We don't have a lot of the skill or the superstar names returning, but we have a lot of experience on the field and we look to continue to build off of that."

One of the few spots that Hough is working to fill this offseason is who will be taking snaps at quarterback. For the last four years, Colby Caton has ran his offense. Although Caton has graduated, he is still at summer practices helping to shape the next group of quarterbacks.

"He brought the good out in people and he continues to do that," Hough said. "He showed us a lot of great things and we can learn from his as coaches and players and hopefully someone can duplicate that."

Boonville will kick off the 2023 season on Aug. 25 at Pleasant Hill at 7:00 p.m.