The Kenston Forest School varsity football team is small both in number and physical size and young, but it aims to finish above .500 this year after a 4-5 run in 2016.

“One of our goals is to improve every year,” Kavaliers Head Coach Tom Inge said. “So we had a good solid season last year, and we’re going to improve on that. So, I expect us to be over .500 and heading straight up year after year.”

Eight players from last year’s squad graduated, and most of them were starters. The senior group included Jeb Buchanan, Tripp Jones, Tyler Daniel and Mark Smith.

“We have two seniors this year, so we have a very young team,” Inge said.

But he noted that those two seniors, who serve as team captains, definitely bring significant leadership.

“We have Jeffrey (Steele), and Jeffrey’s a very vocal leader,” the coach said, “and then we have Robert Motley who is all action. … He’s our quiet leader, so it (is) a good combination to have. And we have a lot of good, young talent, (and) they’re just following right behind those two guys.”

Inge pointed to the skill positions — quarterback, running back, receiver, defensive back — as standout strengths of Kenston Forest this year.

“We lost a lot of size last year, so we have two or three really good, solid big guys this year, but besides that, we’re going to have some small, quick linemen,” the coach said.

The two players that will help the Kavaliers have some size at the line of scrimmage are sophomore Will Kreis and freshman John Thomas Inge.

“Those guys have just really improved this year,” Coach Inge said. “Both of them are young but really improved, and the rest of the o-linemen are small but quick, and that’s fine.”

He noted that the season’s first game, set for this Friday, is always key.

“We really see what we have in the first game, and we’ll be able to improve from there,” Inge said, “but our first game happens to be Brunswick Academy … our No. 1 rivals, and we respect those guys and have a lot of friends over there, but on the playing field, there’s no lost love.”